SANTA BARBARA, Calif. — Control was the word of the day for the No. 10 UC Santa Barbara Men's Water Polo team as they began Sunday's regular season finale against Cal State Fullerton. Thanks to results elsewhere in the conference, the Gauchos knew they controlled their own destiny in the hunt for a coveted first-round bye in The Big West Championship, and they took control of Sunday's match with a dominant first-half performance. Santa Barbara led, 9-2, at halftime, allowing Head Coach Wolf Wigo to rotate his team and prepare for potentially crucial situations in the upcoming conference tournament, while still holding on for a 14-11 win. Brock Zamanian, Billy Rankin, Griffin Pieretti and Ryan McManigal all celebrated their Senior Day with goals; two each from Zamanian, Rankin and Pieretti to join Danilo Dragovic as the team's joint-leading scorers in the match.
 
FROM HEAD COACH WOLF WIGO
"It was a great game for us, we had a good crowd, we got a great first half, really controlled the ball and played great defense," Wigo said. "Once again, Levi (Lentin) was really strong in the cage. We started seniors and subbed a lot in this game, so I was glad to have a big led in the first half, be able to sub liberally, get the whole team in and we finished out the game. It could have been a bigger score, but our goal was to control the first half, play well and do what we needed to do on senior day.
 
"Everyone is really excited that we got the two seed. Getting a bye is huge in this conference, and looking forward against Davis or Fullerton if they can pull off the upset."
 
"I think this season is a testament to this senior group. We started out with a lot of question marks, lost some key guys. You know, we lost three starters to the transfer portal, and a lot of people wrote us off. We were preseason fifth in the conference and we finished the regular season two, and a lot of that is the leadership of the seniors every day, coming to practice, working hard, pushing the guys and I'm happy for this team and the seniors especially."
 
HOW IT HAPPENED
None other than Zamanian, the man now tied for eighth on Santa Barbara's all-time career scorers list, got things started on Sunday, as the Gauchos and Titans traded opening goals. Landon Lassahn restored Santa Barbara's advantage, and Zamanian's second goal of the first quarter put the Gauchos on top for good. The Titans pulled one back, but Tyler Roller scored in the final minute to make it 4-2 at the end of the first quarter.
 
The second quarter decided the game, with Santa Barbara out-scoring Fullerton 5-0. Rankin scored twice in the frame, with individual tallies from Kai Ross, Pieretti and McManigal sandwiched between his two scores. Levi Lentin did his part as the anchor of the Gaucho defense, making six saves to just two goals allowed in the first half. At the interval, Santa Barbara led by a score of 9-2.
 
The Titans would not register their ninth goal of the game until there were two-and-a-half minutes left in the fourth quarter, by which time the Gauchos' total was up to 14. Still, the visitors did make things interesting with a big third quarter, scoring the first four goals out of halftime before Dragovic put home a crucial goal for Santa Barbara to stop the bleeding. The Titans did score a fifth time in the quarter, but again the Gauchos answered, Pieretti putting home a unique penalty shot which, because it had been called right before the buzzer sounded, saw just him and the Fullerton goalkeeper in the pool for a focused one-on-one duel. The Santa Barbara High School alum fittingly won the battle in his home water.
 
Goals from Camren Simoncelli and Charlie Johnson essentially put the game to rest early in the fourth quarter, though the Titans did score with 4:48 left on the clock, making it a 13-8 game at the time. Dragovic's second goal of the game put any notion of a Fullerton comeback to bed. The visitors remained six goals behind until there was just 2:27 left on the clock, and they were not within four until the game's final 18 seconds, though they did score two consolation goals in that span.
 
UP NEXT
With Sunday's win, the Gauchos finish Big West play with a 3-2 record and, thanks to their head-to-head win over UC Davis, the tiebreaker over the similarly 3-2 Aggies in the standings. While The Big West will not release the official bracket for this season's conference tournament until next week, after other teams have played all the non-conference games remaining on their schedule, the Gauchos are in line to receive the no. 2 seed and a first-round bye to the semifinals on Saturday, Nov. 22.