Men's water polo hosts Diablo Valley this afternoon

While it has been a tough start to the season for the Delta College men's water polo team the hope is that by the end of the season they will be in the postseason and contending for a NorCal championship.

"Our expectations are always to get to NorCal Championships," said head coach Mike Maroney. "If we can get to NorCal Championships and be at the top of our game at the end of the season we will have a chance to win."

With most of the team being newcomers, it has made for a tough start to the season that has seen them win just two games while losing several by a narrow margin.

"We didn't have great depth for summer training," said Maroney. "I really told the kids our last five games were our fall camp. We have really been trying to work on fundamentals. That might have hurt us early on but I really think that will pay dividends down the road for us."

With most of the players from the team, two seasons ago ready to move on that has this year's team with just three sophomores on their 16 man roster. Two of those sophomores are Luke Martin who held off on going to Baylor to return and Max Beutel who Coach Maroney said was his most experienced player.

"Our future is very bright," said Maroney who is excited about his freshmen heavy squad. "So far our two best players are our freshman goalie and a freshman field player. We have great leadership with our sophomores but our freshmen class looks really strong. Jacob Van Grouw is from here in town and a very fast good playmaker. Our 6'6 freshman goalie from Texas Jonathan Horton is a big body in that small cage which is good for our defense."

Jacob Van Grouw currently is leading the team with 11 goals while Beutel is second on the team with seven goals.

With the strength of this year's team said to be their determination the Mustangs will look for back-to-back wins for the first time this season when they host Diablo Valley at 3:30 pm this afternoon.