The UCSD roller hockey team traveled up to San Jose this weekend for the opening tournament of the season, starting off with a Saturday 7pm kickoff against CSU Chico. After a day of travel UCSD seemed ready to go as they scored 4 goals against Chico in the first period. But alas it was not meant to be and Chico surged back against the Tritons to win it 9-4. After a brief break to recuperate from the first game, the Tritons were back on the rink against the roller hockey giants Cal State Fullerton at 11pm. It was a tough game for the 7 man squad, who were without their star defender Patrick Salmas due to food poisoning. They fell to Fullerton to the score of 10-1. The next day UCSD looked to get back on track against a strong Cal Poly Pomona squad at 10am. It was a tough game, and though UCSD fought hard they fell once again, this time 7-1. The last game of the weekend was against UC Berkeley and the Tritons were determined to not be shut out at the tournament. They fought hard and eventually beat back Cal to a final score of 11-6 off of strong performances from Dylan Shives and new graduate student Gary Soeller. The Tritons look to build upon this win next tournament, but for now will come back to SD intent on working on their fundamentals so that they can sweep the next tournament.
