Los Banos’ Valenzuela, Livingston’s Friesen take WAC polo top honors

Savannah Valenzuela was looking for a third sport.

The then-freshman at Los Banos High School was already entrenched in basketball and softball but wanted to play something in the fall. She’d narrowed her choices to volleyball or water polo. With her friends going the water polo route, Valenzuela followed suit.

Three years later, the move has worked out well for all parties involved. Valenzuela led Los Banos with 37 goals and 27 assists while chipping in 22 steals in league play, helping the Tigers win the Western Athletic Conference. The title was prompted by a huge late surge from Valenzuela, who emerged as the league’s most dominant offensive player. WAC coaches rewarded her with the league MVP honor.

“At first, water polo was just a third sport,” Valenzuela said. “I chose it because I wanted to play with my friends. I really grew to like it. I thought we were going to do well this season. A lot of the girls are my age, and we learned the game together and have gotten better together.

“Even when things went pretty well, I wasn’t expecting to get MVP. I was shocked.”

Coach Bo Halpin said Valenzuela’s experience in other sports helped smooth her transition into water polo.

“I think basketball especially helped her because there’s a lot of similarities between the two sports,” said Halpin, who was named WAC Coach of the Year. “She knows skills and strategies that carry over and make the learning curve much easier, and she’s just a great athlete. If she’d chosen volleyball or cross country, she’d have excelled at them, too.

“I think the season changed for her after the first loss to Ceres. We went back and worked on our 2-meter offense. She developed a backhand and sweep shot. We always encouraged her to shoot, but you could see her confidence and aggression increase as the season went on.”

Valenzuela was one of four Tigers named to the all-WAC first team, joined by Kaitlin Downward, Kendra Gerstenberg and Krysta Valdez. Livingston’s Mariza Fuentes was the other local player to receive a first-team honor.

Los Banos’ Cameron Lowe and Mekayla Hooker, Livingston’s Nancy Valencia and Alejandra Rocha and Pacheco’s Jovita Jaime and Adriana DeSantiago earned second-team nods.

Logan Friesen followed a similar path as Valenzuela to the WAC boys water polo MVP.

The senior helped build the Livingston program as a freshman. Three years later, he led the team in scoring and helped the Wolves capture the first league title in school history. Livingston made it a clean sweep in the major awards with Billy Halpin being named Coach of the Year.

Livingston’s Fernando Mendoza and James Pentanon joined Friesen on the first team. Other local representatives included Los Banos’ Kyle Burke and Jack Gerstenberg and Pacheco’s Jordan Stevens.

Hunter Randall (Livingston), Tony Rocha (Livingston), Cory Gardner (Los Banos), Carson Brizee (Los Banos), Diego Soberanes (Pacheco) and Riker Salinas (Pacheco) were named to the second team.

This story was originally published November 16, 2016 at 4:37 PM with the headline "Los Banos’ Valenzuela, Livingston’s Friesen take WAC polo top honors."