LOS ANGELES — The No. 13 UC Santa Barbara Men's Water Polo team will get a second crack at the top team in the nation this weekend, as the Gauchos will visit No. 1 UCLA at Spieker Aquatics Center Friday night. On their way back north, the Gauchos will make a stop in Thousand Oaks Saturday morning to take on Cal Lutheran and Westcliff.
 
WHEN AND WHERE TO WATCH
Santa Barbara and UCLA will hit the water at 7 p.m. Friday night in Westwood, with the action set to be streamed live on Overnght.com. The Gauchos will then face Cal Lutheran at 9 a.m. and Westcliff at 11 a.m. Saturday from the Samuelson Aquatics Center in Thousand Oaks. Live stats will be available through ucsbgauchos.com, and Santa Barbara's morning game against the Kingsmen will be streamed live through FloSports.
 
LAST TIME OUT
The Gauchos faced Westcliff last week, beating the Warriors 23-14 in Malibu to kick off a run of five games in three days. Santa Barbara defeated every opponent not called Pepperdine in that stretch, picking up a 14-12 win over Cal State Fullerton and a 16-12 win over No. 15 Loyola Marymount but falling to the No. 4 Waves twice, both by just two goals.
 
GAUCHOS TO KNOW
In just 14 games this season, Brock Zamanian has already surpassed his goal tally from 2023, leading The Big West with 31 goals. He has nearly matched his assist total from last season too, having already set up a conference-high 27 goals for Santa Barbara. Adam Gyenis, who was the Gauchos' leader in points last season, is chasing Zamanian with 28 goals and 19 assists.
 
Impressively, freshman Danilo Dragovic is keeping pace with Zamanian and Gyenis as leaders of the Santa Barbara attack in his first year of college water polo. The Montenegrin attacker has 27 goals and 20 assists so far this year.
 
At the other end of the pool, the Gauchos are looking forward to the debut of another newcomer, Serbian defender Marko Ilic, who is projected to be available Friday night after missing the first three weeks of the season with an injury. Luke Redoutey is expected to return Friday night as well, having missed all of last weekend's action.
 
SCOUTING THE OPPONENTS
No. 1 UCLA (10-0) is still the top team in the country, and the Bruins proved worthy of that title by defeating No. 6 California and No. 3 USC in back-to-back games in Berkeley over the weekend. Earlier this month, UCLA also knocked off then-No. 9 UC Irvine in Irvine. When the Gauchos and Bruins met in the season opener, Ryder Dodd and Ben Liechty both scored three for UCLA; Dodd has a team-high 26 goals for the Bruins coming into Friday night's action.
 
Cal Lutheran (3-6) has given some Division I squads a run for their money this season, with four of their five games against D-I opposition being decided by one goal, including an upset of Air Force. In the Kingsmen's second meeting with the Falcons, senior center Cormac Flanders smashed home six goals; he leads Cal Lutheran with 20.
 
Westcliff (1-7) got its first win of the season over the weekend, defeating Occidental in what was the Warriors' first game against a non-Division-I opponent, 19-16. They will face Biola and La Verne on Wednesday before meeting the Gauchos on Saturday morning. Last week in Malibu, graduate driver Manuel Augusto scored six of the Warriors' 14 goals against Santa Barbara, while senior center Brock Kammerer tallied a hat-trick.
 
UP NEXT
The Gauchos will start the month of October with a trip north for the season's second Big West-WCC Challenge event. Santa Barbara will face No. 9 San Jose State and No. 18 Santa Clara in San Jose on Oct. 5, at 9 a.m. and 4 p.m. respectively.