TEMPE, Ariz. — The UC Santa Barbara Women's Water Polo team is set for its first out-of-state trip of the season this weekend, as the Gauchos will head to Tempe to take part in the ASU Invitational. While in the Valley of the Sun, Santa Barbara will face the hosting No. 7 Arizona State in the tournament's opening game Friday, then take on Ottawa Arizona and No. 19(T) San Jose State on Saturday before wrapping the weekend up against Marist on Sunday.
 
WHEN AND WHERE TO WATCH
The Gauchos' Friday matchup with the Sun Devils will start at noon Pacific, with Saturday's two games set for 9 a.m. and 1 p.m. Pacific Time. Sunday's matchup with Marist will get underway at 10:30 a.m. Pacific. All four games will be held at Arizona State's Plummer Aquatic Center in Tempe.
 
LAST TIME OUT
The Gauchos went 2-2 at UC San Diego's Triton Invitational last weekend, capping off the tournament with a win over the then-No. 9 Tritons in their home pool. Santa Barbara also won against Concordia, but suffered tough losses against then-No. 10 Michigan and then-No. 11 Loyola Marymount.
 
WHAT TO KNOW ABOUT THE GAUCHOS
This year's UC Santa Barbara squad is all about team effort, with a wide array of players each making significant contributions to the Gauchos' 7-3 start to the season. Juju Amaral is the focal point of the attack, leading the team and ranking top-three in The Big West in goals (22), assists (12) and points (34), but a total of six other Gauchos appear across the conference top tens for those categories. Leigh Lyter and Annie Kuester are both among The Big West's top ten for goals and points, with Christina Mullane also cracking the top ten points list. Drew Halvorson, Emily Ferguson and Isabel Valaika are all tied for seventh in the conference with 11 assists each.
 
Defensively, four of the conference's top 10 field blockers are Gauchos, and UC Santa Barbara players make up half of the top-10 steals list, with Lyter's team-high 15 ranking second-most in The Big West. Halvorson and Madison Walker are just behind their captain with 14 each. Along with her impressive steal total, Walker has been excellent at her main role — stopping shots. The Gauchos' goalkeeper ranks third in the conference with 67 saves this season and second in conference with a .523 save percentage, one of just two Big West goalies saving more than half the shots they have faced.
 
Speaking of percentages, the speedy freshman Valaika leads The Big West in both sprint win percentage (.786) and total sprint wins (11).
 
SCOUTING THE OPPOSITION
No. 7 Arizona State made a huge jump in the national polls after a great weekend at the Triton Invitational. The Sun Devils defeated UC San Diego, UC Davis and Michigan while only suffering defeat to UCLA (ranked No. 9, No. 16, No. 10 and No. 3, respectively, at the time). After scoring 15 goals on the weekend to lead the team, Luca Petovary was named MPSF Player of the Week. Arizona State leads the all-time series against UC Santa Barbara, 18-7, but the Gauchos won the most recent meeting, 7-6, in Irvine last February.
 
OUAZ was one of the teams that competed at UC Santa Barbara's Winter Invitational in January, though the Gauchos and Spirit did not meet. The 2023 NAIA National Champions went 0-3 at the event, with losses to UC San Diego and Marist, though they did nearly upset Division-III Whittier, losing by just one goal in overtime. OUAZ and UC Santa Barbara did meet at last year's Winter Invitational, with the Gauchos rolling to an 18-6 win. The only other meeting between the two teams came at the 2020 Winter Invitational and also ended with a double-digit victory for Santa Barbara, 19-2.
 
No. 19(T) San Jose State has already met the Gauchos once this season, and the two teams will face off a third time later this year. UC Santa Barbara won the first matchup, 10-9, two weeks ago in Riverside, but the Spartans lead the all-time series, 18-15. San Jose State did not play last weekend, and the Spartans will have just one game, against the hosting Sun Devils, before facing the Gauchos again. Sinia Plotz was the focal point of San Jose State's attack last time they faced Santa Barbara, scoring three goals on eight shots, both team highs.
 
Marist was also in attendance at the Winter Invitational, but when the Red Foxes and Gauchos square off on Sunday, it will be their first meeting since 2020. Marist is 0-9 against UC Santa Barbara all-time, and the Red Foxes have lost all seven of their games against ranked opponents so far this year. The Red Foxes themselves did receive votes in the most recent Collegiate Water Polo Association polls. Utility Paige Naegle and center Ella Baumgarten have led the Marist attack, while goalkeeper Inés Sánchez has been absolutely stellar in goal. She leads the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference in saves by a wide margin, and while at this year's Winter Invitational, she saved four penalty shots. Marist's roster also features one Alyssa Mullane, younger sister of UC Santa Barbara's Christina Mullane.
 
UP NEXT
The Gauchos will take a week off from competition after their Arizona trip, then return to action at the Barbara Kalbus Invitational, hosted by UC Irvine, Feb. 23-25. UC Santa Barbara's opponents and game times at that tournament are yet to be announced.