Although the sun was shining, it was a dark and dreary day for the men’s golf team as it walked away from Victorville Monday with broken hearts and a fifth place spot.

The team had a rough day at the Spring Valley Lake golf course, coming in sixth out of the seven teams that played in the match.

“We’re not far behind the third and fourth place teams. We still have time to catch up,” coach Terry Titus said.

The team’s leading scorer, Marc Kawasoe, shot two over par for a score of 73.

“It didn’t go as well as we all hoped. We just didn’t play very well,”Kawasoe said.

Sylvester Sion followed Kawasoe with a score of 75. Jason Campbell came in third with 78; Darren Mack in fourth with 79, and Milton Padilla came in fifth with a score of 82.

“We’re struggling with our game right now,” Sion said. “We’re in a slump but I’m sure we are going to pull out of it together. This is a really good team.”

The College of the Desert came in first at the match with a score of 358; Mt. SAC had 361; Long Beach 363; Rio Hondo 382; Mt. San Jacinto 384; El Camino 387; and Victor Valley with 433.

“We just didn’t score well enough to beat that many teams,” Titus said.

The Wednesday match prior at Long Beach had gone better for the team as it came in fourth.

Yesterday, EC was the unofficial host of the match that was played at the SCGA (Southern California Golf Association) in Rancho California. The course is considered a neutral site, with none of the teams having home course advantage.

The SCGA members’ club will be the course that’s used this year for the regional tournament. This gives the team an opportunity to get familiar with a course that could be critical later in the season.

“We were all excited to play at the SCGA course because that’s one of the better courses that we get to play on,” Kawasoe said. “I really looked forward to that match,” he said.