Ending their season, the men’s water polo team took fourth in the South Coast Conference Championships last Friday, causing them to not be ranked in the top 10 and to be eliminated from the playoffs.

Among the teams EC played at the conference tournament were Rio Hondo, whom they beat, 9-4; Mt. SAC, whom they lost to, 12-5 and Cerritos, whom they lost to, 12-10.

” Although we weren’t able to beat Cerritos in our last game, we played very well and it could have gone either way,” coach Corey Stanbury said.

With Cerritos getting two goals in the last minute and a half, the Warriors were unable to respond fast enough for a victory. Attempts to do so were either denied by the goalie or too wide.

” It was a very close match against a very good team,” Stanbury said.

The number of ejections in the game against Cerritos was 24, and both teams were penalized for various offensive fouls.

A. J. Lester, Brad Sturgis, Peter Heck and Dan Bissell all scored numerous goals throughout the tournament. Kevin Wright and Ryan Martin also contributed by scoring goals.

Although, the poloists did not end up in the top 10, Stanbury said the team had improved very much.

“We started off at a pretty good level and got better,” Stanbury said. ” We weren’t one of those teams that were good and then floundered toward the end.”

Next season several key players will be gone.

Not returning will be Lester, Heck, Ryan Martin, Kevin Wright, Ryan Walton and Danny Ching.

” I’m hoping to reload with some good local players,” Stanbury said.

“I know there are many good players out there that would value an education from El Camino, and would like to play on a pretty good team.”