Women’s water polo is off to a promising start while the men’s water polo team is looking lost in the deep end.
A minor physical altercation erupted between two Falcon teammates, freshman utility Brent Buchan and sophomore utility Dylan Sun, during a team scrimmage.
Heading into this season head coach Joe Abing said, “Feels good. New team; a lot of new faces, strong returners. We have a lot of work to do, but we are off to a good start to training.”
Coming back from last season with an overall season record of 16-13 and a conference record of 4-3, the Falcons are looking to improve and possibly reach the championship game after being knocked out in the first round last season.
Coach Sergio Macias is very excited for the season as he feels that they can still make a run for the conference title and hopefully make a deep run into the playoffs.
Women’s water polo is coming back from an overall 13-12 regular season record and a 8-3 conference record, the team will be looking to lock in a high playoff seed this season.
Macias had some encouraging and hopeful words about his majority freshman team, “It’s been a great first week of practice, this group seems to be hard working, determined. They have been showing up to our six a.m. practices with a desire to get better as players.”
Sophomore Dulce Medina goalie feels the team has great communications skills and team chemistry coming onto the team late this season she already feels the team has a great run at a championship.
Medina said, “The team is working really hard, getting along and has really shown we want to win this year.”
When asked if the team was ready for the Golden West tournament on Sep. 8-9, Abing had mentioned they are not ready for the tournament and the team has a lot of work to do.
Rodrigo Baca, freshman driver, said this on the upcoming tournament, “We have good communication with everybody and as long as we talk to each other, I think we will go pretty far at the end of the season.”
Jake Evans, sophomore driver, said, “I think we have a chance with the chemistry that we have going now to take it a lot further and potentially take ourselves to the state championship.”
Both Evans and Baca mentioned how they can help improve the teams play this season “communication and playing as a unit and not as individuals.” Something both players have seen the team lacking over practices and scrimmages.
Women’s polo this season is working with an almost true freshman roster Macias had this to say, “Yes, they are freshman, but they are coming from good programs that play some high level water polo so they are new to the level up here but their experience makes them one of our better players on the team.”
The team will play their season opener away against Los Angeles Trade Tech. Sep. 5.
Heading into the first game Macias feels that its very early in the season so neither team is going to play very sharp, they are going to play the game to the best of their ability as a team.
After their opener, the team will have a rest day then head up to Morro Bay High School for the Cuesta tournament Sept. 8-9.
Macias feels that after this tournament the team will have a much better idea where the they are at in terms of performance.
