COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. — The No. 14 UC Santa Barbara Men's Water Polo team opened its weekend at the Rare Air Challenge in emphatic fashion, defeating Austin College 30-10 on Friday. UC Santa Barbara scored at least seven goals in each quarter and held the Kangaroos scoreless in the second. A total of five different Gauchos recorded hat-tricks, with
Hayden Tully leading all scorers with a career-best five-goal haul.
Luigi Canepa,
Finn Genc,
Tyler Roller and
Preston Bouch provided the other four hat-tricks for Santa Barbara.
HOW IT HAPPENED
Canepa opened the scoring for Santa Barbara by tallying on the team's first possession, and after the 'Roos answered at 6:11, the Gauchos scored four straight goals — two Genc, then one from
Kyle Franks and another from Roller less than a minute later. The Kangaroos scored three more times in the first quarter, but Santa Barbara responded after each one and closed the quarter with Tully's first goal of the day in the final minute. The Gauchos then scored all seven second-quarter goals, beginning with Canepa's power-play goal at 7:22 and ending with
Sloan Brown's power-play goal, assisted by Roller at 1:31. The third quarter included more back-and-forth scoring, with Santa Barbara opening on three straight goals before the 'Roos scored four of the next eight in the quarter. The Kangaroos opened the fourth quarter with a goal on their first possession, but the Gauchos scored seven of the final eight goals, closing with two Bouch goals less than a minute apart.
UP NEXT
Santa Barbara remains in Colorado for day two of the Rare Air Challenge on Saturday, taking on Wagner at 12 noon Pacific time and facing the hosts, Air Force, at 6 p.m. Pacific time. Both matches will be streamed live on Air Force's YouTube channel, with live stats available through ucsbgauchos.com.
