Men's Water Polo: Rio Hondo wraps up tough weekend at Citrus tourney

The Rio Hondo College men's water polo team faced some tough competition at its first event of the season and couldn't come away with a win from the Citrus College Tournament. On Friday, the Roadrunners suffered an 18-10 loss to Ventura College and lost 16-11 to Fullerton College. Rio Hondo closed the tournament on Saturday with a 14-9 loss to Grossmont College and played its closest game of the season in a 10-7 loss to Santa Monica College.

Kent Mertins paced the Roadrunners' offense as he totaled a team-high 11 goals over four games. He got five of those goals in Rio Hondo's loss to Ventura. Jeremy Foster also had a good weekend for the Roadrunners with his 10 goals for the tourney. He erupted for six goals in to defeat to Fullerton.

Nathan Paez played his best game in goal in the narrow loss to Santa Monica as he totaled 10 saves. Mertins was credited with seven steals and led RHC with three goals to go with three assists.

Rio Hondo (0-5) is still in search of its first win and returns to action on Wednesday (Sep. 14) when the Roadrunners travel to Mt. San Antonio College for a South Coast Conference game at 4:15 p.m.