LOS ANGELES (Sept. 15, 2023) — The UC Santa Barbara Men's Water Polo is set to take on a pair of the nation's top teams this weekend, visiting No. 3 USC in Los Angeles on Saturday, September 16 before taking on No. 6 Stanford in Santa Barbara on Sunday, September 17. Sunday's game against the Cardinal will be held at Santa Barbara High School and will be broadcast live on ESPN+.
 
WHEN AND WHERE TO WATCH
The Gauchos and Trojans are set to get underway at 1 p.m. from USC's Uytsengu Aquatics Center. The game will be streamed live on pac-12.com, and live stats will be available through ucsbgauchos.com.
 
Sunday's contest against Stanford will begin at noon from Santa Barbara High School. Due to the change in venue, fans will only be able to follow the match by watching live on ESPN+ and by following the live stats available through ucsbgauchos.com.
 
WHAT TO KNOW ABOUT THE GAUCHOS
UC Santa Barbara was last in the pool on Thursday in Malibu, playing back-to-back games against Westcliff and No. 4 Pepperdine. The No. 11 Gauchos defeated the Warriors, 15-4, behind a four-goal game from Luke Redoutey, but fell to the Waves, 13-8, despite a Dash McFarland hat-trick. After just 11 games, McFarland has already set a new career high for goals in a season with 37, leading the team. Fellow center James Oriskovich is second on the team with 24, while Mason Chambliss leads the squad in assists with 13.
 
SCOUTING THE TROJANS
USC comes into Saturday's matchup ranked No. 3 in the country, with just one loss so far on the season, against No. 1 California. The Trojans last played on Sunday, defeating then-No. 8 UC Irvine, 12-10, in Irvine. USC's two leading scorers, Massimo Di Martire (13) and Max Miller (12), each tallied multiple goals in that game, including a hat-trick from Miller. Di Martire was named an All-American in 2022.
 
SCOUTING THE CARDINAL
Stanford will arrive in Santa Barbara off the back of three straight ranked matchups, taking on then-No. 3 UCLA, then-No. 14 Loyola Marymount and No. 14 UC San Diego in their last three games. The Cardinal won each of those last two, improving to 5-2 on the season and 4-2 against ranked opponents. Top scorers Jackson Painter (16) and Riley Pittman (15) are both returning after earning All-MPSF honors in 2022, as is goalkeeper Nolan Krutonog. Krutonog has 36 saves in six games played so far this season.