County Players Have Homecoming

Thirteen college volleyball players return to Orange County this weekend for the West Coast Challenge, a two-day, four-team men’s tournament at UC Irvine.

Defending national champion UCLA meets Pepperdine, an NCAA semifinalist last season, at 7 p.m. Friday in Crawford Hall.

The Bruin roster features four county players:

* Kris Welch, a junior from Esperanza High who was a back-up setter last season;

* Matt Komer, a 6-7 junior outside hitter who played in 28 matches last season, and was an all-county basketball and volleyball selection at Los Alamitos High;

* David Lin, a junior from Irvine High who is expected to be the team’s libero, a designated player being introduced to men’s volleyball this season who can enter a game as often as necessary for the specific purpose of playing back-row defense;

* Greg Coon, a backup middle blocker last season. A sophomore, he played for Corona del Mar when it won the 1998 Southern Section Division III title. His older brother, John Coon, played for UCLA last season, and their father, Ron Coon, was a member of two national championship teams at UCLA from 1971-73.

UC Irvine meets Cal State Northridge in the opening match at 5 p.m. Friday.

Eight county athletes play for the Anteaters, including 6-8 junior middle blocker Erick Helenihi. The Villa Park graduate had 13 kills in Irvine’s 3-1 season-opening victory over California.

Also playing for the Anteaters are outside hitters Spencer Beamus, a freshman, and Casey Swenson, a sophomore, both from San Clemente High; Jimmy Pelzel, a freshman from El Toro; B.J. Fell, a freshman from Irvine High; opposite Kyle Martin, a freshman from El Toro; and setters Todd Steinert, a senior from El Toro, and Erik Smith, a freshman from Los Alamitos.

Ty Tramblie, the 1999 Southern Section Division I player of the year, plays for Northridge. The sophomore setter is from Newport Harbor.

Saturday’s schedule has matches between UCLA and Northridge at 11 a.m., Irvine and Pepperdine at 1:30 p.m., Pepperdine and Northridge at 5:30 p.m. and Irvine and UCLA at 7:30 p.m.

Admission is free to Irvine students. Tickets for each of the three sessions are $5 for adults and $3 for children and senior citizens. An all-session pass is $13.

NOTABLE

Bobby Calderon, a senior wide receiver from El Modena, was one of three Chapman football players selected to the first USAFootball.com All-Independent Team. Calderon’s 63 receptions set a school record. He tied another school mark with nine receptions for touchdowns. Calderon and Mark Shafer, a junior center, were selected to the offensive first team, and Carl Agnew, a senior linebacker, was on the defensive first team.

Erik Sandvig, a Chapman driver formerly of Cypress High, was selected to the Division III water polo All-American second team. He led the Panthers with 48 goals and 17 assists and ended his career with a school-record 236 goals.

Baseball America magazine recently named Long Beach State’s Bobby Crosby, a junior infielder who attended La Quinta, as a preseason All-American. Collegiate Baseball magazine had previously tabbed Crosby as a first-team preseason selection. Crosby batted .333 in 2000 and hit 10 home runs.

Lindsay Pavlik, a former Mater Dei High volleyball and basketball player, underwent arthroscopic surgery on her knee after returning from Northwestern to her Laguna Beach home for the holiday break. She was a freshman starter for the Wildcat women’s volleyball team. Pavlik said she intends to rehabilitate the repaired knee and rejoin her teammates for spring practice.