LA JOLLA, Calif. — The No. 15 UC Santa Barbara Men's Water Polo team is jumping right into the deep end, opening its 2026 campaign with six matches in three days at college water polo's premier opening weekend event — UC San Diego's Triton Invitational. The field includes both of last year's national finalists, UCLA and USC, with the Gauchos set to face the No. 2 Trojans in their final match of the weekend. Santa Barbara will also face No. 4 Cal on Saturday, with games against McKendree, Occidental and Mercyhurst on the docket. But first, the Gauchos will help make history, as they open the weekend taking on No. 20 Saint Mary's in what will be the Gaels' first-ever match.
 
GET TO KNOW THE GAUCHOS
Santa Barbara rode a veteran core to a second-place finish in The Big West and a conference semifinal appearance in 2025. Star attackers Brock Zamanian and Danilo Dragovic were both All-Big West First Team honorees, as was goalkeeper Levi Lentin, with Zamanian and Lentin both garnering All-America honors as well.
 
But none of that trio are back for 2026, nor is All-Big West Honorable Mention Luke Redoutey. However, Santa Barbara's top returning scorer from 2025 was The Big West Freshman of the Year, Charlie Johnson. Camren Simoncelli returns after joining Johnson on the All-Big West Freshman Team with a 30-goal campaign, and fellow center Kai Ross is back after a 30-goal haul of his own. Add team captains Landon Lassahn and Finn Genc and the Gauchos have their new core. All three goalkeepers are returners as well, and all three — Wyatt Pieretti, Haakon Lacy and Finn Byrne — saw gametime during the 2025 season. Tyler Roller and Oliver Sherwood will look to build on strong rookie seasons as well, and Santa Barbara native Sean O'Brien is back for a fifth year, adding a seasoned presence. The Gauchos also retain Thomas Colpo, who had eight goals in just 12 appearances in his first season in Blue and Gold.
 
Sean Keane and Jake Reinke are technically rookies this season but spent 2025 training with the team as freshmen. There are also eight true freshmen and two transfers on this year's squad. Honolulu native Dylan Morris joins the Gauchos after two years at Orange Coast College, while Brazilian Fellipe Resende's water polo journey brings him to Santa Barbara after stops at the University of Toronto and San Jose State. Freshman Luigi Canepa comes to the Gauchos after playing youth water polo with VK Partizan in his hometown of Belgrade, Serbia, and Luka Spasic has made the journey west from his hometown of Chicago. The remaining six freshmen — Sloan Brown, Dash D'Ambrosia, Kyle Franks, Preston Bouch, Noah Loo and Hayden Tully — are from California.
 
SCOUTING THE OPPONENTS
No. 20 Saint Mary's has not played a game in its history yet, but the Gaels begin their inaugural season in the national rankings. Their roster is largely international, with four Italians, three Australians, two South Africans, a Canadian, a Spaniard and a New Zealander joining one Oregonian and nine Californians to make up the program's first-ever squad. After the Gaels and Gauchos make history with the former's first-ever match, Saint Mary's will go on to face No. 2 USC, No. 1 UCLA and No. 7 Long Beach State as part of their first weekend in intercollegiate water polo.
 
McKendree finished 2025 with an 11-13 record and were picked to finish fifth in the seven-team Western Water Polo Association Preseason Coaches Poll. They will look for French attacker Armand Le Goff to continue his form from 2025, when he became just the fifth Bearcat to earn All-America honors, being named to the Division II All-America First Team. Le Goff scored 85 goals and assisted 40 more for the Bearcats, also earning himself All-WWPA First Team acclaim.
 
No. 4 Cal will not be in action on Friday, so the Gauchos will get to play a role in a second season-opener when they meet the Bears on Saturday. Cal went 15-8 and missed the NCAA Tournament in 2025, but they retain much of their talent as they look to return to the big dance in 2026. Beso Akhvlediani led the team in scoring and was an All-MPSF First Team selection and Second Team All-American as a freshman last season, and goalkeeper Aran Pina is fresh from helping Spain take silver at the U-20 European Championships.
 
Occidental went 11-20 and was knocked out in the first round of the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference Tournament in 2025, and an early September meeting between those Tigers and the Gauchos ended with a 20-goal victory for Santa Barbara. Occidental placed a pair of student-athletes on the All-SCIAC Second Team last season, but neither Jack Schroeder or All-American Travis Hughes return for 2026.
 
Mercyhurst will be meeting the Gauchos for the first time ever on Sunday morning, and the Lakers will be looking to improve on a 2-23 campaign from 2025, in which their only victories were against Washington and Jefferson and Penn State Behrend. Against Division-I opposition, the closest Mercyhurst came was a four-goal loss to Mount St. Mary's.
 
No. 2 USC won the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation Championship and reached the National Championship game in 2025, falling only to cross-town rivals UCLA. USC returns three of its five All-Americans from last season, including Robert Lopez Duart, who was a finalist for the Cutino Award, handed out annually to the best collegiate water polo player in the country. The Trojans also return goalkeeper Charles Mills, who was the goalie of the tournament in USC's MPSF Championship run, and center Strahinja Krstic, the 2025 MPSF Newcomer of the Year.
 
FOLLOW ALONG
The Gauchos open the weekend at 12:10 p.m. on Friday against the Gaels, then face McKendree at 4:10 p.m. that same day. Santa Barbara starts Saturday action at 10:30 a.m. against Cal, then faces Occidental at 4 p.m. Sunday starts bright and early at 8 a.m. for the Gauchos' matchup with Mercyhurst, and the weekend concludes at 1:20 p.m. Sunday against USC. All six matches will be held at Canyonview Aquatic Center in La Jolla, with tickets available through UC San Diego's box office or by clicking here. For the first time, all six of Santa Barbara's matches will also be live streamed and available to watch on overnght.com.