CAMBRIDGE, Mass. —  The No. 15 UC Santa Barbara Women's Water Polo team (9-4) had to work hard for it but earned a second perfect Saturday in as many weekends, defeating No. 21 Brown (2-4, 0-1 CWPA) in overtime, 14-13, before comfortably beating Villanova (5-5), 17-11, on the second day of the Crimson Classic. Annie Kuester scored Santa Barbara's game-winning goal with just eight seconds remaining in overtime against the Bears, then freshman phenom Bella Mady led the Gauchos past the Wildcats with a five-goal haul. Goalkeeper Ava Donleavy and played some inspired water polo as well; she made eight steals to go along with nine saves against Brown and then stopped four Villanova penalty shots as part of a career-high 14-save performance in the afternoon game.

FROM INTERIM HEAD COACH EMMA MYALL
"We had a really good day playing Brown and going into overtime," Myall said. "We finally finished a game and the energy level was amazing. And then Villanova was great, we got to play a lot of bodies and we were finishing together as a team."

GAUCHOS 14, No. 21 BROWN 13
Santa Barbara's morning match against the Bears was certainly a test of resolve as the Gauchos struggled to get going on offense while Brown was simultaneously taking advantage of seemingly every Santa Barbara foul. The Bears scored their first three goals from either a 6-on-5 opportunity or a five-meter penalty shot and led, 3-1, with just under four minutes left to play in the first quarter. However, with two goals from Juju Amaral plus one each from Morgan Hoffman and Isabel Valaika in the quarter, the Gauchos were up a goal as the seconds ticked down, but Brown scored to tie the game and swing the momentum back their way.
 
The Bears scored the only goal of the second quarter to take a 5-4 lead into halftime, and they stretched that lead to 6-4 by scoring first in the third quarter. Molly Souza scored to stop Brown's scoring run, but the teams just traded goals from there. The Bears re-established their two-goal lead, then Valaika cut it back down to one;
Brown scored again, but Imani Clemons answered; another Bears goal was followed by Jojo Scheer scoring. Ultimately, the Bears scored one last time in the third to win the quarter, 5-4, and enter the final eight minutes of regulation with a 10-8 advantage.
 
The fourth quarter belonged to the never-say-die Gauchos though, with Valaika and Amaral scoring inside the first two and a half minutes to tie the game at 10-10. Even after Brown re-took the lead, 12-10, with four and a half minutes to play, Santa Barbara refused to go away. Amaral scored on a five-meter penalty shot with just over a minute left, then Christina Mullane tied the game with 22 seconds left, forcing overtime.
 
Brown scored first in the extra period, but Clemons tallied her second goal of the game to tie things back up. Then, with eight seconds left in overtime, a Bear shot ricochetted off the crossbar and out to the Gauchos, putting Santa Barbara through on goal. Kuester finished the breakaway with an emphatic shot into the top corner, putting the Blue and Gold back on top for the first time since the first quarter, and this time for good.
 
GAUCHOS 17, VILLANOVA 11
Saturday afternoon's win over the Wildcats was a more straightforward affair, with the Gauchos never trailing. Kuester scored on the game's first possession, kicking off a five-goal first quarter for Santa Barbara. Amaral, Clemons and Scheer got in on the action as well, with Clemons denting the twine twice in the frame. She would finish her hat-trick before halftime, one of four scorers in the second quarter for Santa Barbara. The Gauchos led 5-2 after the first and thanks to Mullane, Mady, Clemons and Amaral, went into halftime with a 9-5 advantage.
 
After out-scoring Villanova, 4-3, in the second quarter, Santa Barbara repeated the trick in both the third and fourth quarters on Saturday afternoon. Mady had a hat-trick in the third quarter alone, three of her five goals in the game, with Valaika scoring in the frame as well. Mady completed her five-goal haul with the first goal of the fourth quarter. It was only freshmen scoring in the fourth for the Gauchos, with Morgan Hoffman capitalizing on a 6-on-5 opportunity and Loretta Hovey converting a five-meter penalty before Lainey Weintre celebrated her birthday by scoring the final goal of the game, capping off Santa Barbara's 17-11 win.
 
While there were goals abound in the game, Donleavy had a remarkable day in net for the Gauchos; Villanova was awarded seven five-meter penalty shots but scored just three of them. Her 14 total saves against the Wildcats are a new career high.
 
UP NEXT
Santa Barbara concludes their weekend at the Crimson Classic on Sunday, facing a No. 8 Princeton team that is coming off back-to-back losses to Harvard and UC San Diego. The Gauchos and Tigers will hit the water at 7:20 a.m. Pacific Time from Harvard's Blodgett Pool in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Fans can catch all the action live on ESPN+.