Briefs: Sailor among elite

Cinnamon Sary, a Newport Harbor High incoming senior, has been selected to the American Volleyball Coaches Assn. High School Under Armour All-American watch list for the upcoming girls’ volleyball season.

Sary, who has verbally committed to USC, was among 646 players from 38 states named to the watch list, which serves as the starting point for the Under Armour All-American selection process.

Sary is the only Newport-Mesa player on the AVCA All-American watch list. The outside hitter was named to the Daily Pilot Dream Team the past two years as a setter. Last year, she led the Sailors (22-13, 7-3 in the Sunset League) with 774 assists and 120 blocks and finished with 230 kills, 176 digs and eight service aces.

She earned first-team All-CIF Southern Section Division I-AA honors, as well as first-team All-Sunset League recognition.

In July, Sary led the Orange County Volleyball Club 17 Blue team to the 17s national division title in the USA Volleyball Junior National Championships.

Sary was named MVP after helping OCVC to an 11-0 record in the tournament formerly known as the JuniorOlympics.

In November, the AVCA will name 48 players as Under Armour All-Americans, with 24 players being selected to both a first team and a second team. Each of the 24 players on the first team will be invited to play in the Under Armour All-American Volleyball Match & Skills Competition. The event will be held Dec. 16 at the Alamodome in San Antonio, Texas, in conjunction with the 2011 AVCA annual convention.

For information on the Under Armour Girls’ High School All-American volleyball awards program, visit https://www.avca.org/awards/all-america/high-school/.

— From staff reports

Locals lead USA

Newport Harbor High product Leah Robertson scored twice Thursday as the United States women’s water polo World University Games team defeated Great Britain, 11-8, in Shenzhen, China.

CdM Aquatics assistant coach Stephanie Schnugg added a goal for Team USA, which will play Italy in the semifinals of the tournament.

Schnugg and Robertson, who was a three-time All-American at the University of Michigan, helped the Americans rally from a 4-2 deficit to Great Britain after a quarter.

—From staff reports

‘Eaters singled out

UC Irvine seniors CoCo Goodson and Andrew Fontein have both been named candidates for the Lowe’s Senior CLASS Award in women’s and men’s soccer, respectively.

Goodson, a defender, was a first-team All-American in 2010, helping lead the Anteaters to the Big West Conference regular-season title, a trip to the NCAA Sweet 16, and a 19-3-2 record. She scored nine goals, including five game-winners and was the Big West Defensive Player of the Year.

Fontein, a second-team All-Big West goalkeeper in 2010, helped UCI win the Big West regular-season title last season, when it finished 14-3-3. He had 11 shutouts and an 0.59 goals-against average, both school single-season records. He has 20 shutouts in his career.

Both athletes are among 30 candidates for the award. The field will be narrowed to 10 finalists, who will be placed on a ballot for a nationwide vote. Fan voting will be combined with votes from coaches and media to determine the winner.

— From staff reports

Golf tourney set

The Els for Autism Golf Challenge, the largest charity driven national golf series in the United States, will stage one of its 30 Super Regional events Sept. 6 at Pelican Hill Golf Club in Newport Beach.

Amateur golfers are invited to take up the “Challenge” by registering two-person teams for the event in order to raise funds for the Els for Autism Foundation.

The Golf Challenge, spearheaded by World of Golf Hall of Famer Ernie Els, kicked off in May and will continue through September. Super Regional events are being hosted at fabulous handpicked TPC and private golf courses across the country. Teams are competing for the chance to qualify for the Grand Finale, hosted by Els on Oct. 23-24 in Las Vegas.

In this competition, a team’s fundraising skills are valued as much as its performance on the course. As such, both the winning team (using the Callaway scoring format) and the highest fundraising team from each Super Regional event are being invited to the Grand Finale. In addition, all teams that raise $10,000 or more also earn a place at the Finale in October.

Teams that progress to the Grand Finale will put their golf skills to the test at one of three fabulous courses in the Las Vegas area — TPC Summerlin, Cascata or Rio Secco. Finalists will enjoy two days of entertainment at Planet Hollywood Resort and Casino while they compete for major prizes, including a 10-day luxury trip to South Africa.

Proceeds from the golf series will go to the Els for Autism Foundation to fund an autism Center of Excellence. The $30 million project, the first of its kind in the world, will include a physical hub based in Palm Beach County, Fla. And a global digital learning platform that will reach out to the autism community across the U.S. and the world.

Two-person amateur teams can register online and start competing now at https://www.e4aGolf.com. Each team will choose its own child on the spectrum that they play for; their honorary captain. After registration, each team is allocated a dedicated team page to support their fundraising efforts and keep track of online donations from their friends, family members and colleagues.

Els, whose son Ben was diagnosed with autism five years ago at age 3, is appealing to golfers across the country to get involved.

— From staff reports

Bauer in friendly

Newport Beach resident Maddie Bauer and the U.S. Under-17 women’s national soccer team will play Japan in a pair of friendly matches next week at the Home Depot Center in Carson.

Team USA will first play Japan on Aug. 25 at 6 p.m., before the teams square off again Aug. 28 at 4 p.m. at Home Depot Center field No. 3.

Admission is free to the contests, which will feature the U17 teams of the countries that met in the Women’s World Cup title match last month.

Bauer, a junior-to-be at Mater Dei High, is a defender for the United States. She has verbally committed to Stanford.

—From staff reports

CdM cyclists picked

Corona del Mar residents Malcolm Hill, Ken Fuller and Rich Meeker have been selected to compete in the International Cycling Union’s World Championships in Belgium on Sept. 11.

The USA Cycling Federation named the three locals as wild-card entries.

All three will also participate in the USA Cycling Masters National Championships in Bend, Ore. the first weekend of September.

— From staff reports