CLAREMONT, Calif. (Sept. 10, 2023) — The UC Santa Barbara Men's Water Polo team might not have broken any more school records on Sunday, but Head Coach Wolf Wigo was delighted with his team's performance, saying the Gauchos' two wins were their best games of the tournament. UC Santa Barbara (6-3) scored 17 goals in each, taking down Claremont-Mudd-Scripps (3-3) in the first game, 17-6, and Cal Lutheran (1-5) in the second, 17-7. Both the Stags and Kingsmen rank among the top five Division-III Water Polo programs in the country.
 
FROM HEAD COACH WOLF WIGO
"We played the best two matches of the tournament today," Wigo said. "CMS really gave some top-10 teams a lot of problems last week and I was really impressed how the team performed against them. We are in a good place to build and have a strong next couple weeks of games."
 
NO. 11 UC SANTA BARBARA 17, CLAREMONT-MUDD-SCRIPPS 6
The hosts scored first on Sunday morning, putting the Gauchos behind for the first time all weekend, but Santa Barbara did not stay there for long. Five different Gauchos scored to assemble a 5-0 run over the next 10 minutes of game time, taking the lead for good. James Oriskovich became the sixth different Gaucho to score before halftime, giving his team an 8-3 lead at the break. A six-goal Santa Barbara run in the second half put the game on ice. Dash McFarland keyed that run, scoring his third, fourth and fifth goals of the game. Adam Gyenis and Brock Zamanian also finished their hat-tricks in that span.
 
NO. 11 UC SANTA BARBARA 17, CAL LUTHERAN 7
The Gauchos' final game of the weekend started as a back-and-forth affair before Santa Barbara again pulled away in the third and fourth quarters. Cal Lutheran opened the scoring and the Gauchos' answered, then the teams traded goals, finding themselves level at 3-3 with a minute left in the first quarter. Billy Rankin broke the tie, then Gyenis beat the buzzer to put Santa Barbara up two after one. Cal Lutheran were still within three at halftime, but the Gauchos held them to only two goals in the second half and pulled away. McFarland scored three goals in one minute and 10 seconds as part of a 6-0 scoring run, and Finn Genc finished off his hat trick in the final three minutes to put the icing on the cake.
 
UP NEXT
Next on the schedule for UC Santa Barbara is a trip to Malibu on Thursday, September 14, where they will play Westcliff and No. 8(T) Pepperdine. Start times are set for noon and 5 p.m., respectively.