SANTA BARBARA, Calif. — In the just-under-four years since men's water polo returned to The Big West, UC Santa Barbara student-athletes have earned 10 Big West Player of the Week awards. Four of those have come this season and all have been won by one Gaucho: freshman attacker Luigi Canepa. The stellar Serbian picked up his fourth weekly honor of his rookie campaign on Wednesday, becoming the first student-athlete to earn the title four times in one season. Only one Big West student-athlete has won more conference player of the week honors across his career in its current iteration, and it is just one more than the Serbian's current total.
 
Canepa leads The Big West in scoring by both volume (71 total goals) and efficiency (3.2 goals per game) and has done so for effectively the entire season. After missing the Gauchos' conference opener with an illness, he proved himself fit as a fiddle in his return to the pool on Friday night. The Belgrade native scored six goals and assisted four more for his first collegiate 10-point performance in Santa Barbara's 14-8 win over then-No. 8 UC San Diego in La Jolla, making himself involved in 10 of his team's 14 goals. It was his eighth time scoring five or more goals in one game this season, all of which came against top-20 opponents. The performance also powered the Gauchos to their best win of the season in terms of defeated opponent's ranking, setting Santa Barbara in a four-way tie for second place in The Big West standings two weekends into conference play.
 
Canepa and the Gauchos return to Santa Barbara for their next game, hosting preseason conference favorites No. 9 Long Beach State at Santa Barbara High School on Saturday, Oct. 24. The game will begin at 12 noon, and admission is free and open until the venue's capacity is reached. Fans can also catch all the action by watching live on ESPN+ or by following live stats at ucsbgauchos.com/MWP_Stats.