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University of California, Santa Barbara

Team timeout at Harvard
6
UC Santa Barbara UCSB (7-4, 0-0 Big West)
9
Winner Harvard HU (4-1, 0-0 CWPA)
UC Santa Barbara UCSB
(7-4, 0-0 Big West)
6
Final
9
Harvard HU
(4-1, 0-0 CWPA)
Winner
Score By Periods
Team 1 2 3 4 F
UC Santa Barbara UCSB 1 0 2 3 6
Harvard HU 3 1 4 1 9

Game Recap: Women's Water Polo |

Gauchos’ Comeback Comes Up Short at Harvard

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — The No. 15 UC Santa Barbara Women's Water Polo team (7-4) mounted a fourth-quarter rally but was unable to come all the way back against No. 19 Harvard (4-1) on Friday evening, falling to the hosting Crimson, 9-6, in the first game of their four-match weekend in Massachusetts. Imani Clemons scored her second hat-trick of the season to lead the Santa Barbara offense.
 
HOW IT HAPPENED
Powerplays were the name of the game early on Friday, with four of the game's first five goals coming with a team up a player. Harvard scored the first two, then Clemons pulled one back for the Gauchos. Madison Walker also saved a five-meter penalty shot in the first quarter, but the opening frame finished 3-1 in favor of the hosts. The Crimson scored the only goal of the second quarter on another 6-on-5 play, taking a 4-1 lead into halftime.
 
Jojo Scheer fired home 30 seconds into the second half to pull a goal back for Santa Barbara, but again Harvard put in two of their own. Clemons scored her second of the day to make it 6-3, but the Crimson got two more goals before the end of the third quarter and entered the final eight minutes up, 8-3.
 
The Gauchos, having spent much of the first three quarters hitting the woodwork instead of the back of the net, finally out-scored their hosts in the final frame, though it would ultimately not be enough. Juju Amaral started the rally strong with a long-range top-corner-finder to cut the deficit to four goals, though Harvard would re-establish that margin a few minutes later. Things really got interesting for the Blue and Gold after Annie Kuester finally got her breakthrough with two and a half minutes left. Harvard turned the ball over immediately afterwards, and 20 seconds after Kuester's goal, Clemons finished her hat-trick to make it a three-goal game. Unfortunately, that would be all the scoring for Santa Barbara on the evening.
 
UP NEXT
The Gauchos are back in action with two more games from Cambridge on Saturday, taking on No. 21 Brown at 8:40 a.m. Pacific Time and Villanova at 2:10 p.m. from Harvard's Blodgett Pool. Both games will be live on ESPN+.
 
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