The UCSD Winter Invitational was a huge success. UC San Diego’s team had a blast hosting and participating in this first ever annual tournament! Being an invitational, ensuring playing-time and fun came first over winning but that didn’t stop us from getting 3rd place! The tournament was set up as 2 brackets of round Robbins. To break down the placements, Sunset won the tournament winning all four of their games, UCSB A came in second winning three of their four games, and UCSD coming in third winning one of our four games. UCLA placed fourth, UCR placed fifth, UCD placed sixth, UCI placed seventh, USD placed eighth, and UCSB B placed ninth. 

Our first matchup of the tournament was UCI. The game started out slow but we began to pull away towards the end. By the end of the fourth period, we won the match 9-4 in a decisive manner. 

Our second matchup was against UCR. It was a battle the whole way through. The team played extremely well, and down to the last minute it was a ball game. Unfortunately at the very end we were edged out by UCR. The game concluded with a score of 7-8. 

Winning the first round Robbin by a goal differential of 3, we were placed in the medalist bracket. The third matchup was against UCSB A. They were a tough matchup and played great water polo. By the end of the game they pulled ahead and the match concluded with a score of 6-12 UCSB A. 

Our fourth and final matchup was against Sunset and would end up being our hardest opponent. Sunset is a well recognized masters team local to UCSD. We fought hard but Sunset was an extremely good opponent. The game concluded with a score of 17-1.

By the end of the tournament, our record was 1-3 and still, we placed third in the tournament. The games were great for developing the team and locating our weak points. Moving forward we continue to grow as a team and develop our skills in and reputation in water polo.