DAVIS, Calif. — The No. 16 UC Santa Barbara Women's Water Polo team begins postseason play on Friday, taking on No. 8 Long Beach State in the quarterfinal round of The Big West Women's Water Polo Championship. The Gauchos come in as the No. 6 seed in the tournament, while the Beach hold the No. 3 seed. It is the third year in a row that Santa Barbara and Long Beach have met in the three-six matchup in the conference tournament, with the Beach having won each of the last two.
 
WHEN AND WHERE TO WATCH
The 2024 Big West Women's Water Polo Championship is being held at the Schaal Aquatics Center in Davis, with the Gauchos' quarterfinal matchup set to get underway at 4:30 p.m. on Friday. The game will be broadcast live on ESPN+ and live stats will be available through ucsbgauchos.com.
 
LAST TIME OUT
Santa Barbara ended their regular season in style with a 10-3 Senior Night victory over Cal State Fullerton. The four graduating Gauchos — Camilla Mackay, Leigh Lyter, Mary Beth Heffelfinger and Drew Halvorson — all started the game, with Heffelfinger's two-goal night one of many in-pool highlights.
 
TOURNAMENT HISTORY
UC Santa Barbara has faced Long Beach State in the first round of their last five Big West Championship appearances, going 1-4 in those contests, though two of those defeats were by just a single goal. The Gauchos' last tournament win over the Beach came in 2019, thanks in part to Kenzi Snyder's 16 saves, the second-most in a Big West Championship match behind only fellow Gaucho goalie Ruth Milne's 17 in 2010, also against Long Beach. Madison Walker made her own contribution to Gaucho goaltending greatness in last year's quarterfinal, making 15 saves.
 
WHAT TO KNOW ABOUT THE GAUCHOS
Walker has been Santa Barbara's defensive backbone this season, posting a second 200-save campaign in as many years of collegiate water polo. With 213 blocks on the season, she has already surpassed her total from last season, re-setting the eighth-best single season mark in program history and once again posting the highest total since 2016. Of the Big West goalies with 200 saves this season, Walker has been by far the best, owning a .534 save percentage and 8.05 goals-against average, both second-best in The Big West
 
Walker also ranks second in the conference with 40 steals, playing an active role in Santa Barbara's pesky defense. The Gauchos are the only team with three different players among The Big West's top 10 in steals, with Juju Amaral (36) and Leigh Lyter (34) both proving quite the nuisance for opposing ball-handlers.
 
Amaral and Lyter also play a key role in the Gaucho attack, combining with Annie Kuester to form a three-member 30-goal club for Santa Barbara. Lyter's 38 are a team high, though Kuester's 36 are not far behind. Amaral is the Gauchos' lone 30-30 club member coming into the tournament, with 33 goals and 31 assists, but newcomer Christina Mullane is not far behind. The Hawai'i transfer has been perfectly balanced in her first year in Blue and Gold, scoring 26 goals and tallying 26 assists.
 
SCOUTING THE BEACH
Long Beach State finished with the second-best goal differential in The Big West behind only powerhouse Hawai'i, which should come as little surprise considering they have the conference's top points scorer, Lara Luka, on their side. Luka ranks second in both goals scored (82) and assists (49), but those numbers combine to account for 131 points, meaning she was involved in nearly 1/3 of her team's 374 goals this season. Elisa Portillo contributed another 78 points with a 51-goal season herself, one of which came against the Gauchos in their regular season matchup on March 9. Luka had a hat-trick and two assists in that game.
 
As eye-popping as their offensive numbers are, the Beach also boast a strong defense, conceding the third-fewest goals in The Big West this year behind only Hawai'i and the Gauchos. While goalkeeper Chelsea Oliver has a merely okay .473 save percentage, her goals-against average is just 8.24 thanks to her defense. When Long Beach visited Santa Barbara, the Gauchos fired 28 shots, but only 17 were on target, and only four found the back of the net. The Beach defense made four field blocks in front of Oliver in that game.  
 
UP NEXT
The winner of Friday evening's quarterfinal will move on to face either No. 2 seed UC Irvine or No. 7 seed and tournament hosts UC Davis at 2 p.m. on Saturday, April 27.