Golden West, Long Beach Set for Round 4

In the next four weeks, water polo season enters the crucial part of the schedule.

First, there is the matter of regular-season conference titles.

Golden West, the top-ranked team in the state, hopes to end the four-week run with its sixth consecutive State title.

Long Beach, second-ranked in the state, No. 3 Grossmont and No. 4 Orange Coast figure to have the best chance to knock off the Rustlers.

Golden West (23-1) and Long Beach (18-3-1) meet at Long Beach Belmont Plaza Pool at 7 p.m. Friday to decide the South Coast Conference title. Each team is 4-0 in conference play.

Golden West’s loss was to Long Beach. Long Beach has lost twice to Golden West and once to Grossmont. The Vikings’ tie came against Citrus.

The most recent meeting between Golden West and Long Beach came Saturday, when the Rustlers won, 8-6, in the title game of the Cypress tournament.

The Orange Empire Conference title will be decided Friday when Orange Coast (14-5-1, 4-0) travels to Grossmont (25-6, 5-0) for a 3:30 p.m. game. Orange Coast plays at Saddleback at 3:30 today.

Each conference holds a tournament Nov. 4-5. The Orange Empire teams are at Saddleback College and the South Coast teams are at Belmont Plaza.

Belmont Plaza will be the site of the Southern California tournament (Nov. 11-12) and the State championship (Nov. 18-19). The Southern California tournament has been reduced from 12 to eight teams but the State tournament remains eight, four each from Southern and Northern California.

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Bigger Valley: Women’s basketball will be the school’s 10th sport when Irvine Valley fields a team in the 1995-96 season.

The Lasers already have put the program in motion by selecting former Estancia and Costa Mesa High Coach Lisa McNamee as the coach.

Cely Mora, the Irvine Valley athletic director, plans to start women’s volleyball in the fall of 1996. The plans were put into motion because the construction of a campus gym has been completed.

“I’m so excited because our teams finally have a home,” Mora said. The gym also will play host to the State men’s volleyball tournament next spring.

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Football poll: Rancho Santiago stayed in second and Fullerton moved into 10th in the weekly Southland Poll.

El Camino (6-0) barely hung onto first with a 31-28 victory over Saddleback. Rancho Santiago (5-1) has won five in a row. Los Angeles Valley (7-0) is third, Cerritos (5-1) fourth, Long Beach (6-1) fifth, Bakersfield (5-1) sixth, Moorpark (4-2) seventh, Grossmont (5-1) eighth, San Bernardino Valley (4-2-1) ninth and Fullerton (3-2-1) 10th.

In Saturday’s games: Rancho Santiago plays host to Pasadena (2-3-1) at Santa Ana Stadium at 1:30 p.m. and Fullerton and Golden West (2-4-1) meet at Cal State Fullerton at 1 p.m.

Riverside (2-4) is at Saddleback (0-5-1) and Orange Coast (0-6) is at Southwestern (0-5-1) at 7 p.m.

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Wrestling: The North team won six of 10 matches to win the State all-star wrestling match, 19-15, Saturday in Fresno.

Matt Pagett of Rancho Santiago won the 167-pound division with the event’s only pin. Pagett, from Canyon High, is the defending State champion.

Teammate Nayif Abdullah, from El Dorado High, beat Fresno’s Jeremiah Muhammad, 16-10, in the 190-pound class. The victory cut the North’s lead to 16-15.

The North secured the victory when Chad Mast of Fresno beat Cypress’ Willie Green, 6-2, in the heavyweight match.

Golden West’s Dale Deffner and East Los Angeles’ Tony Ovalle were the co-coaches for the South team.

Fresno and Rancho Santiago, the top two teams in California, are the favorites to win the State championship Dec. 2-3 at Rio Hondo College. The Southern California regional is at Bakersfield Nov. 19.

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Women’s soccer: Cypress (11-0, 9-0 in the Orange Empire Conference) continues to roll.

The Chargers hold a two-game lead over Orange Coast (10-3, 7-2) and the teams meet at 3 p.m. Friday at Cypress.

Cypress beat Orange Coast, 3-0, this season.

Palomar (8-4-2, 6-2-1) is third and Irvine Valley (8-4-1, 5-3-1) is fourth. Irvine Valley’s Shannon Cunningham leads the conference with 16 goals. Pam Prine and Traci Osman of Cypress each have seven goals.