LOS ANGELES — The No. 17 UC Santa Barbara Men's Water Polo team will join 15 other top water polo programs at the Overnght MPSF Invitational in Los Angeles this weekend, including seven of the nation's top 10 programs. The three-day tournament begins on Friday for the Gauchos, who face No. 3 California in their opener at 3 p.m. They will then progress through a bracket which includes 12 of the top 15 teams in the country, with two games on Saturday and a final contest on Sunday.  
 
LAST TIME OUT
The four matches will actually be something of a rest for Santa Barbara, who played six games in three days last weekend, going 3-3. They collected a win over Whittier but a close, golden-goal overtime loss at Pepperdine on Thursday, took a loss to No. 4 Stanford before a comfortable win at Cal Lutheran on Friday and a comfortable win over No. 18 Brown dampened by a tough loss at No. 13 LMU on Saturday.
 
GAUCHOS TO KNOW
The Gauchos' offense was free-scoring and balanced last week, with four different players scoring in double digits and two more with nine goals to their names. Sam McKenzie was one of those nine-goal scorers and finished with a team-high haul of 16 points across the six games thanks to seven assists. Freshman phenom Charlie Johnson was not far behind, scoring nine and assisting six. Brock Zamanian, Danilo Dragovic, Billy Rankin and Landon Lassahn made up the double-digit club, with Zamanian's 11 goals leading all comers despite the veteran getting a game off. Sean O'Brien was the team's top assister, with nine.
 
SCOUTING THE OPPONENTS
No. 3 California comes into the weekend with a 7-0 record, the no. 3 spot in the national rankings and the no. 3 seed in the tournament. Last weekend in Berkeley, the Golden Bears took down No. 9 Pacific, No. 11 UC Davis and No. 6 San Jose State all in order, never scoring less than 10 goals and allowing more than 10 just once. Freshman goalkeeper Aran Pina is a man in form for California, making double-digit saves in all three of the wins and being named Mountain Pacific Sports Federation Newcomer of the Week on Monday.
 
No. 8 UC Irvine holds the no. 6 seed in the weekend's tournament and enters with a 6-2 record, their only losses coming against No. 1 UCLA and No. 2 USC last weekend. Neither of those defeats were blowouts either, with the Anteaters within one of the reigning National Champion Bruins at halftime of that game and within three of the Trojans heading into the final quarter. Luka Krstic was pivotal in both of those efforts with five goals across the two games and was named Big West Player of the Week on Wednesday.
 
No. 13 LMU also saw players earn conference acclaim this week, with Tommaso Baldinetti and goalkeeper Roberto Barrera Sanchez earning West Coast Conference Player of the Week and Newcomer of the Week, respectively. Those awards come after the Lions beat the Gauchos for the first time since 2009 on Saturday, one of two ranked wins for LMU that day. The Lions enter the weekend with a 3-2 record and the no. 11 seed in the 16-team field.
 
The rest of the field includes all three of California's Division-I MPSF conference-mates, No. 1 seed UCLA, No. 2 seed USC and No. 4 seed Stanford, as well as three other Big West teams, No. 5 seed Long Beach State, No. 8 seed UC Davis and No. 10 seed UC San Diego. No. 7 seed Princeton is the lone team from outside of California in the field, with LMU's WCC conference-mates No. 9 seed Pepperdine, No. 12 seed California Baptist and No. 13 seed Santa Clara also in the field. Two Division III programs, No. 15 seed Claremont-Mudd-Scripps and No. 16 seed Redlands, round out the attendees.
 
FOLLOW ALONG
The tournament is co-hosted by UCLA and USC, and Santa Barbara begins their weekend at USC's Uytengsu Aquatics Center on Friday, taking on California at 3 p.m. Depending on the result of that game, the Gauchos will then face either UC Irvine or LMU on Saturday at 12:30 p.m. Depending on the result of that game, the Gauchos will face one of USC, Princeton, UC San Diego or Claremont-Mudd-Scripps on Saturday evening, before rounding out the weekend with one game on Sunday. For the most up-to-date information on the Gauchos' game times, venue and opponents this weekend, fans can check ucsbgauchos.com or the team's social media accounts. All of the weekend's matches will be streamed live on overnght.com and will all have live stats available.