SANTA BARBARA, Calif. — The No. 19 UC Santa Barbara Women's Water Polo team (13-8, 0-1 Big West) returns home for a pair of key Big West matchups this weekend, hosting No. 3 Hawai'i (10-3, 0-0 Big West) on Friday evening and No. 16 UC Davis (9-11, 0-1 Big West) on Sunday. The Rainbow Wahine are one of three teams that collected a first-place vote in The Big West Preseason Coaches' Poll, while the Aggies were picked just two spots ahead of the Gauchos in the same ranking.
 
LAST TIME OUT
Santa Barbara completed their tournament tour and opened Big West play last week, winning a pair of matches at the Claremont Convergence last Friday but falling to Long Beach State on the road on Saturday. The Gauchos did show some good fight in the second half against the Beach, with freshman phenom Bella Mady continuing to shine in her first year in Santa Barbara. The Canadian has a team-high 39 goals on just 77 shots this season, a .506 shooting percentage. Only center Imani Clemons has put a higher percentage of her shots in the net for the Gauchos. Mady scored three times in Long Beach on Saturday and had six goals over the two games on Friday as well.
 
SCOUTING THE RAINBOW WAHINE
Hawai'i is now into a second week at No. 3 in the national rankings, though they have not played a game since the Feb. 23 win over UCLA that helped get them there. With just 13 games played on the season, the Rainbow Wahine have the fewest minutes in the pool of any Big West squad, though they have made the most of them, with 10 wins already.
 
Hawai'i has a freshman phenom of their own, 2024 Olympian Ema Vernoux, who has 43 goals through the Wahine's 13 games to rank second in The Big West for goals per game. Her teammate Jordan Wedderburn ranks seventh in that same category, having scored 30 so far on the season. In goal, the Wahine have Daisy Logtens, who ranks second in the conference in goals-against average (9.70), behind only Santa Barbara's Ava Donleavy (9.08). In save percentage, Logtens ranks third (.459) to Donleavy's first (.473).
 
SCOUTING THE AGGIES
UC Davis did play last weekend, falling to UC San Diego on Saturday and Stanford on Sunday to extend their losing streak to four games. The Aggies will look to snap that skid at CSUN on Friday before coming to town for their Sunday meeting with the Gauchos.

In classic fashion, the Aggies' top scorer is their center, Bridget Miller, who has 35 goals for Davis on a .574 shooting percentage. She has scored six goals over her last three games, including three against Indiana. In attacker Gianna Nocetti and defender Chelsea Johnson, the Aggies have two 20-20 club players, with 20 goals and 20 assists on the season already. In Nocetti, Davis has a speedster to rival Santa Barbara's Isabel Valaika in sprints. Nocetti is the only Big West player with more sprint wins (48 to just nine losses) than Valaika's 33.
 
WHEN AND WHERE TO WATCH
Both of this weekend's games will be held at Santa Barbara High School, where attendance is free and open until the venue's capacity is reached. Start times are set for 5 p.m. against Hawai'i on Friday and 12 noon against Davis on Sunday. For fans following from afar, both games will have live stats at ucsbgauchos.com/WWPLiveStats.