SANTA BARBARA, Calif. — The No. 16 UC Santa Barbara Men's Water Polo team had its first-ever meeting with No. 5 Fordham on Tuesday and nearly handed the Rams their first loss of the season with a fourth-quarter comeback, but the rally came up short. Levi Lentin made 10 saves and had two assists in the 12-10 defeat, while Dom Brown, Brock Zamanian and Leo Ohannessian each tallied a pair of goals for the Gauchos.
 
FROM HEAD COACH WOLF WIGO
"You know, Fordham's a very strong team, they're one of two undefeated teams in the country," Wigo said. "We knew they were going to be tough, but we felt like we had a good gameplan and it was a winnable game for us. We made a few mistakes, again, that we shouldn't be making, we got frustrated, they pressed really hard and it kind of rattled us a little bit. But we made some adjustments and that made a huge difference. We had a really strong comeback, but it was too little too late, and hopefully we learn from this game because the conference tournament is really what it comes down to."
 
HOW IT HAPPENED
The Gauchos stayed right with Fordham in the first quarter, with Brown providing an answer less than 30 seconds after the Rams' opener, then Ohannessian scoring his first of the day with under a minute in the frame to tie the game again after Fordham re-took the lead. The visitors pulled back ahead before the buzzer, and they extended their lead to two in the second quarter. Ryan McManigal scored just before the four-minute mark to keep the Gauchos within one, but Santa Barbara fell into a hole after that.
 
Beginning with three minutes left on the clock in the second quarter, Fordham went on a 7-1 run that extended into the final minute of the third, with Brown scoring the lone goal for Santa Barbara. Zamanian scored his first goal of the day on a five-meter penalty to put that scoring run to an end though, and it sparked the Gauchos' fourth-quarter comeback.
 
Santa Barbara out-scored the Rams, 5-1, in the final frame, firing home the last five goals of the day. Ohannessian was the first to dent the twine, then Kai Ross added on. Luke Bachler capitalized on a 6-on-4 opportunity with three minutes to play, and Finn Genc drew a five-meter penalty which Adam Gyenis converted to make the score 12-9 and set up a frantic final two minutes. Zamanian scored again to cut the lead to two, but it was with only 11 seconds to play.
 
UP NEXT
The Gauchos are back on the road and back in Big West action on Saturday, facing No. 9 UC Irvine in Irvine. Start time is set for 12 noon, and the game will be live on ESPN+ with live stats available through ucsbgauchos.com.