nDAVIS, Calif. — The No. 13 UC Santa Barbara Women's Water Polo team opens Big West conference play on Saturday, visiting No. 16 UC Davis on March 2 before making the short trip over to the Bay Area for a matchup with No. 21 San Jose State on March 3. The Gauchos will be looking for their first win in Davis since 2015 on Saturday, while Sunday's game will decide the season series between Santa Barbara and the Spartans.
 
WHEN AND WHERE TO WATCH
Saturday's match in Davis is set to start at noon from the Schaal Aquatics Center. Sunday's matchup against San Jose State will start at 11 a.m. at San Jose's SRAC Pool. Both games will have live stats available through ucsbgauchos.com.
 
LAST TIME OUT
The Gauchos wrapped up their tournament tour last weekend at the Barbara Kalbus Invitational in Irvine. Santa Barbara went 2-2 on the weekend, with wins over Indiana and UC San Diego, both squads with whom the Gauchos were tied at No. 13 in last week's rankings. Santa Barbara's two losses came against defending National Champions Stanford and No. 8 Michigan.
 
WHAT TO KNOW ABOUT THE GAUCHOS
After her second trip to the Pan American Games with Brazil in the fall, Juju Amaral has taken up the role of focal point in the Gauchos' attack this spring, leading the squad in both goals (27) and assists (24). Those 51 total points are the fourth most in The Big West heading into conference play. Veteran leader and team captain Leigh Lyter has also found the back of the net 27 times this season, and Annie Kuester gives Santa Barbara a trio of 20-goal scorers, having tallied 24.
 
Newcomer Christina Mullane has stepped up in her first season in Blue and Gold, balancing creativity (18 assists) with goal-scoring prowess (19 goals). Impressively efficient, Mullane is shooting a team-best .543 this season. Fellow newcomers Isabel Valaika and Jojo Scheer have been similarly balanced presences in the attack as well, with Valaika tallying 12 goals and 12 assists and Scheer recording 11 of each. Valaika's speed has also helped her to a 14-4 record in sprints this season.
 
Defensively, the Gauchos are the hardest team to score against in The Big West, allowing just 7.61 goals per game. They have plenty of players capable of pestering opposing ball-handlers, with Lyter (conference-best 26 steals) chief among them. Goalkeeper Madison Walker ranks third in the conference with 24 swipes, and both Amaral (22) and Drew Halvorson (19) crack the top 10. Walker is also a tremendous shot-stopper, boasting a conference-best 8.30 goals-against average. Her 118 saves and .515 save percentage both rank second in The Big West, but the Gauchos' goalie often gets some extra help in front of her. Santa Barbara is the only team in The Big West to have three players in the top 10 for field blocks so far this season.
 
SCOUTING THE AGGIES
No. 16 UC Davis was picked above the Gauchos in The Big West Preseason Coaches' Poll, but the Aggies have struggled this season, coming into the weekend with a 6-12 record and the most goals allowed in the conference (215). There are two caveats to those struggles though, the first being that 10 of those 12 defeats came against teams ranked in the top 10 at the time, and the second being that four of those six wins came in last weekend's perfect run at the Harvard Invitational.
 
The porous Aggie defense has made goalkeeper Nellie McAdams a busy woman, as she leads The Big West with 140 saves on the year. However, her goals-against average of 11.94 ranks fifth in the conference. Grace Pelkey has provided some relief for her goalie, making a conference-best 15 field blocks. Pelkey also ranks second in The Big West with 25 steals coming into the weekend.
 
On offense, the Aggies are clearly missing their two stars from last year, Noelle Wijnbelt and Ally Clague, both of whom have graduated. Wijnbelt was a five-time All-American at UC Davis and the Aggies' second-highest goal scorer of all time. Clague earned All-America Honorable Mention in 2023 as well, and was twice named Big West Player of the Week. This season, the Aggie attack has centered around Gianna Nocetti (20 goals, 15 assists), Pelkey (21 goals) and Sam Yoo (19 goals). Kelly Hungerford and Ashley Salem will get the ball plenty too; both have a team-high 20 assists on the season.
 
SCOUTING THE SPARTANS
San Jose State and UC Santa Barbara have already met twice this season, with each side earning a victory. Their most recent meeting was one of the best defensive battles in either program's history, with the Spartans earning a 5-3 win on Feb. 10. San Jose State goalie Grace Smith only had to make seven saves in that game as the defense in front of her shut down Santa Barbara's offense.
 
In the Spartan attack, Darcy Spark and Sinia Plotz have been thorns in the Gauchos' sides in the first two meetings. Four of Spark's team-leading 15 goals have come against Santa Barbara, including a hat-trick in that Feb. 10 win. Plotz assisted a pair in that matchup and scored a hat-trick of her own in the first meeting of these two teams back on Jan. 27. Plotz is second on the team with 12 goals this season.
 
UP NEXT
The Gauchos return to Santa Barbara for their next match, welcoming No. 9 Long Beach State to town. They will hit the water at noon on Saturday, March 9 at Santa Barbara High School. Admission will be free and open to the public until the venue's capacity is reached. Live stats will be available through ucsbgauchos.com.