SANTA BARBARA, Calif. — The UC Santa Barbara Men's Water Polo team celebrated their graduating seniors before Sunday's game against UC San Diego and celebrated one of their best wins of the season after it. The Gauchos got great performances out of every player that hit the water and downright stellar ones from Levi Lentin, Adam Gyenis and Mason Chambliss, rolling to a 12-6 victory over the Tritons. Lentin set career highs for both saves (13) and steals (5) in the match, Gyenis fired home five of the Gauchos' 12 goals, and Chambliss played creator, with a game-high three assists on the day.
 
FROM HEAD COACH WOLF WIGO
"We've had a lot of really good wins (on Senior Day), so we just came out with confidence and I think played the best game of the year today," Wigo said. "This UC San Diego team, people were asking me, how's it going to be, it's a 50-50 game, they've played some really good games this year, so I was really pleased how we controlled the game. Really, the only goal we gave up in the first half was an error on a pass, it wasn't really anything with the defense. The defense was great, Levi (Lentin) played awesome. And then, (Mason) Chambliss played awesome, he had a lot of assists, played a really nice game, but all of the seniors contributed and they all got in, so that was fun to see."
 
HOW IT HAPPENED
The Gauchos were strong from the very start of the game, finding Dash McFarland early, with the team captain scoring the opening goal a minute and a half into the contest. Santa Barbara's defense, anchored by Lentin in goal, shut down the Triton offense, holding the visitors to a single goal in the entire first half, scored in the first quarter after a bad pass.
 
McFarland's goal was the only one in the opening frame for the Gauchos, but Santa Barbara's offense erupted in the second. Sam McKenzie scored to give the Gauchos the lead with just over four and a half minutes to go before halftime, kicking off a 6-0 run for the home side. Gyenis scored his first goal of the day to make it 3-1, then Brock Zamanian dented the twine to stretch the lead. With less than a minute before the half, Gyenis beat the shot clock buzzer with a beautiful floater of a shot that arced over the Tritons' goalkeeper, making it a 5-1 Santa Barbara lead at halftime.
 
The Gauchos' dominance continued after the interval, with Finn Genc scoring less than a minute into the third quarter, and Luke Bachler adding on 30 seconds later. UC San Diego finally broke a 9:47 scoreless streak to make it 7-2, but Santa Barbara's defense kept the visitors from putting together a run.
 
Gyenis scored next to complete his hat-trick and proceeded to take over the final two and a half minutes of the third quarter. The Hungarian scored his fourth goal of the game on a five-meter penalty with 1:49 left in the frame, answering back after the Tritons had scored 10 seconds earlier. With 10 seconds remaining in the quarter, Gyenis found the net again for his fifth.
 
Trailing 10-3 to start the fourth quarter, UC San Diego scored the first two goal of the final period to suggest they could make things interesting, but the Gaucho defense tightened up and Chambliss and Luke Bachler provided insurance goals. In the game's final moments, UC Santa Barbara made a concerted effort to set up a goal for Zac Green, but it was the visiting Tritons who got a last-second score.
 
UP NEXT
UC Santa Barbara will hit the road for their final road game of the season next weekend, visiting Long Beach State on Saturday, November 4 at 7 p.m. The game will be live on ESPN+ with live stats available through ucsbgauchos.com.