SANTA BARBARA, Calif. — The cat is officially out of the bag. For the second week in a row, UC Santa Barbara Men's Water Polo freshman Luigi Canepa is The Big West Player of the Week. The stellar Serbian is the first student-athlete to win the award in consecutive weeks since The Big West renewed its sponsorship of men's water polo in 2023.
 
Canepa had something of an off day by his lofty scoring standards against No. 1 UCLA, putting just one goal past the Bruins, so instead he turned provider for his teammates. The freshman phenom dished out three assists against the reigning national champions, setting a new season high and giving him four total points in the game as he was involved with nearly half of Santa Barbara's scoring. And in the afternoon matchup with No. 15 LMU, he was back to his typical assault on the cage. Canepa put home six goals against the Lions and assisted a seventh, making himself involved in over half of the Gauchos' scoring in the 13-12 win. He also drew a pair of exclusion fouls and forced two turnovers.
 
When it comes to pure scoring volume, Canepa is unmatched anywhere in The Big West, leading the conference with 42 goals and 55 total points, nearly 20 goals ahead of the next-top scorer. He has accomplished all of this in just 12 games, also making him the conference's most efficient scorer with an average of 3.5 goals per game. At that rate, Canepa poses a real threat to break UC Santa Barbara's 56-year-old program record of 91 goals in one season, held by Ben Gage.
 
Next up for Canepa and the Gauchos is a trip to Stanford for a four-game weekend at the Overnght MPSF Invitational. Santa Barbara kicks off the weekend with a Friday night matchup against No. 6 Long Beach State from the Cardinal's Avery Aquatic Center.