With only two returning members, the strength of the 2013 women’s water polo team will be tested with four games this weekend at the American River Tournament.

Head Coach Sergio Macias looks at it as a positive and goes on to say, “ It’s a brand new group, it’s a fresh start. Because we don’t have many returners we aren’t going to put too much pressure on this team until we start playing some games.”

Entering his tenth season as head coach of the team, Macias’ teams have a record of 212-44 and this years team still has some work to do to get up to his usual standard.

“This team has a lot of room to improve, so we still have a ways to go to get where we are at. As far as our conditioning (goes), we (are) behind compared to teams in recent years. We are just going to have to get better by day, better by week, better by game,” Macias said.

The four teams that will be playing against at the tournament had a combined record of 36-68 last season, with their biggest challenge coming from American River College who finished second in the Big 8 Conference.

First year player Catie Tuning, center, stressed the importance of the of the games by saying, “This is our first tournament and we’ve been practicing so we can see what we do on practice, but going to our first tournament, we’ll see how we match up against different teams and it will set the tone for our season if we do (well).”

After going 4-0 at the tournament last season, Cerritos College went on to post a record of 28-5 and finishing first in the South Coast Conference.

Attacker Bianca Serrano, one of the two returning players, knows what it takes for the team to succeed and said, “We have to stay focused just to get to the playoffs or finals and just give it all we got at each game.”

Although this is almost a completely new team compared to last season, Macias can see promise from his team in the offseason and said, “ A bright spot is their work ethic, their commitment, their respect for one another, (and) the team(‘s) camaraderie. I mean, that’s been the most enjoyable part of the first four weeks of the season.”

This weekend’s tournament will help the team segue to the first conference game of the season against Mt. San Antonio on Wednesday at 12:35 p.m.