Briefs: Local trio advances

Sage Hill School graduate Courtney Conlogue has advanced to the quarterfinals of the Women’s Pro division at the Nike U.S. Open of Surfing near the Huntington Beach Pier.

Newport Harbor High product Kaleigh Gilchrist is in the semifinals of the Women’s Junior Pro event, while Newport Beach resident Andrew Doheny has advanced to the quarterfinals of the Men’s Junior Pro.

Conlogue, 19, ranked No. 5 on the Assn. of Surfing Professionals women’s World Championship Tour ratings, won two heats on Wednesday to advance. Her lopsided victory in round 2 gave her an automatic berth in the quarterfinals. It also produced the day’s biggest women’s score of 17.27 points out of a possible 20. That heat also included a score of 9.10 on one wave.

“I think having that early morning heat today allowed me to shake the nerves out,” Conlogue said afterward. “I think I was on the wrong equipment [Tuesday] and [Wednesday] my board was going perfectly through those flat sections. I’m glad I had that morning heat to work things out.”

Conlogue, a Santa Ana resident competing in her home break, is receiving plenty of crowd support.

“I was pretty nervous before this event for some reason,” Conlogue said. “I think I was trying to aim too much for perfection and not focusing on the basics, which is what I’ve been training so hard for and working on. [Wednesday], I just calmed down and realized it’s just another World Tour event and [I need to] do what I’ve been practicing. It feels so good getting another fifth here already [guaranteed minimum placing], so I’m glad I don’t have to do another sudden-death round because Sage [Erickson] and Tyler [Wright] have been surfing amazing.”

Conlogue will meet the winner of the round 4 heat between Wright of Australia and Malia Manuel in the quarterfinals.

Gilchrist, 20, a sophomore on the 2012 USC women’s water polo team, will compete in the semifinals on Saturday. In her semifinal heat will also be Americans Frankie Harrer and Bailey Nagy, as well as Australian Nikki Van Dijk. The women’s junior pro finals are also scheduled Saturday.

Doheny topped his four-man heat on Wednesday, setting up a quarterfinal clash Thursday against Americans Taylor Thome and Derek Peters, as well as Australian Cooper Chapman.

— From staff reports

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Korber takes second

Sage Hill School incoming senior Liana Korber made the finals of the Michael Chang Tennis Classic high school tournament over the weekend.

Korber won each of her first four girls’ 18 singles matches by 8-0 pro-set scores, including a victory over top-seeded Magdalena Chau. Korber fell in the championship match of the tournament, 6-2, 7-6 (6), to Justine Huang on Sunday at Newport Beach Tennis Club.

Korber, who has played at No. 1 singles the last two years for the Lightning, won a $100 scholarship for the Sage Hill tennis program by making the championship match.

— From staff reports

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Locals in final

Local standouts Elizabeth Eddy and Camille Levin helped the Pali Blues reach the championship game of the W League, in which it lost on penalty kicks to the Ottawa Fury at the Algonquin College Soccer Complex in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.

Eddy, a Newport Harbor High product who was a second-team All-Pacific-12 Conference performer as a USC sophomore in 2011, sparked some offensive opportunities for the Blues, who scored in the second minute, only to see the Fury get the equalizer in the in the final moments of regulation.

Eddy played in 11 games and posted one goal and three assists for the Blues, who finished 15-0-2 and outscored opponents, 40-4, with 13 shutouts. The Blues, who played most of their home games at Palisades High, won the league’s Western Division crown. They defeated Quebec City, 2-0, in the semifinals on July 27 at the Algonquin College Soccer Complex.

Levin, who signed professionally recently with Goteborg FC in Sweden, played in eight games for the Blues. Levin, a Newport Coast resident who graduated from Stanford last spring, was a first-team All-American for the Cardinal. She helped Stanford earn the school’s first NCAA title in 2011, when she had four goals and seven assists. She assisted on the game-winning goal in a 1-0 NCAA title-game triumph over Duke.

Levin, a product of the Newport Beach-based Slammers club program who played three positions at Stanford, had 12 goals and 22 assists during her career there. She was a first-round draft pick of the Women’s Professional League, but the league folded soon thereafter.

— Barry Faulkner