The Warriors men’s water polo team sunk this weekend in their first tournament of the season at Saddleback College, due to key players sitting out because of illness.

El Camino lost to Santa Ana College (2-6), Saddleback (2-7), Citrus College (2-8), and Santa Monica College (2-9).

Head Coach Corey Stanbury had to settle with playing the majority of his bench players. “Half of my players were out sick the entire weekend,” Stanbury said. “The guys who were usually benched got a lot of experience during the tournament.”

The Warriors were overwhelmed as most of the teams backup players had to step up and play as starters.

Adam Rudow led the Warriors, scoring six goals, and now has 25 total scores for the season. Devin Sanchez followed closely ebbing recording four points, and Ashton Derojas scoring three goals.

Sanchez assisted on defense with 19 steals, and now records 56 total for the season. Rudow stepped up his game and recorded 11 steals of his own.

Defensively, goalie Filip Kostic played his role well, chalking up 22 saves, and now has 44 for the season. Following closely behind, Tanner Castro had 17 saves in the tournament and has 42 as the season progresses.

Even though the odds were against the Warriors, they will continue to work on their errors as the season progresses. “We didn’t have majority of our starters, but I felt that we came together as a team and played our roles well,” Castro said. “Once we get more comfortable playing together as a whole, our offense will pick up, and we will see a lot more scoring.”

“As a team, I feel we did the best we could do out there,” Andrew Rodriguez said.

Long Beach City College will sail to the Warriors home court in a match set for Oct. 9 at 3 p.m.