SANTA BARBARA, Calif. — The No. 19 UC Santa Barbara Women's Water Polo team (13-9, 0-2 Big West) was back at home for the first time since January on Friday, but their homecoming came with a challenge: a match against No. 3 Hawai'i (11-3, 1-0 Big West). The Gauchos hung tight with the Rainbow Wahine through three of the four quarters, but the second decided the game, with Hawai'i going on to win, 15-7. Imani Clemons scored a hat-trick to lead the Gauchos' offense.
 
HOW IT HAPPENED
Santa Barbara managed to contain everyone on Hawai'i's roster not named Bernadette Doyle in the first quarter, with Doyle the only scorer for the Rainbow Wahine. The only problem was she scored three times. Bella Mady dented the twine for Santa Barbara, a response that made the score 2-1 at the time, but the Gauchos trailed, 3-1, after the opening frame.
 
Hawai'i scored three more goals to start the second quarter before Clemons took advantage of a six-on-five opportunity to score her first for the Gauchos. While Santa Barbara was not able to turn that into a run before halftime, heading into the break down 8-2, the Blue and Gold started the second half strong.
 
Santa Barbara's defense got a stop on the opening possession, then Isabel Valaika fired home on the Gauchos' first trip down the pool in the third quarter, making a bid to seize the momentum. Hawai'i answered with a six-on-five goal and a five-meter penalty shot, but the Gauchos refused to go away. Annie Kuester slammed home an emphatic dunk of a goal at the back post to finish off a six-on-five opportunity, and Valaika scored her second goal of the quarter to put Santa Barbara back up, 3-2, in the frame.
 
But Hawai'i got another goal before the end of the third, and that more or less set the tone for the fourth quarter. The Gauchos managed to contain the Rainbow Wahine offense for the first two minutes of the final frame but could not break through themselves, and Hawai'i scored twice before Clemons tallied her second of the day to answer. She scored her third shortly afterwards, but by that time the score was 14-7 with under four minutes, unfortunately out of reach for the Gauchos.
 
UP NEXT
Santa Barbara gets to stay home for their next match, hosting No. 16 UC Davis at 12 noon on Sunday, March 9. The game will take place at Santa Barbara High School, where admission is free and open until the venue's capacity is reached. For those following from afar, live stats will be available at ucsbgauchos.com/WWPLiveStats.