Boys water polo tourney set for this weekend at Merced College

The 30th annual Central California Championships returns to Merced College on Friday and Saturday with an 18-team boys water polo tournament.

It’s scheduled to begin at 8 a.m. Friday and 8 a.m. Saturday, with the championship scheduled for 4 p.m.

“Every intention was to create a high-level water polo tournament for the Merced County area to allow athletes to develop in the sport,” Atwater coach David Svendsen said. “The legacy of the tournament has been one that offers very high-level competition, and I think the fact that we are celebrating the 30th year speaks volumes to that.”

The tournament was started by former Atwater coach Roddy Svendsen, who is David’s father, and former Merced College coach Bob Pollitt. David Svendsen felt it was fitting to celebrate the 30th annual tournament by returning it to Merced College.

The plan is to change the name of the tournament to the Roddy Svendsen Shootout. The pool area at Atwater High was named the Roddy Svendsen Aquatic Center during a ceremony Tuesday evening.

Merced comes in as one of the favorites after going 5-0 in the Chuck McCollum Tournament last week in Roseville. The Bears were led by Abraham Santana’s 14 goals, 20 assists and 13 steals. Alec Propes had 15 goals and Nathan Latronica stopped 23 shots in goal.

Other contenders include Turlock, Porterville and Pioneer of San Jose.

Other local teams include Golden Valley, Livingston, Buhach Colony and Atwater.

Central California Conference play begins Thursday for boys and girls water polo with Merced at Buhach Colony, Atwater at Pitman and Turlock at Golden Valley.

Buhach Colony to play Fresno-Central – After last week’s football game against Clovis North was canceled due to poor air quality from the Rough fire, Buhach Colony football coach Kevin Navarra spent the weekend searching for another matchup. Navarra looked at the schedules of all the teams that had games canceled last week.

As it turned out, Central of Fresno has the same bye week as Buhach Colony. The schools agreed to play on Thursday, Sept. 24, at Central at 7 p.m.

“I felt pretty good about it after talking to Central on Saturday night,” Navarra said. “They were definitely interested. They had a conflict on Friday, so we scheduled the game for Thursday. I would have liked to pick up a fifth home game, but it wasn’t a deal-breaker for us to go there. It’s an opportunity for our kids to play one more game, and it’s a chance to play somebody we haven’t seen in the past.”

Merced moves homecoming game on campus – Merced’s homecoming game Oct. 9 against Atwater will be a true homecoming, as the school has decided to move the game from Veterans Stadium to its field on campus.

It will be the third time Merced has hosted an on-campus varsity football game. The Bears beat Downey 45-41 in their first game in 2012. Merced hosted Enochs in a 70-35 win last year.

The matchup against Atwater will be the first conference game hosted on campus.

Los Banos extends streaks – Los Banos’ volleyball team extended its Western Athletic Conference win streak to 39 with a 25-13, 25-12, 25-17 win over Livingston on Tuesday night.

Not to be outdone, the Tigers’ girls tennis team extended its streak to 63 consecutive league wins with an 8-1 win over Patterson.

This story was originally published September 16, 2015 at 6:38 PM with the headline "Boys water polo tourney set for this weekend at Merced College."