Gauchos sunk in own tournament

The Saddleback men's water polo team hosted the first of two October tournaments this past weekend and were a little surprised by their results. 

The Gauchos entered the tournament with a 3-3 overall record, winning the first three games of the season before facing some stiff competition prior to the tournament.  Several of the teams Saddleback would face were more comparable to the first three opponents of the season and the Gauchos were hoping to improve on that 3-3 record.  However, the team ended up on the short end of a couple of close contests, going 1-3 in the tournament.

Saddleback would get past El Camino, 14-4, in its first matchup of the tournament but then lost 10-7 to Ventura in a matchup that the Gauchos knew would be tough.  On the second day, the Gauchos faced both L.A. Trade-Tech and Chaffey colleges in games that they may have been expecting to win.  However, both opponents put up a strong effort and Saddleback would drop both games by identical 14-13 scores.

The Gauchos (4-6) travel to Golden West for a conference game on Wednesday before making a non-conference road trip to Modesto on the weekend.