Men's Water Polo was a kind host today and agreed to play three of the first four games of their Arena-Cuesta II Tournament to allow teams more time to travel to SLO.  The Cougars faced Merced in the tournament opener, at 7:30 AM, and jumped out to a 10-2 halftime lead against the Blue Devils.  The early lead allowed the Cougars to substitute liberally on their way to victory, 21-8.  Cuesta sat out the next game, before closing their day with back-to-back wins over Las Positas, 14-5, and Western State Conference rival Ventura, 14-8.  The Cougars used the same strategy against Las Positas and held a 9-1 lead at the intermission, which allowed them to use their whole roster and focus the days marquee event, a showdown between the WSC's last two undefeated teams.  Three weeks ago, the Cougars beat Ventura in a non-conference game, 12-5, but conference play is always different, and the Bucs jumped out early today.  Cuesta was trailing, 3-1, with just over a minute left in the opening period, but their defense locked down Ventura for the rest of the half and the Cougars took a 6-3 lead into halftime.  Ventura scored to start the second half, but over the next minute of play Cuesta's Dean Moody (Oxnard) scored three goals to put the game out of reach.  Moody tied 2019 All-WSC Center Jacob Sill (Clovis) with a team-high five goals in the game; however, Sill led the Cougars with nine total goals on the day.  Cuesta was able to use their quality depth to keep fresh despite the heavy workload and fourteen Cougars combined to score 59 goals on the day.  The Cougars are 21-3 on the season and undefeated in conference play.

The Cougars, 21-3, have three more games scheduled for the second day of the tournament, tomorrow.  They play Sierra (9:40), Ohlone (12:55) and Modesto (4:10).