This past Saturday UC San Diego Roller Hockey traveled to Huntington for a long day of 4 games ranging from 9am-12am. Many of the players for the team were also coming off an ice hockey game the night before, meaning they came out of the weekend having played 5 games in total, and thus by the end of Saturday were completely exhausted. It was a rough tournament for the Hockey Club, as the team pulled away from the tournament with a record of 1-3. The first game of the day came against University of Arizona, a fast team with great passing skills. UC San Diego lost the game 9-1 in a match that was more hard-fought than the scoreboard would acknowledge. Following the game the Tritons had a span of 5 hours to kill and many of the players got lunch and hung around Huntington catching up on school work until the next game at 4pm.

This second game was a rematch against Chico State, a team UC San Diego previously faced in San Jose. It was another tough game for UC San Diego as they once again were defeated by a score of 9-1. After another break, this time 4 hours, UC San Diego came back to face a strong and physical West Valley College team. The game was brutal, as the two teams sparred back and forth in front of the UC San Diego net and pressured each other against the boards. West Valley also wasn’t afraid of being physical with the goalie, as goalie Ryan Jensen took multiple knees and sticks to his face and body while trying for saves. Coming out of the brutal game, UC San Diego lost 10-0 with a majority of the players physically beat up from the game. This anger and multiple losses made the UC San Diego team determined to come away from the tournament with at least one victory, and thus the team came out hard against their next opponent UC Irvine.

UC San Diego got off to a quick lead coming out of the first and after going up 7-2 coming out of the second sat back a bit and coasted on the lead for most of the third. At the 5 min mark, with UC San Diego up 9-2, UCI pulled their goalie due to cramping issues and played with 5 players, applying a lot of pressure in order to try and push as much as they can. But UC San Diego held strong, only letting up two additional goals for a final score of 9-4, thus ensuring they pulled away with at least one victory from the tournament. It was a rough Saturday, and UC San Diego Roller Hockey has much to work on before their next tournament comes about, but following this weekend one can definitely say the team feels closer as a whole and will seek to have better results the next time around.