MALIBU, Calif. — By Sunday evening, the UC Santa Barbara Men's Water Polo Team will be 10 days into its season and will have played 14 games. The Gauchos are set to run a gauntlet of eight games in four days across three cities this weekend, starting with a Thursday trip to Malibu, where they will meet Biola and No. 8 Pepperdine. From there, the Blue and Gold head to Claremont for doubleheader days at the Inland Empire Classic on Friday and Saturday, playing Claremont-Mudd-Scripps, Fresno Pacific, Pomona-Pitzer and Occidental. Finally, Santa Barbara returns home on Sunday to host No. 3 Stanford and Cal Lutheran.
 
KNOW BEFORE YOU GO
Sunday's home matches will be held at Santa Barbara High School, where admission is free and open until the venue's capacity is reached. Parking is freely available on the SBHS campus and on surrounding surface streets.
 
LAST TIME OUT
The Gauchos opened their season with six games in three days at the Triton Invitational in La Jolla last weekend, going 4-2 with wins over No. 20 Saint Mary's, McKendree, Occidental and Mercyhurst. Santa Barbara also nearly gave No. 4 California a shock, racing out to a 3-0 first-quarter lead, but a handful of costly errors prevented them from pulling the upset. The Gauchos will look to smooth out those rough edges before hosting Cal's Bay Area neighbors, the third-ranked Cardinal, on Sunday.
 
In their other Bay Area brawl, the season opener against the Gaels, Santa Barbara pulled off a thrilling comeback, overcoming a five-goal deficit for a 16-14 win. Serbian freshman Luigi Canepa loudly announced his presence in his first-ever collegiate water polo game, scoring eight goals to power the Gauchos. He added five more against Cal and finished the weekend with 15. Finn Genc made a triumphant return to the pool last weekend too, tallying 10 goals in his first game action since 2024. Genc's co-captain, Landon Lassahn, scored four times in that mad-cap comeback against Saint Mary's and finished the weekend with eight goals himself, and freshman Kyle Franks tallied the same amount with hat-tricks against McKendree and Mercyhurst. Tyler Roller looks set to build on what was a strong freshman season in 2025 as he scored nine goals on opening weekend, and reigning Big West Freshman of the Year Charlie Johnson tallied seven. Orange Coast College transfer Dylan Morris also put home seven.
 
SCOUTING THE OPPONENTS
Biola opened its season at UC Irvine's invitational event last weekend, coming close to upsetting a George Washington team that received votes in the national rankings before getting their first win of the year over Chapman. The next day, the Eagles were at home, defeating Whittier, 15-5. Biola has scored double digits in all of their contests so far this season, with their lowest total the 13 they scored against George Washington. Sophomore attacker Noah Ryznar has led the scoring, with hat-tricks in all three of his games and a total of 12 goals on the year so far.  
 
No. 8 Pepperdine was also at the Triton Invitational to open its season last weekend, going 2-2 with wins over McKendree and Claremont-Mudd-Scripps and close losses to No. 7 Long Beach State (20-18) and No. 12 UC San Diego (17-15 in overtime). For a direct comparison, the Waves beat McKendree 23-7, while the Gauchos handled the Bearcats by a 25-11 margin. Pepperdine's Preseason All-WCC selection Jon Carcarey had a slow weekend, tallying just three goals and two assists on the weekend, but attackers Erik Ionescu and Brian Barnuevo stepped up instead, tallying 24 goals between them, 10 for Ionescu and 14 for Barnuevo.
 
Claremont-Mudd-Scripps are the reigning Division III National Champions and got quite the test in last weekend's visit to the Triton Invitational, facing Pepperdine and No. 2 USC. While they lost both matches, the Stags put nine goals past USC, which is just one fewer than the Gauchos did in their meeting with the Trojans last weekend. Senior attacker Nick Kennedy was responsible for six of the Stags' nine goals against USC and added two more against the Waves. Sophomore center Calvin Donat had a hat-trick against Pepperdine.
 
Fresno Pacific has just one official game under its belt so far in 2026, a 23-7 loss to Santa Clara in Merced last weekend. Returning Division-II All-American goalkeeper Chase Hammes made nine saves for the Sunbirds, while junior center Tristin Fox led the team in scoring with a hat-trick.
 
Pomona-Pitzer was in Irvine last weekend, opening the season against No. 16 LMU and Concordia Irvine. The Division-III Sagehens hung with the Lions in their 14-9 defeat and they nearly pulled off a second-half comeback to upset the Division-II Golden Eagles, falling by just one goal, 12-11. Pomona-Pitzer returns all five of its 2025 Division-III All-Americans, with returning Second Team All-American Indigo Lee leading the team in scoring after opening weekend.
 
Occidental suffered heavy losses to Bucknell and the Gauchos at the Triton Invitational last weekend, with Santa Barbara scoring 16 unanswered goals to open their Saturday matchup as Finn Byrne kept a first-half shutout for the Gauchos. Sophomore attacker Nicholas Karamian had two of the Tigers' five second-half goals in that matchup, and he added a hat-trick against his former school, Bucknell, to enter this weekend as his new team's leading scorer.
 
No. 3 Stanford earned two comfortable wins in Irvine last weekend, beating No. 13 UC Irvine, 22-12, then taking down Cal State Fullerton, 16-4. The Cardinal have a stop in Malibu on Saturday to face Pepperdine before they visit the Gauchos on Sunday. After falling in the NCAA Championship Semifinals for a second straight season, Stanford returns three All-Americans and has added two more from the transfer portal. Senior utility James Rozolis-Hill was a three-time All-American at Harvard, while two-time All-American goalkeeper Bernardo Herzer comes over from rivals USC.
 
Cal Lutheran will officially open its season at the Inland Empire Classic on Friday, taking on UC Irvine and California Baptist, though they hosted scrimmages against Ventura College and Los Angeles Valley College in Thousand Oaks last weekend. The Kingsmen return their lone All-American from 2025, Levi Cook, who was the team's leading scorer and assister last season. They also return the two men who finished behind him on the goals chart, Paul Patterson and Merrick Giles, as well as first-choice goalkeeper Jaeger Gonzales.
 
FOLLOW ALONG
Thursday action begins at 2:30 p.m. as the Gauchos take on Biola at Raleigh Runnels Memorial Pool in Malibu. Santa Barbara will face the day's hosts, Pepperdine, at 5 p.m. The game against the Waves will be streamed live on ESPN+ and have live stats available through ucsbgauchos.com.
 
Friday starts at 9 a.m. with Santa Barbara taking on Inland Empire Classic co-hosts Claremont-Mudd-Scripps. All four of the Gauchos' games in Claremont will be held at CMS' Axelrood Pool and all four will have live stats available through ucsbgauchos.com. Friday's game against the Stags will also be streamed live through FloSports. Santa Barbara's remaining IE Classic schedule sees them face Fresno Pacific at 1:30 p.m. Friday, Pomona-Pitzer at 9:30 a.m. Saturday and Occidental at 3:30 p.m. Saturday.
 
Sunday, the Gauchos and Cardinal will hit the water from Santa Barbara High School at 11 a.m., with the weekend's finale against the Kingsmen starting at 3 p.m. from Santa Barbara High School. Both of Sunday's matches will be streamed live on ESPN+ and have live stats available through ucsbgauchos.com.