SANTA BARBARA, Calif. — The No. 16 UC Santa Barbara Men's Water Polo team will play a mid-week non-conference matchup before resuming Big West play next week, hosting No. 5 Fordham at Dos Pueblos High School on Tuesday. The Gauchos will then get back to conference action at No. 9 UC Irvine on Saturday.
 
WHEN AND WHERE TO WATCH
Santa Barbara and Fordham will get underway at 12 noon in their Tuesday matchup at Dos Pueblos High School in Goleta. Admission and parking are free, though parking in the school's main lot may be limited. Live stats will be available through ucsbgauchos.com
 
The Gauchos and Anteaters will also get underway at 12 noon on Saturday, from the Anteater Aquatics Complex in Irvine. That match will be live on ESPN+ with live stats available through ucsbgauchos.com.
 
LAST TIME OUT
Santa Barbara will be looking to get back in the win column after suffering a narrow defeat to UC Davis on Saturday. The Gauchos did erase a 4-1 deficit and an 8-6 deficit in that game, with help from Adam Gyenis' hat-trick.
 
GAUCHOS TO KNOW
This year's UC Santa Barbara squad features five 30-goal scorers, led by redshirt junior Brock Zamanian, who has 42 and 36 assists to lead the squad in both categories. Gyenis is close behind Zamanian with 39 and 30 and has the hot hand after putting up three goals and two assists on Saturday afternoon.
 
There are two rookies in the Gauchos' 30-goal club: redshirt freshman center Dom Brown and true freshman attacker Danilo Dragovic. Brown's haul of 37 goals and three assists is the most unbalanced collection, while Dragovic has a nearly perfect balance with 31 goals and 28 assists.
 
Sophomore Luke Bachler rounds out the 30-goal club with 35 to go along with 16 assists. Bachler, Brown and Zamanian are all shooting above .500 on the year, with Brown scoring on nearly 60% of his shots.
 
SCOUTING THE RAMS
Fordham (15-0) is still yet to lose a game this year and have made themselves one of the stories of the year. Seven of their 15 wins have come against ranked opponents, with their highest ranked win coming against then-No. 7 Princeton, 12-9. Their last competitive match was a 23-6 walloping of Iona in New York on Oct. 12. On Friday, they played an exhibition game against the New York Athletic Club.
 
Tuesday will be the Rams' first trip west of the Mississippi this season and their third matchup against a Californian team. During the first two weeks of the season, Fordham defeated both California Baptist and UC San Diego by a combined score of 36-17.
 
The Rams do have eight Californians on their roster, including a pair of Santa Barbara natives. Center James Oriskovich is a UC Santa Barbara graduate and a Santa Barbara High School grad, while goalkeeper Reggie Robles graduated from Dos Pueblos High School.
 
SCOUTING THE ANTEATERS
UC Irvine (12-7, 2-0 Big West) will have the week off before hosting the Gauchos on Saturday. They are riding a three-game winning streak after a narrow win over Long Beach State, 13-12, on Friday. They also won their first Big West match of the year by a single goal, 12-11 over UC San Diego.
 
Luka Krstic scored a whopping seven of UC Irvine's 13 goals against Long Beach State; his season total is up to a team-high 42. Krstic has been named Big West Player of the Week twice this season, with teammates Cole Francisco and Zayd Mahmoud each picking up the award once.
 
Francisco is third on the team in goals with 25, while Mahmoud might not even feature on Saturday; he is the backup to goalkeeper Jacob Pyle, who was an All-Big West Honorable Mention and The Big West Championship MVP last season. Pyle made 12 saves in his last action against the Beach Friday night.
 
UP NEXT
The Gauchos will stay on the road after their visit to UC Irvine, with their next stop being La Jolla on Nov. 1, where they will play under the lights against UC San Diego.