LA JOLLA, Calif. — After a big win and some help on the final weekend of conference play, the UC Santa Barbara Men's Water Polo team has a first-round bye and will jump straight to Saturday's semifinal round of The Big West Championship. The No. 2 seed Gauchos will face either No. 3 seed and tournament hosts UC San Diego or No. 6 seed Cal State Fullerton on Saturday, two teams they defeated during the regular season.
 
WHEN AND WHERE TO WATCH
The Gauchos will meet either the Tritons or Titans at 1 p.m. on Saturday, Nov. 18 from Canyonview Aquatic Center, on UC San Diego's campus in La Jolla. Live stats will be available for the game, and it will be broadcast live on ESPN+. Full-day tickets for both Saturday's semifinal and the final on Sunday can be purchased by clicking here.
 
CHAMPIONSHIP HISTORIES
This weekend's tournament will be the first Big West Championship after a 22-year hiatus, but five of its six participants are no strangers to postseason play. UC Santa Barbara is one of two national championship-winning programs taking part this weekend, winning the NCAA crown in 1979. Top-seeded UC Irvine has three Division-I titles to its name, most recently in 1989.
 
In terms of conference tournaments, current Big West programs have combined to claim nine Western Water Polo Association Championships (three for UC San Diego and five for UC Davis) as well as two Golden Coast Conference Titles (Long Beach State) in just the past decade. Cal State Fullerton, in its first year as a program, is the only participating team without a conference championship in its history.
 
WHAT TO KNOW ABOUT THE 2-SEED GAUCHOS (16-12, 3-2 Big West)
UC Santa Barbara earned a huge victory in their final regular season match, upsetting then No. 7/8 Long Beach State in Long Beach to help earn themselves a first-round bye. The Gauchos climbed to No. 9 in the Collegiate Water Polo Association's national rankings ahead of this weekend's tournament and hold steady at No. 10 in the Association of College Water Polo Coaches' poll.
 
Dash McFarland and Adam Gyenis took starring roles in the offense as they have all season, with both men tallying hat tricks against the Beach. McFarland is now just the seventh Gaucho to ever score 80 goals in a season and is tied for the sixth-highest scoring season in program history. Meanwhile, Gyenis has played the Kobe to McFarland's Shaq (or vice-versa, if you prefer), putting together a season that would make him the leading scorer on half of the teams in the conference. The Hungarian attacker has obliterated his previous career highs for both goals and assists, tallying 56 and 23, respectively. He was named Big West Player of the Week on Sept. 27 after scoring 11 goals across two games, both against top-15 opponents.
 
One other Gaucho has earned Big West Player of the Week honors this year: goalkeeper Levi Lentin. The redshirt sophomore from La Jolla earned the award after making 13 saves and five steals against UC San Diego on Oct. 29, both career highs. Lentin has been Santa Barbara's first-choice netminder this season, replacing All-American Danny Roland, who graduated after the 2022 campaign.
 
SCOUTING THE 3-SEED TRITONS (16-12, 3-2 Big West)
UC San Diego's third and final conference victory played a major role in earning UC Santa Barbara a first-round bye this weekend, as the Tritons upset UC Davis to help create the tiebreaker scenario.
 
The Tritons will be the favorites in Friday's first-round matchup, not just because they are playing at their home pool. The Tritons are ranked No. 13 nationally in both the CWPA and ACWPC polls this week, while Fullerton remains unranked. Earlier this year, UC San Diego visited the Titans in Orange County for their regular season matchup and emerged victorious, 16-9.
 
Bennett Axline and Rhys Bugelli went off in that game. Axline led all scorers with four goals, while Bugelli tallied three himself, plus three assists. Axline leads the team and ranks seventh in conference with 51 goals on the season, but the Tritons' points lead belongs to senior Kaden Likens, with 78 (34 goals, team-high 44 assists).
 
While the UC San Diego offense is certainly capable of causing problems, the more notable strength of the Tritons is how well they do the little things. Brendon Fezzey's 11 field blocks rank second in The Big West, and Felipe Ferreira has the conference's best sprint win percentage (.776). Additionally, five Tritons appear among The Big West's top 10 for steals.
 
Goalkeeper Logan Estes leads the team with 37 steals, the third-most in the conference, and the 6-foot-9 netminder leads the conference with 210 saves on the season. He made just six against the Gauchos on Oct. 29 in the regular season meeting and took the loss, as UC Santa Barbara defeated UC San Diego, 12-6. The Gauchos also topped the Tritons, 15-11, on Sept. 30 in a non-conference meeting.
 
SCOUTING THE 6-SEED TITANS (16-15, 0-5 Big West)
Cal State Fullerton will come into their Friday matchup as heavy underdogs, albeit largely because of their status as a first-year program. The Titans' roster, made up entirely of collegiate rookies and junior college transfers, has shown plenty of promise this season, but is yet to defeat a Big West opponent.
 
Junior Togan Ozbek has been the brightest of those bright spots this year, leading his team and ranking third in the conference for both goals (58) and assists (40), giving him the second-highest point total in The Big West this season. He tallied a hat-trick against the Tritons back in October, and he assisted two of his team's eight goals against the Gauchos when they visited Santa Barbara on Oct. 7. Fellow juniors Julian Nichols (53 goals) and Dominic Hernandez (46 goals) have combined with Ozbek to form a three-headed monster of an attack, with Nichols and Hernandez tied for ninth on The Big West points leaderboard. Hernandez had a hat-trick against the Gauchos earlier this year.
 
The issue for the Titans has been at the other end, keeping goals out. Goalkeeper Garrett Henderson is their leading ball thief, ranking second in the conference with 46 steals, but his .326 save percentage is the lowest among all qualified Big West goalies. Cal State Fullerton's 87 goals conceded in conference games are the most by far this season, over 30 more than the next-most porous defense.
 
If the Titans pull the upset, they will be underdogs again when facing the Gauchos. UC Santa Barbara defeated Cal State Fullerton, 13-8, in Santa Barbara during the regular season.