PALO ALTO, Calif. — The No. 12 UC Santa Barbara Men's Water Polo team heads north for their first true road match of the season, and it is a doozy. The Gauchos will pay a visit to No. 2 Stanford on Thursday afternoon, a match filled with familiar faces. UC Santa Barbara Head Coach Wolf Wigo will look to hand his alma mater its first loss of the season, but to do so, the Gauchos will have to deal with their 2023 star and Big West Player of the Year Dash McFarland.
 
Following their tussle with the Cardinal, the Gauchos will head to Claremont and Redlands for the 2024 Inland Empire Classic, where they will face a quartet of Division III opponents: Claremont-Mudd-Scripps, La Verne, Redlands and Pomona-Pitzer.
 
WHEN AND WHERE TO WATCH
The Gauchos and Cardinal will hit the water at 4 p.m. from Stanford's Avery Aquatic Center in Palo Alto on Thursday. The match will be live streamed through Overnght, with live stats available through ucsbgauchos.com.
 
This weekend in the Inland Empire, Santa Barbara will play twice Saturday and twice Sunday, opening with a 9 a.m. showdown against Claremont-Mudd-Scripps at the Stags' Axelrood Pool in Claremont. They will remain there for Saturday afternoon's 2 p.m. matchup with La Verne. On Sunday, the Gauchos will be at Redlands' Thompson Aquatics Center, kicking off the day with an 8 a.m. match against Redlands. They will round out the weekend at 1 p.m. Sunday afternoon against Pomona-Pitzer. All four of the Gauchos' matches will be live streamed on FloSwimming, and live stats will be available through ucsbgauchos.com.
 
LAST TIME OUT
Santa Barbara opened the 2024 season at the Triton Invitational in La Jolla last weekend, falling to No. 1 UCLA in their opening match before rattling off three straight wins to round out the weekend. Brock Zamanian led the Gauchos in both goals and assists, scoring 12 and 15 respectively over the four games. Freshman Danilo Dragovic shone in his first collegiate action, tallying eight goals and 10 assists over the course of the four contests. Levi Lentin, Leif Lacy and Wyatt Pieretti split goalkeeping duties between them over the weekend and all played well.
 
SCOUTING THE OPPONENTS
No. 2 Stanford (4-0) comes into the week after an unbeaten start to the season at the Triton Invitational, during which they stomped Redlands and Concordia Irvine, but also pulled out comfortable wins over No. 8 UC Davis and then-No. 6 UC Irvine. The Cardinal's closest game was their five-goal win over the Aggies. Riley Pittman earned Mountain Pacific Sports Federation Player of the Week honors for the Cardinal after his 11-goal weekend. Pittman leads the team, though only three outfield players are yet to score for Stanford this season. Former Gaucho Dash McFarland has five goals through his first four games in red.
 
Claremont-Mudd-Scripps (1-3) will be looking forward to their second crack at the Gauchos after falling to Santa Barbara, 16-8, at the Triton Invitational last weekend. Luke Weigle has a pair of goals for the Stags in that match, and he went on to win SCIAC Player of the Week honors after finishing the weekend with 11 goals. Nick Kennedy, the Stags' second-leading goalscorer on the season with eight, also tallied against the Gauchos in their last meeting.
 
La Verne (0-2) is the Gauchos' only upcoming opponent to not attend the Triton Invitational last weekend, paying a visit instead to Loyola Marymount for their mini tournament. The Leopards fell to the hosting Lions, 26-8, and to Chapman, 18-9. Returning Division III All-American Peter Trinh led La Verne's scoring in the two defeats, tallying a hat-trick in each contest. Sophomore attacker Nicolo Buono scored three goals on the weekend as well, doing so on just six shots.
 
Redlands (0-4) is still looking for a first win on the season after falling to four Division I opponents at the Triton Invitational on opening weekend. The Bulldogs did give a scare to a Bucknell team that had received votes in the preseason ranking polls, falling to the Bison by just three goals, 14-11. Senior attacker Dean Moody poured in four goals in that game and leads the Bulldogs with a total of seven on the season, despite missing Redlands' game against Stanford.
 
Pomona-Pitzer (0-4) also caught four straight losses against Division I opposition at the Triton Invitational last weekend, but they came even closer to an upset than Redlands did, losing to Cal State Fullerton by just a single score. The 12-11 defeat was the only game of the weekend in which the Sagehens scored double digits, with four players tallying multiple scores in the contest. Zach Whitfield was one of them; the sophomore attacker has a team-high nine goals to his name after netting multiple in each of the squad's first four games.
 
UP NEXT
The Gauchos continue their barnstorming start to the season with trips to Malibu and Los Angeles next week. Santa Barbara will take on Westcliff and No. 4 Pepperdine at Pepperdine on Thursday, Sept. 19, then head into Los Angeles for the first of two Big West-WCC Clash tournaments. This edition will see the Gauchos face Cal State Fullerton on Sept. 20, then Pepperdine again and No. 16 LMU on Sept. 21.