COLLEGE NOTEBOOK : Grossmont in State Volleyball Finals

Grossmont College’s women’s volleyball team survived a tough five-game match Tuesday night to advance to the state community college championship tournament Saturday and Sunday at Citrus College in Cerritos.

In their Southern California Regional at Grossmont, the top-seeded and top-ranked Griffins defeated Pasadena, 15-10, 14-16, 10-15, 15-11, 15-8. It was the first time Grossmont (22-1) was extended to five games this season.

In the women’s cross-country state finals last Saturday, San Diego City swept the top two spots and three of the first six, placing second in the team standings. The Knight’s Donagh Bruni finished first in 18 minutes eight seconds, Sue Chek second in 18:11 and Kim Campo sixth in 18:33 over the 5,000-meter course.

Howard Wright, passing on opportunities to play professional basketball abroad, is competing for Athletes in Action after graduating from Stanford last spring.

In an 85-84 loss to the University of San Diego two weeks ago, Wright, The Times’ player of the year in 1984-85 while at Patrick Henry High, scored a game-high 30 points despite fouling out.

“I had a lot of offers to play over in Europe, but I chose to play for The Lord,” said Wright, whose father is Ernie Wright, a six-time All-Pro with the Chargers and Cincinnati Bengals.

Miah Bradbury, a graduate of Mt. Carmel High, was a big reason for the success of the U.S. national team in the International Baseball Assn. Presidential Cup in Taiwan earlier this month.

With Bradbury at catcher, Team USA went 7-3 to win the silver medal. Korea also was 7-3 but defeated the Americans, 6-0, for the gold. It was Team USA’s best finish in the tournament.

“He’s got great leadership ability, and that really helped us, especially in the medal rounds,” said Jim Morris, the U.S. coach from Georgia Tech.

Bradbury, a third-team All-American this past season with Loyola Marymount, had five hits, scored seven runs and had four runs batted in. He also threw out three of seven runners attempting to steal.

Paul McGinley, a former U.S. International golfer, has won four of four tournaments on the Golden State Amateur Tour the past two months. McGinley, a native of Ireland, is retaining his amateur status so that he can play for Europe in the 1990 Walker Cup.