SANTA BARBARA, Calif. — A one-goal game for the No. 10 UC Santa Barbara Men's Water Polo team is nothing new, but for just the second time in their last five such affairs, the Gauchos were on the losing end of the drama, falling to No. 16 UC Irvine, 10-9. The loss comes despite the best efforts of Danilo Dragovic, who was involved in the majority of Santa Barbara's goals with four scores and an assist, and Levi Lentin, who made double-digit saves for the second game in a row.   
 
FROM HEAD COACH WOLF WIGO
"We knew Irvine was a much better team than their ranking and we definitely did not overlook them, they are a strong team," Wigo said. "The Big West is really wide open, and these guys are as good as any in the conference. I didn't think we played a bad game; we didn't play a great game, we didn't get any lucky breaks, they got a couple lucky tips and rebounds and we didn't get them. In a one-goal game, that can make the difference, unfortunately. We could have played a little better, I thought we played good defense, Levi had a great game, Danilo had a great game, we had a lot of great team moments, but we just came up short."
 
HOW IT HAPPENED
The teams were never more than two goals away from each other on the scoreboard, but it was UC Irvine that scored the first two of the game to take a lead that the Gauchos were never able to wrestle away. Not that Santa Barbara did not try to do just that. Dragovic scored to cut the lead in half shortly after the Anteaters' second, but more importantly, the Gaucho defense kept the visitors in check after Irvine scored on the first possession of the game.
 
The second quarter was quite the battle, with goals from Dragovic and Brock Zamanian erasing what was a 3-1 Anteater lead as the two-minute mark approached. When Irvine scored to re-take the lead, Dragovic completed his hat-trick to re-level the scores. However, a buzzer-beating Irvine goal gave the visitors a 5-4 lead at halftime.
 
That lead became 6-4 when the Anteaters scored the first goal after halftime, but like in the second quarter, the Gauchos erased that deficit with back-to-back scores, this time from Sam McKenzie and Luke Redoutey. It was then more trading goals, with the Anteaters going up, 7-6, only for Dragovic to tie things at seven. The Anteaters went up, 8-7, at the end of the third quarter, but McKenzie scored on the Gauchos' first possession of the fourth quarter to tie the game back up.
 
UC Irvine re-took the lead shortly after, but it took three and a half minutes before either team scored again. When the next goal came, it was from the visitors, putting them ahead by a 10-8 margin. McKenzie completed his hat-trick less than 30 seconds later, giving the Gauchos three minutes to find an equalizer, but they were not able to find that goal. In a frustrating trend, Santa Barbara had eight shots hit the post Saturday afternoon, including back-to-back clangs off the iron from Dragovic and Kai Ross in the final quarter.
 
UP NEXT
The Gauchos will now set out on their final road trip of the regular season, starting with a visit to Long Beach State next Saturday, Oct. 25. That game is set to take place under the lights, starting at 7 p.m.