With one early win under its belt, the men’s water polo team is back and ready to face more challenges.

After the team first lost to Santa Monica with the score of 8-6, then lost to Ventura with a score of 11-3, and to Mt. San Antonio, 20-5, the team defeated Rio Hondo with a score of 12-4 in its final match at the Ventura Tournament.

John Halushka said that the single victory of the weekend was enough to help the morale of the team.

“It’s really a confidence-booster for our team,” Halushka said, “especially because last year it took us almost a whole season to pull out a win. To get a win this early in the season is really good. It really shows that we’re starting to come together as a team.”

Halushka, who scored four goals in the game against Santa Monica, said he hopes that the team can keep up the progress it has made throughout the season.

Another player, Brian Kohler, scored seven goals in the team’s winning match against Rio Hondo.

“We’re a stronger group (this year),” coach Corey Stanbury said, “and I think we’re going to get even stronger.”

Stanbury said that the team’s game against Ventura was the best game played at the tournament, even though EC lost the match.

“We were stronger than they (Ventura) were,” he said.

The team played a game last night against Chaffey, which Halushka said he was hopeful about. The score of the game was unavailable before production night for the Union and could not be published.

Halushka said that the chances of beating Chaffey at last night’s game depended on the number of returning players Chaffey had.

“If the team lost some players, the teams might be pretty even,” he said. “If they have a lot of returning players, it will be a little more of a challenge.”

Last year when the team played against Chaffey, Chaffey won the match by a landslide, Stanbury said.

“They were pretty good,” he said. “We didn’t give them much of a game.”

Stanbury said that the outcome of last night’s game was difficult to predict.

“I don’t know what they’ve got,” Stanbury said. “But I know that we are stronger than we were last year.”

Halushka said that the Warriors have improved and that he is feeling hopeful about the team this year.

“We’ve got a lot of key players playing how they should be,” he said. “I really just hope we can keep it up.”

At the same time, Halushka said that a victory against Chaffey would greatly assist the team’s morale for the rest of the season.

“We’re playing them in conference,” he said. “If we beat them now, we can beat them later at the conference tournament.”