Author: Julie Xu
Despite a disheartening 0-9 record, the men’s water polo team arrived at Cal Baptist University on Sept. 25 with high expectations. After a hard-fought tournament, the Tigers won their first game of the season against the University of La Verne at the Lancer Invitational. “I was very pleased with our performance at the Lancer Invite,” Head Coach Larry Zubrin said. “Although we only won one of the four games, our play improved dramatically from our previous tournament.”
With only a few returning upperclassmen, the roster includes a vast majority of less-experienced newcomers. The team’s youth brings about challenges that the Tigers will need to overcome in order to rise above their competition.
In particular, the team needs to work on its shooting tactics. “Our 8-6 loss against Whittier is a good example as we played very well in that game, and our efforts created plenty of scoring opportunities; however, we only converted on six of 36 shots on goal,” Coach Zubrin said. “Through our first nine games we’re only scoring on about 20 percent of our shots, and that’s an area that we’ll need to improve if we expect to do well the rest of the season.”
There is always room for improvement. However, the men’s water polo team does have one great advantage that was not apparent in previous years: “We have a much faster team than we’ve had in years past and we’re really trying to take advantage of that strength in our games,” Coach Zubrin said in an e-mail interview.
With rigorous in-water and weight training twice a day, it is no surprise that the men’s water polo team is causing tidal waves in the pool. “Part of our practices is dedicated to working on counter attacks [fast-breaks],” Christian Ewin (first-year) said. “This is helping us a lot with how quick we are in the water and our reaction times when we play defense.”
With the victory at La Verne under their belts, the Tigers are hoping to uphold their winning streak. “Our win against La Verne was very gratifying, and again we showed great improvement,” Coach Zubrin said. “La Verne beat us the first time we played them, so it was good to come back and get a win this time.”
The men’s water polo team’s outstanding performance boosted their confidence significantly, which will come in handy given that the Tigers are now entering the official SCIAC games.
Come out and support the men’s water polo team as they take on Chapman University on Oct. 2.
This article has been archived, for more requests please contact us via the support system.
