LONG BEACH, Calif. — The UC Santa Barbara Women's Water Polo team (1-19) faced The Big West's top team, No. 6 Hawai'i (14-5), for a second time this season in Friday's Big West Quarterfinals. The Gauchos improved on their first matchup with the Rainbow Wahine, scoring two more goals, but still fell to the conference's No. 1 overall seed, 18-6.
 
Redshirt senior Cami Mras capped her UC Santa Barbara career with one final goal, while Eliza Harlow put a bow on her tremendous rookie campaign by scoring twice in the match. With 17 scores on the season, Harlow led Santa Barbara's freshmen and was third on the team as a whole. Fellow freshman Gigi Rimlinger accumulated most of her points with assists this season, but she punched in a goal in her first Big West Championship appearance to bring her season points total to 20.
 
HOW IT HAPPENED
A pair of five-meter penalties for Hawai'i were not the start the Gauchos would have been looking for, as the regular-season champs scored the first five goals of the game. Harlow answered back by scoring her two goals within 75 seconds of each other. She tallied once with 19 seconds left in the first quarter, then scored the first goal of the second quarter, just 45 seconds in. Rimlinger added her goal to the tally with 1:23 left before halftime, but Hawai'i led, 9-3, at the break.
 
The third quarter was Santa Barbara's best offensively, with the Gauchos putting home three goals. In the final four minutes of the frame, Mras, Miranda Salinger and Brynn Tully all scored. Were it not for a Hawai'i goal in the final 10 seconds, it would have been a 3-1 stretch to finish the third for the Gauchos.
 
Unfortunately, Santa Barbara was unable to score in the fourth and the Rainbow Wahine added four more for a final score of 18-6.