U.S. OLYMPIC FESTIVAL: ORANGE COUNTY’S DAY--LOS ANGELES 1991 : NOTEBOOK : No Gold for Granger Despite No-Hit Mark

Placentia’s Michele Granger pitched two no-hitters in the 1991 U.S. Olympic Festival women’s softball competition, but she also finished with a mediocre--by her lofty standards--3-3 record and a silver medal instead of a gold.

The Raybestos Brakettes of Stratford, Conn., the East representative, managed an almost unheard of seven hits off Granger Wednesday night in a 5-1 victory in the championship game. It was the Brakettes’ third consecutive Festival championship.

Granger, pitching for the West representative Whittier Raiders, pitched an unprecedented second no-hitter in a single Festival, and the third in three Festivals, in a 1-0 victory over the Brakettes Tuesday night. She also no-hit the North team, 1-0, Saturday night.

Granger had a 1-0 lead after three innings Wednesday, but the East scored three runs in the fourth and two in the fifth. Granger also had 13 strikeouts.

Granger was not that impressed with Tuesday’s no-hitter; she has thrown enough, apparently, that she judges each under a different set of standards.

“I don’t think I threw all that great, to tell you the truth,” she said. “There were a couple of great plays on defense. That’s why I got it.”

Granger has a career Festival record of 7-6.

Presho power: In a mild upset, the East men’s volleyball team, led by former Edison High standout Mark Presho, scored a 15-10, 15-4, 8-15, 7-15, 17-16 victory over the West in an opening-round Olympic Festival match at Gersten Pavilion.

Presho, a junior at the University of Hawaii, had a team-high 24 kills and former UC Irvine player Steve Florentine added 13 for the East.

The West, featuring Brian Boone and Jason Stimpfig, had been the pre-Festival favorite. Boone, another former standout at Edison, is a junior at UCLA while Stimpfig, of Manhattan Beach, led Cal State Long Beach to the NCAA title last year.

“The West killed us in a scrimmage two days ago,” Presho said. “They have the best setter in the Festival in Stimpfig. But everything came together for us here. We shuffled our lineups a little bit and we played well.”

Boone had four kills and former Laguna Beach High player Dain Blanton added three for the West. Mike Diehl, another former Edison player, added six kills for the West.

Diehl, a starter, played sparingly after the first game.

“Dain and Mike both have problems passing the ball,” Presho said. “We were going right at them. That’s why they kept getting subbed out.”

Cause for alarm: The East was trailing, 7-1, in the first game when the fire alarms went off at Gersten Pavilion. Play was stopped briefly while the match announcer warned that it was school officials only testing the alarms.

After the clanging stopped, the East began ringing up points at an alarming rate, outscoring the West, 14-3, the rest of the game.

Together again: Duane Cameron, a 1989 graduate of Marina High, led the South team to a 3-15, 15-10, 15-12, 13-15, 15-11 victory over the North in a first-round game.

Cameron, a junior at Pepperdine, had a team-high 24 kills and added 12 digs and four blocks.

“(South setter) Ty Price and I played for Balboa Bay Club back in high school so we were used to playing with each other,” said Cameron, a 6-foot-5 outside hitter.

After being dominated in the first game, the South came back behind the hitting of Cameron and Marin Gjaja of Schenectady, N.Y. Gjaja finished with 19 kills.

“We came out a little shaky,” Cameron said. “But the North was a little shaky, too. That happens sometimes in five-game matches.”

Survival of the fittest: Cameron, who is playing in his third consecutive Festival, said the level of play has improved at this year’s event.

“This one is the best, by far,” he said. “There weren’t any politics in the tryouts this year. They didn’t take as many East Coast players as they have in the past. They cut six guys during tryouts who could have played for just about anyone. It was definitely survival of the fittest just to make it here.”

How the County Fared

How athletes with Orange County connections fared in finals on Day 5 of the U.S. Olympic Festival:

BOWLING

Women’s Individual Match Play (16 games)

6. Julie Gardner, Huntington Beach (West), 3232.

Men’s Individual Match Play (16 games)

16. Steve Smith, Anaheim (West), 2949.

RACQUETBALL

Men’s Doubles Gold Medal Match

Brian Hawkes, Santa Ana, and Doug Ganim, Columbus, Ohio, d. Mike Guidry, Arlington, Tex., and Drew Kachtik, Austin, Tex., 14-15, 15-11, 11-8.

Women’s Singles Bronze Medal Match

Jackie Paraiso Gibson, San Diego, def. Toni Bevelock, Santa Ana, 15-10, 5-15, 11-6.

SAILING

Women’s Europe Dinghy (six races)

8. Carolyn Ulander, Costa Mesa, 59.4; 9. Julia Norman, Newport Beach, 60.7.

Women’s Lechner Division II Sailboard (six races)

2. Lanee Butler, San Juan Capistrano, 9.0.

TENNIS

Women’s Doubles Bronze Medal Match

Sonya Olejar, Tacoma, Wash., and Lee-Ann Rostovsky, La Jolla, def. Maribel Amadeo, Guaynabo, Puerto Rico, and Cindy Kuragami, Buena Park, 5-7, 6-2, 6-2.

Men’s Wheelchair Consolation Final

Axel Lopez, Santa Ana, def. Matt McManus, Westboro, Mass., 6-0, 6-1.