Two local players, Chrissy Elles and Melanie Dyer, have made the UC Santa Barbara women’s water polo “A” team, which starts the 2007 season in early February.

Elles, an attacker, graduated from Vintage High School in 2005. She was a team co-captain as a junior, All-Monticello Empire League in 2003 and ’04, All-Sac-Joaquin Section Second-Team in 2004 and Honorable Mention in 2003, and was also named Honorable Mention by the Sacramento Bee. She has also played for the Napa Valley Water Polo Club.

Dyer, a goalie, graduated from Napa High in 2005.

Both are sophomores.

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Melissa Dunn, a Justin-Siena graduate, had a double-double of 11 kills and 21 digs in Pacific University’s 3-0 sweep of Whitworth in a Northwest Conference volleyball match Saturday in Forest Grove, Ore.

Dunn, a sophomore who is from Sonoma, had 15 kills and 14 digs in Pacific’s 3-2 loss last month to George Fox.

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Samantha Trask of Napa shot a final-round 77 and tied for seventh place individually for the Santa Clara University women’s golf team at the Firestone Grill Cal Poly Invitational, which was held this past week at the Cypress Ridge Golf Course in Arroyo Grande.

Trask, a Napa High graduate who opened with a 76, led Santa Clara to a seventh-place finish in the 20-team field.

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Napa High football coach Troy Mott and Vintage’s Les Franco were guests of the Kiwanis Club of Napa, along with Napa principal Barbara Franco and Vintage principal Eric Schneider, at Thursday’s annual Big Game football luncheon at the Elks Lodge of Napa.

“I got to play in it as a player and it’s just a special time for a young 16-, 17-, 18-year-old kid, to be able to walk into (Napa Memorial Stadium) with all the  electricity, with your family and friends there, your peers watching you and thousands and thousands from the community — it kind of makes the year,” said Mott. “It’s just a great game and a great event for our community.”

“It’s an important game to a lot of people,” said Les Franco. “This is what the community really shines on — not just football teams, but the students at both schools, the bands, the cheerleaders, everybody else. If you’ve never been to one of these things, it’s an event.”

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Brittany Brown, a sophomore libero for No. 13-ranked Azusa Pacific, had a team-high 13 digs in a 3-0 sweep of Westmont in a Golden State Athletic Conference volleyball match Tuesday in Santa Barbara.

Brown, a former Napa County Player of the Year for Pacific Union Prep who is from Calistoga, had 11 digs for the Cougars in a 3-0 loss to Concordia, the NAIA’s No. 4-ranked team Saturday in Azusa, Calif.

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Heather Szmidt had a fine showing for the UC San Diego women’s swimming team, winning the 100 butterfly (59.05) and swimming the third leg on the first-place 200 medley relay team, in a 174-126 loss to UC Davis Sunday in La Jolla, Calif.

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Joyce Glatt of the Chardonnay Golf Club and Don Duarte of Haggin Oaks-Sacramento shot 67-79 — 146 to finish in a tie for eighth in the secretary flight of the Northern California Golf Association’s Mixed Team Championship, which was held last week at Poppy Hills Golf Course at Pebble Beach.

The Mixed Chapman Stroke Play format is used for the 36-hole event.

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With its 9-5 loss Wednesday to Grace M. Davis-Modesto in the quarterfinals of the CIF Sac-Joaquin Section Division I playoffs, the Vintage girls water polo team finished seventh in the tournament.

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Lindsay Brown of Napa completed her freshman year of volleyball by playing in 22 matches and averaging a team-best 5.3 set assists and 1.2 digs per game with 20 service aces for Sonoma State University (7-13 California Collegiate Athletic Association, 10-14 overall).

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The Justin-Siena High School football team (8-1 overall) is listed eighth in this week’s Redwood Empire football rankings, which are assembled by Harold Abend, a Cal-Hi Sports correspondent.

The Braves face first-place Novato in the Marin County Athletic League championship game Saturday at 1 p.m.

“A win or loss could be the difference between a No. 1 and a No. 4 seed in Class A,” said Abend, looking ahead to the CIF North Coast Section football playoffs.

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The Justin-Siena doubles team of Victoria Matyka and Luisa Horstman made it to the semifinals of the MCAL girls tennis tournament before losing to Emily Randall and Gina Soares of San Marin-Novato, 6-1, 7-5.

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Marina Martinez of Beyer-Modesto fired a 3-under-par 69 to win individual medalist honors by one shot over Candace Chan of McClatchy-Sacramento and by two over Mira Harigae of Robert Louis Stevenson-Pebble Beach at the Northern California Golf Association/CIF Girls High School Golf Championship Monday at the Yolo Fliers Club in Woodland.

St. Francis-Sacramento shot a 395 total to win the team title.

E-mail Executive Sports Editor Marty James at mjames@napanews.com or call 256-2223.