Men’s water polo head coach Nathan Resch provides us with an in-season update on the 2018 campaign. 

Games Played: 12                 Overall Record: 4 - 8  Conference Record: 2 - 2 

Home: 2 - 4    Away: 2 - 3    Neutral: 0-1

Goals: 179     Assists: 82      Goals per game: 14.92

What are some pleasant surprises that you’ve seen with this team? 
This group made a goal to have good team cohesion and to play as a group. We keep making strides toward that goal.

What improvements do we need as a team? 
We have made great improvements on offense and have adjusted well to the new rules. We continue to struggle with being patient on offense and that will be the key in the upcoming weeks. 

Moving into the next part of the schedule, how do we become more successful? 
We need to play 30 seconds of solid team defense. There have been moments where we fall into individual mental lapses that cause us to give away our momentum. 

Overall, what does our record tell us about our team? Are we where we want to be? Are we better than our schedule? What has happened for to us be where we are? 
At this point in the schedule, I am not concerned about our record. We purposely played a tough schedule in order to find out what adjustments we need to make. We have competed against quality 4-year schools like Occidental College, and the San Diego State Club who just came off a national title. We have also played some of the top 10 CCCAA teams. We still have a lot of growth to accomplish and there is still a lot of time for this group to reach its’ full potential.

Which players need to continue doing what they are doing? Overall as a team, what must we do to stay consistent and finish the season with a strong record?
Roman Rosser has been playing very well and is leading our group by example. He works hard every day and continues to make impact plays. 

I would say everyone on the team needs to take personal responsibility for their play and see how they can make contributions defensively. If we can start making more stops, we can gain momentum and flow on the offensive side of the pool.

Has there been injuries this year that have set us back? If any, what has been the biggest challenge for the team this year? 
We have had the usual course of injuries where 1 or 2 guys struggle with aches and pains. Our biggest challenge is being consistent throughout an entire game. I feel like we are close to breaking through. We just need that additional hard work.

Being a 1/3 into our schedule, how do you think we’ll finish off the year? What are the goals for the remainder of the season?
Our goal remains the same, and that’s to be competitive in all our games. We also need to remain as a cohesive team and practice hard. If we do both, we’ll 
figure out how to close out these games that we’ve been losing lately.