BLOOMINGTON, Ind. — The No. 18 UC Santa Barbara Women's Water Polo team (2-0, 0-0 Big West) is set for its first road trip of the season this weekend and it is a big one, as the Gauchos are headed for the Midwest and the Indiana Classic. Santa Barbara will take on Carthage College and get another meeting with UC Merced on Saturday before taking on No. 11 Indiana and Salem on Sunday. It is the first of two trips east for the Gauchos this year and their first time traveling that direction since 2023.
LAST TIME OUT
Santa Barbara kicked off the 2025 season with a home doubleheader against UC Merced last weekend, winning the two matches, 25-3 and 23-3. Sixteen different Gauchos scored at least once against the Bobcats, with freshmen
Loretta Hovey (6 goals, 5 assists) and
Bella Mady (8 goals) leading the way. Team captains
Annie Kuester (6 goals, 1 assist) and
Juju Amaral (4 goals, 2 assists) each only played one game but made their impacts. Goalkeepers
Madison Walker (9 saves, 2 steals, 1 assist) and
Ava Donleavy (7 saves, 3 steals) also each played a game apiece.
SCOUTING THE OPPONENTS
Carthage (0-0, 0-0 CWPA) will be opening their 2025 season against the Gauchos on Saturday, looking to build on 5-11 2024 campaign. The Firebirds placed three players on the Collegiate Water Polo Association's Division III All-Conference team last season but will be without all three of them this year, looking for new players to step up in their place.
UC Merced (0-2, 0-0 WWPA) will be seeing Santa Barbara for a third time in four games when they face the Gauchos on Saturday, having been swept in the opening day doubleheader by a combined score of 48-6. Viviana Luna scored in each game for Merced, with Melanie Torres, Breyenne Pierce, Kiryn Wicker and Grace Tademy each scoring once against the Gauchos last weekend.
No. 11 Indiana (0-0, 0-0 MPSF) will play their first games of the season this weekend. The Hoosiers are coming off a 2024 campaign which saw them finish as the sixth seed for the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation Championship, where they nearly upset Stanford in the first round, falling by one in double overtime. Indiana finished as the sixth-place team in the tournament, with three players — Zoe Crouch, Sophia Sollie and Skylar Kidd — earning All-America honors. All three are back for 2025, though Crouch is now an assistant coach, having graduated after last season.
Salem (0-0, 0-0 WWPA) comes into 2025 after a 9-22 campaign and sixth-place finish at the WWPA Championship in 2024. The Tigers return three of their four all-conference honorees from last season: Courtney Repinz, Mackenzie Hamilton and goalkeeper Emily Low. Salem will come into their matchup with the Gauchos battle-tested, as they are set to play Indiana and CSUN on Saturday before their Sunday matchup with the Gauchos.
WHEN AND WHERE TO WATCH
The action starts bright and early from the Counsilman-Billingsley Aquatics Center in Bloomington, with the Gauchos playing Carthage at 5 a.m. Pacific Time on Saturday. Santa Barbara's date with the Bobcats is set for 12:30 p.m. Pacific Time on Saturday, and the Gauchos will be back at it again the next morning, playing Indiana at 5 a.m. Pacific Time on Sunday. Santa Barbara's final game of the weekend against Salem is set for 7:30 a.m. Pacific Time on Sunday. All four games will be streamed live on overnght.com, a paid streaming platform. Live stats will be available for the Gauchos' game against Indiana at ucsbgauchos.com/WWPLiveStats.
