IRVINE, Calif. — The No. 18 UC Santa Barbara Women's Water Polo team (16-12, 2-5 Big West) heads to Orange County for the 2025 Big West Championship on Friday, opening their tournament run with a quarterfinal matchup against the hosts, No. 7 UC Irvine (14-12, 5-2 Big West). The Gauchos come into the weekend as the No. 6 seed, while the Anteaters hold the No. 3 seed.
 
LAST TIME OUT
The last time these two teams met was in Irvine a month ago, and Santa Barbara gave UCI a run for their money before eventually falling, 13-11. Annie Kuester was an unstoppable force for the Gauchos, scoring five goals in a performance that wound up netting her The Big West Player of the Week award. Three of her five goals either tied the game or gave Santa Barbara a lead as the teams went back and forth.
 
Kuester has been the Gauchos' top goal-scorer all season long, netting 58 and assisting 21 more to record a team-high 79 points in the regular season, good for ninth in The Big West. Imani Clemons scored four goals in each of the Gauchos' last two games and is one away from 50 on the year, while freshman Bella Mady has hit the ground running with 44 goals in her first year of collegiate water polo. Christina Mullane comes into the tournament shortly after one of the best games of her career, a three-goal, three-assist game on Senior Day against CSUN; she has been balanced as always with 30 goals and 23 assists on the year. But no Gaucho has been more of a playmaker than Juju Amaral, whose 50 assists rank second in The Big West.
 
In goal, Ava Donleavy has established herself as one of the top netminders in the conference. After a 17-save Senior Day and 14 saves in the regular-season finale at UC San Diego, Donleavy now leads The Big West with 205 saves on the season and ranks second in both save percentage (.485) and goals-against average (9.57).
 
SCOUTING THE ANTEATERS
The Gauchos had UC Irvine on the ropes multiple times in their regular-season meeting, but they will have to be at their best to do it again on Friday. The Anteaters may have finished the regular season with back-to-back losses, but those came against No. 5 California in Berkeley and against No. 6 Long Beach State in a rivalry game. Prior to those defeats, they took No. 3 Hawai'i to overtime in Manoa and handled UC Davis, 17-13.
 
Lauren Hett scored three times against the Gauchos in the regular-season meeting; she has been one of the best offensive players in the conference this season, with 61 goals on the season, good for fifth in The Big West. Brooke Hourigan has set up plenty of those goals, with 36 assists on the year, five of them against Santa Barbara.
 
But while Irvine's offense is strong, the Gaucho offense was able to break down the Anteater defense and beat goalie Rachel Kirchner 11 times. On the season, UC Irvine is allowing an average of 12.15 goals per game. In their final five games of the year, they did not hold an opponent to single digits. Meanwhile, the Gauchos are 14-4 when scoring double-digit goals this season.  
 
WHEN AND WHERE TO WATCH
Santa Barbara and UCI are set to get underway at 4:30 p.m. from Irvine's Anteater Aquatics Complex on Friday. Tickets are on sale now at ucsbgauchos.com/tickets, and live stats will be available at ucsbgauchos.com/WWPLiveStats. The winner of Friday's game will go on to play either No. 2 seed Long Beach State or No. 7 seed CSUN on Saturday, April 26 at 2 p.m.