The No. 4 Arizona men’s club water polo team won all four of its games in its first league tournament of the year in Albuquerque, N.M., in a round-robin event that included ASU, New Mexico and NAU.

The tournament was the first of two to determine seeding for the Southwest Conference Finals, to be held in Tucson in October.

“”The A-team knocked the rust off as usual,”” said team president Alex Kane, who plays whole set.

The Wildcats beat NAU 20-4 and New Mexico 17-9. Kane said the highlight of the tournament was a 12-8 victory over ASU, spearheaded by driver Alex Negronida’s six-goal performance.

The A-team also won an unofficial scrimmage against the Arizona B-team.

The B-team kicked off its season with a 17-9 win over NAU. In the squad’s next game, however, the team fell to ASU 12-11.

Kane described the match as being fought “”to the bitter end.””

“”They will have their vengeance,”” he said.

The B-team went on to defeat New Mexico 14-11.

Kane described the tournament as a very successful weekend for the Wildcats and first-year head coach Emily Schmit, who has assumed the duties of coaching both the men’s and women’s water polo clubs. Prior to this season, the men’s club was entirely self-coached.

“”She’s really great,”” Kane said. “”She’s bringing to the table exactly what we (missed) to become a national championship team last year. The ability to have someone on the pool deck is bringing our in-the-pool play to the next level.””

The men’s water polo will travel to California to compete in the UC-Davis Open Tournament Friday through Sunday against 19 other clubs from across the nation.