SANTA CLARA, Calif. — The No. 16 UC Santa Barbara Men's Water Polo team heads to the Bay Area for their final weekend before conference play begins, playing a trio of games against Santa Clara, LMU and San Jose State. The Gauchos will be looking for revenge on the Broncos after they got one over on Santa Barbara two weekends ago. The same could be said of the Lions and the Spartans, both of whom defeated the Gauchos in meetings earlier this season.
 
LAST TIME OUT
The Gauchos are coming off their best result of the season, a 14-13 win over then-No. 10 Pacific in their home opener, powered by clutch performances from Brock Zamanian and Danilo Dragovic in the field and Levi Lentin in the cage. Zamanian had a game-high five goals on the day, while Dragovic added four more. Lentin made eight saves, bringing his career total over the 500 mark, just the eighth man in program history to hit such heights.
 
GAUCHOS TO KNOW
Dragovic's four-goal haul last weekend brought him to a career-best 42 on the season, which also happens to lead The Big West. Not only that, the Montenegrin leads the conference in total points, with 51. Sam McKenzie, Charlie Johnson and Brock Zamanian have all joined Dragovic in the 30-goal club for Santa Barbara as well. Johnson has been something of a phenom in his freshman season, while Zamanian has been the model of consistency over the last three years; this is already his third consecutive 30-goal campaign.
 
SCOUTING THE BRONCOS
No. 15 Santa Clara beat the Gauchos for the first time ever the last time the teams met, in Los Angeles on Sept. 21. A pair of Broncos, Ricardo de Simon and Luke Baird, tallied a pair of goals in that 11-10 win for Santa Clara; Henry Engs had a goal and three assists, and Imme van der Schaaf had a goal and two assists in that game.
 
SCOUTING THE LIONS
No. 11 LMU beat the Gauchos, 16-12, in Los Angeles on Sept. 13, though that was the sixth game in three days for Santa Barbara. Former Gaucho Nico Furneaux scored four times and added an assist in that game, while Abel Romero Corbalan had three goals and two helpers. Tommaso Baldineti also had two goals and a trio of assists. Santa Barbara will look to contain those three in the rematch. They will also look to do better at beating goalie Roberto Barrera Sanchez, who made 10 saves in the first meeting.
 
SCOUTING THE SPARTANS
No. 6 San Jose State has been one of the top teams in the country all season long, and they provided a preview of just how good they would be when they beat the Gauchos, 10-3, on Aug. 29, the season's opening day. Mitchell Keightly had three goals in that game and his brother Sam had two; Sam currently leads the team with 14 on the season. Yes, 14 goals are enough to lead the No. 6 team in scoring because the Spartans have played just seven countable games. By comparison, Santa Barbara will have played 23 by the time they meet San Jose State on Saturday.
 
WHEN AND WHERE TO WATCH
The Gauchos open their weekend at Santa Clara's Sullivan Aquatics Center on Friday, taking on the Broncos at 2:30 p.m. They will head over to San Jose State's SRC Pool on Saturday, beginning their day against LMU at 9 a.m. on Saturday and concluding the weekend against San Jose State at 4:30 p.m. Saturday. All three games will have live stats, while Friday's game against the Broncos will be streamed on ESPN+.