Cold, foggy, morning games are difficult, but not for our men's water polo team!  We played very well in our first real competitive match of the season. Bringing this group together for the first time to play was difficult, especially for a 9 AM game. We started slow but gained an early lead and maintained dominance throughout the match. With our lead, we could play every person on our roster and develop great chemistry among our team for our first game. Our second game of the tournament was significantly more intense and much more of a challenge for our guys. UCSD developed an early lead against SDSU. Gaining momentum, in the second, SDSU was able to tie the game up. SDSU played extremely physically throughout the match, but our B-team was able to maintain their composure, play smart, and get the victory against SDSU! Our first A-team game was much more difficult than we expected. Against a very physical and fast UCLA team, we were on our heels early in the game. By the end of the first UCLA was up by 4 and doubt started to creep in. However, we’ve shown a pattern of resilience early in the season that continued for this game. We came back in the game hitting several difficult shots that ultimately allowed us to tie the game heading into the third. We put them away in the 4th and were able to go 4-0 for the day! 

The alumni game was the most entertaining and light-hearted game to watch. Both sides weren’t in it for the most competitive of reasons but it was very nice to watch previous players come out and play the game they love for the first time in a while. The game's highlight was when our goalie ended up taking a 5-meter shot, coming nowhere close to the goal, causing him to bolt into a dead sprint back to our goal, which was not the fastest thing we’ve seen that day. The game ended up being very close despite the light-hearted nature of the play. This pre-season tournament was a great showing for our UCSD water polo team. We still have much to work on and chemistry to build, but we couldn’t be happier with our team's early showings in these matches!