Freshman Fernando Lua believes the men’s water polo has the strength to be ready for the upcoming season when it begins Friday against Golden West.
“I feel the team has a lot of strong players on it,” he said. “There’s good movement and everybody works hard.”
Men’s water polo finished third at the State Championships last season and is looking to move beyond their limits and improve everyday in order to go further this season.
“We have good talent on our team and I feel we will perform well,” head coach Joe Abing said. “We’ll see how we grow and develop throughout the season. The team has a lot of potential to do really well.
“We’re strong in all of our positions,” he added.
Offensively, the team provides an assertive style to its play as Abing described the offense as “explosive,” but the Falcons do not feel the offense is efficient.
“Our offense seems a little hectic, but that will improve throughout the season,” sophomore Miguel Garcia said.
The team has been practicing during the offseason, but Abing feels the team is not in an optimal state concerning fitness.
“We’re still not in the shape we need to be in. We’ve been working hard in practice so our conditioning has gotten better, but we still have to work on that.”
In addition to conditioning, the team has maintained a focus on defense and is fundamentally sound.
“Our speed and communication are huge,” Lua said. “Communication is big in any team. If you communicate, your offense and your defense will be effective.”
The team will look to use all its fundamentals throughout the season, especially in the season opener against Golden West.
“They won the State (Championship) last year, so we just want to have a good game against them and hopefully we can beat them,” Garcia said.
Abing added, “Each game is an opportunity to see where we are at. We just want to keep getting better so that at the end of the season we are playing at our absolute best.”
