Skip To Main Content

University of California, Santa Barbara

Clemons, Kuester and Mady in team huddle pregame
Jeff Liang
11
UC Santa Barbara UCSB (16-12, 2-5 BW)
13
Winner UC San Diego UCSD (15-13, 4-3 BW)
UC Santa Barbara UCSB
(16-12, 2-5 BW)
11
Final
13
UC San Diego UCSD
(15-13, 4-3 BW)
Winner
Score By Periods
Team 1 2 3 4 F
UC Santa Barbara UCSB 4 3 1 3 11
UC San Diego UCSD 4 4 3 2 13

Game Recap: Women's Water Polo |

Kuester and Clemons Combine for Seven, Gauchos Finish as Big West’s No. 6 Seed

LA JOLLA, Calif. — The No. 19 UC Santa Barbara Women's Water Polo team (16-12, 2-5 Big West) concluded the 2025 regular season with a Friday night match at No. 13 UC San Diego (15-13, 4-3 Big West). The Gauchos' senior stars were out again, as Imani Clemons scored four goals for the second game in a row and Annie Kuester notched her 11th hat-trick of the season, but the Tritons took the game by a 13-11 score. With the result, Santa Barbara enters next weekend's Big West Championship as the No. 6 seed, matching up with the No. 3 seed and hosts, UC Irvine.
 
HOW IT HAPPENED
There were goals aplenty at UC San Diego's Canyonview Aquatic Center early on Friday night, with each team scoring four in the first quarter. After the Tritons took a 2-0 lead, the Gauchos roared back and went ahead, 3-2, thanks to tallies from Kuester, Bella Mady and Isabel Valaika. The hosts tied the scores back up, Clemons gave Santa Barbara their lead back, and then the home side scored again to level things at 4-4 after the first eight minutes.
 
The frantic pace continued into the second quarter, with the teams combining to score four times inside the first 90 seconds. Only one of those was a Gaucho goal though, from Kuester, and the Tritons made their lead as large as 8-5 after just over two minutes of the quarter. Goals from Clemons and Kuester brought Santa Barbara back into the game as their defense shut down the Tritons for the remainder of the quarter, and it was just a one-goal deficit, 8-7, at halftime.
 
The Gauchos did not reduce their arrears in the third quarter though, as the Tritons scored the first three goals of the second half while Santa Barbara got just one in the period, trailing 11-8 heading into the fourth. Hadde Hall scored to get the Gauchos closer, but the Tritons had a 13-9 lead with just under two and a half minutes left to play. Still, Santa Barbara rallied late. Clemons scored her fourth of the day with just over a minute left, and Juju Amaral added a tally before the buzzer, though with just 11 seconds to go at that point, the rally came up short.
 
UP NEXT
The Gauchos will head to the campus of UC Irvine for The Big West Championship, beginning with a quarterfinal matchup against the hosting Anteaters on Friday, April 25. The start time for that game is still to be announced.
 
Print Friendly Version