MALIBU, Calif. — The No. 13 UC Santa Barbara Men's Water Polo team kicked off its weekend with back-to-back matches against Westcliff and No. 4 Pepperdine in Malibu on Thursday. The Gauchos dispatched the Warriors, 23-14, in the first game and hung close with the fourth-ranked Waves in the second but fell, 15-13. Brock Zamanian (four goals, five assists) and Luke Bachler (five goals, three assists) led the Gaucho offense on the day.
 
FROM HEAD COACH WOLF WIGO
"I thought the offense was really good in both games," Wigo said. "We scored a lot of nice goals on a lot of nice plays, we were fired up for the games and I thought we brought a lot more energy than we have in any other games this season.
 
"We lost the game (against Pepperdine) and we made a few mistakes, but I thought it was one of our better games of the season. Pepperdine is really good … and we went toe-to-toe with them, and hoping that when we play them in two days we come out on top, that would be really nice."
 
No. 13 UC SANTA BARBARA 23, WESTCLIFF 14
The Gauchos set the tone of the game in the first quarter, leading 8-3 after the opening eight minutes. Zamanian and Sam McKenzie each had two of those first-quarter scores, with Bachler, Adam Gyenis, Nico Furneaux and Shane Hoover contributing as well.
 
Santa Barbara only got further and further in front with each quarter, out-scoring Westcliff 6-5 in the second, 7-5 in the third and 2-1 in the fourth. Bachler and Billy Rankin each recorded hat-tricks in the game, with Rankin scoring all three of his goals after halftime.
 
Wyatt Pieretti recorded three assists in just eight minutes from his goalkeeper position.
 
No. 13 UC SANTA BARBARA vs. No. 4 PEPPERDINE
Facing the hosts in the final action of the day, the Gauchos had to claw their way back from an early deficit. After giving up the first three goals of the game, Santa Barbara surged late in the first quarter and into the second, trailing by just one at the end of the quarter and leveling the scores at 5-5 less than a minute into the second frame, thanks to Dom Brown.
 
From there, the teams traded goals, with neither side out-scoring the other by more than one in a single quarter. The Gauchos were down by two at halftime but rallied in the third to cut the deficit to one heading into the fourth. Danilo Dragovic scored twice in that third quarter, with both of his tallies bringing Santa Barbara within a single score.
 
Pepperdine re-extended their lead to four by the time there were three minutes left to play, but Finn Genc's goal with 2:42 to play sparked a Gaucho rally. When Bachler scored with 40 seconds left to bring Santa Barbara back within two, the bench roared and coach Wolf Wigo sent everyone forward. Goalkeeper Levi Lentin got a steal on Pepperdine's side of the pool to give the Gauchos an extra possession in the final seconds, but the rally ultimately came up short.
 
UP NEXT
Santa Barbara will get a shot at revenge on the Waves in just two short days: Pepperdine is the Gauchos' second opponent at this weekend's Big West-WCC Challenge in Los Angeles. Santa Barbara will play Cal State Fullerton at 3 p.m. Friday, then Pepperdine at 10:30 a.m. Saturday before ending the weekend against No. 15 LMU at 3 p.m. Saturday.