Mater Dei’s Peterson to Compete in Olympic Festival

Mater Dei junior Melody Peterson has become the youngest player ever selected to compete for the U.S. Olympic Festival women’s basketball team.

Peterson, 17, is among the 48 players selected who will make up the four regional teams at the July 21-30 festival in Denver.

A point guard who led Mater Dei to the State championship game, Peterson was The Times Orange County and Southern Section Division I girls’ basketball player of the year, averaging 23.2 points, seven rebounds and 4.8 assists. She shot 51.9% from the field.

Also selected for the festival is Newport Harbor senior Misty May, Times Orange County girls’ volleyball player of the year. May, who will attend Long Beach State, was also selected last.

Swimmers Amber Wines, a junior at Santa Ana Valley, and Jessamyn Miller, a freshman at Mater Dei, also will participate. They recently competed at the Senior Nationals in Minneapolis, where Wines took fourth and Miller 16th in the 100-yard breaststroke; they are seeded 1-2 going into Thursday’s Southern Section Division I prelims at Belmont Plaza.

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Larry Walker, the Servite athletic director from 1978 to 1983, has resumed that job after the resignation of Tom Vitello, the school announced Monday.

Walker was the Friars’ varsity basketball coach from 1969 to 1988 and has coordinated the summer basketball tournament the last two years.

Vitello had been athletic director the last seven years.

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Dennis Creighton has been named girls’ volleyball coach at Edison High, Athletic Director Dave Mohs said.

Creighton replaces Mohs, who led the Chargers to two consecutive Sunset League titles but had stepped down after coaching 12 seasons. Creighton had been an assistant under Mohs for the last three seasons and was the head coach at Marina for 11 years.

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Edison’s Jennifer Porterfield and Shelby Clemens have signed letters of intent to play volleyball, Edison Athletic Director Dave Mohs said.

Porterfield, a 6-foot-2 middle blocker, signed with Duquesne. She was a second-team All-Southern Section Division I selection this season and a two-time all-league selection.

Clemens, a 5-8 outside hitter, has accepted a partial scholarship to Colorado Christian, an NAIA school in Denver. She was a three-year varsity player and an all-league selection this season.

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Three Mission Valley Club volleyball players have decided where to attend college, Coach Candace Werve said.

Capistrano Valley’s Lindsay Mayer (Oregon), Mater Dei’s Abigail Daniels (Pennsylvania) and Los Alamitos’ Katie Pearce (Massachusetts) have made commitments.

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Five Irvine Novaquatics club swimmers have made college choices, Coach Dave Salo said.

Woodbridge’s Dawson Hughes, who finished second in the Southern Section Division I 200-meter freestyle finals last year, has committed to attend NCAA champion Michigan, where he will join former teammate Derya Buyukuncu.

Sean Moore (Woodbridge) signed with Brigham Young. He was a member of the U.S. national junior team in 1994 and was second in the 200 breaststroke at the section Division I finals in 1993.

Distance swimmer Ethan Yotter (Woodbridge) will swim at UC Irvine this fall.

El Modena’s Kyoko Tsujino will attend Georgetown, where she will swim the backstroke and individual medley events. Vanguard teammate Steve Taylor has accepted an appointment to the U.S. Naval Academy, where he is expected to play water polo.