IRVINE, Calif. — The No. 18 UC Santa Barbara Women's Water Polo team (13-11, 0-4 Big West) is back in Orange County for two more road games this weekend, taking on Concordia Irvine (3-19, 0-6 Golden Coast) on Friday and Cal State Fullerton (11-14, 0-4 Big West) on Saturday. The Gauchos will look for reigning Big West Player of the Week Annie Kuester to stay hot as they go in pursuit of their first conference win of the season.
 
LAST TIME OUT
Santa Barbara will also look to turn strong performances into results. They hung with No. 7 UC Irvine all game long last Friday before ultimately falling, 13-11, in their last game. Kuester was unstoppable against the Anteaters, racking up five goals and drawing four exclusion fouls in the game. She has also torched Cal State Fullerton in Santa Barbara's first two meetings with the Titans this season, scoring six goals across the two games. Freshman Bella Mady has also made Titan slaying a habit in her first season of collegiate water polo; the Canadian scored twice in both games, adding an assist in the Gauchos' Feb. 1 win. At the other end of the pool, Ava Donleavy allowed just five goals in her one game against the Titans this season, making nine saves. She made eight against UC Irvine last weekend and comes into this week as the second-ranked goalie in The Big West by goals-against average, conceding just 9.63 per game.
 
SCOUTING THE GOLDEN EAGLES
Despite being a Division II school, Concordia Irvine has had plenty of scraps with Division I programs this season, including some water polo powerhouses like UCLA and Fresno State. Arguably the Golden Eagles' best performances of the year have come against Cal State Fullerton and then-No. 23 Villanova, both Division I foes whom CUI held under 10 goals, though falling by 9-7 and 9-8 scorelines, respectively. The Golden Eagles have scored as many as 15 goals against a Division I opponent this season, doing so in a 28-15 loss to UC Irvine. They also hung 14 on Pacific earlier in the year.
 
The Golden Eagle to watch is their freshman Hungarian attacker, Anna Tyukasz, who has 51 goals on the season. She has scored 33 of those goals against Division I opposition, including five against Cal State Fullerton and three against Long Beach State on the season's opening day. No team has held her scoreless since Feb. 1. Next on CUI's scoring leaderboard is speedster Hannah Edwards, who has 27 goals and is the Golden Eagles' primary sprinter, winning 32 of 48 so far.
 
SCOUTING THE TITANS
Cal State Fullerton is also looking for its first Big West win of the season after falling to CSUN, 12-6. The loss ended a two-game winning streak for the Titans after they had beaten Macalester and CUI the weekend prior, but Fullerton has not beaten a Division I opponent since Iona on Feb. 15, losing 13 in a row since then.
 
The Titans did come within a goal of knocking off the Gauchos back on Feb. 1, with Santa Barbara holding on to a 9-8 victory. Freshman utility Emme Doube-MacLeod scored four of Fullerton's eight goals in that game and, with 36 goals and 23 assists on the season, leads the Titans in total points. The only Titan with more goals is senior utility Destiny Hernandez, with 38. She has three goals and three assists across the two games between Santa Barbara and Fullerton this year. In both of those games, goalkeeper Annabelle Sherman had more saves than goals against, making 20 stops across the two contests. Like Donleavy, she is one of the top goalies in the conference, leading The Big West in total saves and ranking fourth in goals-against average.
 
WHEN AND WHERE TO WATCH
The Gauchos and Golden Eagles will face off at 12:30 p.m. on Friday from the William Woollett Jr. Aquatics Center in Irvine. The game will be live streamed through the Team1Sports, which requires a subscription, and live stats and play-by-play updates will be available for free through ucsbgauchos.com. Santa Barbara's match against Cal State Fullerton will take place at the Fullerton College Pool and begin at 12 p.m. on Saturday. That match will not be live streamed, but will have free live stats and play-by-play updates at ucsbgauchos.com/WWPLiveStats.