LOS ANGELES — The No. 17 UC Santa Barbara Men's Water Polo team came so close to upsetting the No. 3 California Golden Bears on Friday, but close only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades and neither of those things are allowed in the pool. Thanks to a big second quarter led by Brock Zamanian, the Gauchos were up at halftime, 9-8, the first time all season that the Golden Bears have trailed at the break. Sam McKenzie and Luke Redoutey also had great games, finishing with a hat-trick apiece, but it was not enough to fend off a late Cal surge and Santa Barbara fell, 16-14.
 
HOW IT HAPPENED
It was a hectic start to things, as the Bears scored on their first possession but McKenzie answered less than a minute later. The scores stayed tied for all of 20 seconds before Cal took the lead again, and this time they held it. A powerplay goal with three and a half minutes left in the first made it 3-1 Golden Bears, but Landon Lassahn answered with a 6-on-5 goal himself a minute later, as the scoring kicked into high gear again. Cal went up, 4-2, then Camren Simoncelli cut it to 4-3 seconds later. The Gauchos had a chance to tie the score with a five-meter penalty shot but were denied by the Golden Bears' goalie, and Cal made it a 5-3 margin just nine seconds before the buzzer ended the quarter.
 
In the second, Santa Barbara flipped the script, with goals from Zamanian, McKenzie and Charlie Johnson giving the Gauchos a 6-5 lead in a matter of two minutes. That lead became 7-5 thanks to a Zamanian powerplay goal, but Cal came back and tied things with over two minutes before halftime. The teams traded goals to make it 8-8, with Danilo Dragovic the scorer for Santa Barbara. Then, with 19 seconds before the break, Kai Ross drew another penalty for the Gauchos and Ryan McManigal fired it home to put Santa Barbara ahead by one at the break.
 
They led by that same margin heading into the final quarter after each team scored three in the third. For the Gauchos, it was Dragovic and Redoutey denting the twine, Redoutey doing so twice in the final 70 seconds of the frame, including one just two seconds before the horn.
 
The fourth quarter was set up to be a back-and-forth one, and that is exactly how it played out, with the teams still deadlocked by the final minute. Cal had tied the scores at 12 on a penalty shot less than a minute into the frame, but 20 seconds later, Redoutey gave the Gauchos their lead back with his third goal of the day. As the clock ticked under three minutes, the Golden Bears tied the game again, but again the Gauchos responded in less than a minute, this time McKenzie finishing his hat-trick to put Santa Barbara back in front. Cal scored to tie things at 14 with 1:39 to play, then took their first and only lead of the fourth quarter with 57 seconds left. Zamanian drew a foul to give Santa Barbara a 6-on-5 opportunity to try and tie the game, but they were denied by a crucial block. Cal scored their final goal of the game with just a second left on the clock to make the final score 16-14.
 
UP NEXT
The Gauchos will return to USC's Uytengsu Aquatics Center for the second day of the Overnght MPSF Invitational, where they will face the loser of No. 8 UC Irvine versus No. 13 LMU at 12:30 p.m. in the first of two games on the day. All of this weekend's action will be live streamed on overnght.com, with live stats available at ucsbgauchos.com/MWP_Stats.