Two County Girls’ Soccer Teams Will Get Shot at a National Title

Two Orange County girls’ soccer teams advanced to the finals of the U.S. Youth Soccer national championships with victories Thursday in West Palm Beach, Fla.

In the under-19 division semifinals, North Huntington Beach defeated Kansas Dundee, 2-0. The Mission Viejo Shamrocks beat Ohio, 1-0, in overtime in the under-16 semifinals.

For North Huntington Beach, Brooke Parkinson of Orange Lutheran scored the first goal and was assisted by Jenny Benson of Marina. Julie Maund of San Diego Notre Dame scored the second on an assist from Eileen Dunaway of Huntington Beach.

North Huntington Beach will play for the title at 11 a.m. Saturday on ESPN2 against a team from Florida or Virginia.

Kristen Rowe of Santa Margarita scored in the 17th minute of overtime for Mission Viejo. Riki-Ann Serrins, also of Santa Margarita, had nine saves in goal.

Mission Viejo will play Texas Saturday morning for the title.

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Cal State Fullerton’s Mark Kotsay drove in two runs and scored two more to help the United States to a 7-5 victory over Taiwan in Greenville, S.C.

The victory gave the U.S. a sweep of the five-game series with Taiwan and was the team’s 10th in a row.

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David Matranga and Eric Valent, 1995 Times’ All-County players from Orange and Canyon High, were named Thursday to the 18-player USA Baseball junior team. Eric Valent, a two-time all-county outfielder who has signed with UCLA, hit .444 in the Olympic Festival with four doubles, two home runs and seven runs batted in. Matranga, a second-team pick at second base, also played in the Olympic Festival and hit .494 last year for Orange.

The USA junior team begins a 24-day, 16-game tour today at Cherry Creek, Colo. The team will also travel to Joplin, Mo., Toronto, , Cape Cod and Boston’s Fenway Park.

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Krista Jones has been named women’s volleyball coach at Southern California College. Jones, who had been El Dorado girls’ volleyball coach, replaces Eric Boyles.

Boyles resigned after two seasons and a 31-25 record.