Aspiring to finish within the top 10 in SoCal, the men’s water polo team is confident that it will bring home victories from its upcoming Ventura Tournament Saturday.

The team is expecting a more challenging tournament due to the variety of skill levels of all the different teams; the team is doing all it can to prepare itself for the upcoming event.

“I think the Ventura Tournament will be challenging for every team there,” Hasan Kaligh said. “Every team has its ups and downs, so you never know where you’ll end up. We can finish in first, second or even last place, but we’re gonna do our best.”

The team will also face Chaffey Wednesday, will compete at the Saddleback Tournament Friday and Saturday and host Rio Hondo Oct. 29.

The team’s players are not only confident that they will win against Chaffey, but they also know that it is imperative to win against them, as well as Rio Hondo.

“We need to beat Chaffey and Rio Hondo because then we’ll get a tie for third and automatically be in the top 10, which will put us in a good position for playoffs,” Dave Allard said.

The team is improving on bringing its teamwork levels up to where they should be, which will benefit the team.

Yesterday the team faced L.A. Trade Tech (scores not available at the Union deadline).

“From what I heard, L.A. Trade Tech wasn’t the best team last season, but has gotten better, I know we’re a better team, but we are still going to play our best,” Kaligh said in assessing the teams chance before the contest.

Last week’s 15-8 loss to Mt. SAC has not brought the teams hopes for a victory down.

The team lost its cool during the fourth quarter in which Mt. SAC scored numerous goals against EC.

“The fourth quarter got ugly for us,” Allard said. ” We just kind of fell apart. We started rushing plays and passes and weren’t focused enough. We were basically playing catchup most of the time.”

Although the team lost to Mt. SAC, it is confident that when it plays them again it can win.”Mt. SAC was a lot less of a challenge than Long Beach or Cerritos,” Kaligh said, “I know we can beat them.”