By james art SANTA BARBARA, CA. — The No. 16 UC Santa Barbara men’s water polo team will play a midweek non-conference game before resuming Big West play next week, hosting No. 5 Fordham at Dos Pueblos High School on Tuesday. The Gauchos will then return to conference action at No. 9 UC Irvine on Saturday.
WHEN AND WHERE TO WATCH
Santa Barbara and Fordham will kick off at 12 noon in their game Tuesday at Dos Pueblos High School in Goleta. Admission and parking are free, although parking in the school’s main lot may be limited. Live stats will be available via ucsbgauchos.com
The Gauchos and Anteaters will also tee off at 12 noon on Saturday from the Anteater Aquatics Complex in Irvine. This game will be live on ESPN+ with live stats available via ucsbgauchos.com.
LAST TIME OUT
Santa Barbara will look to get back in the win column after suffering a narrow loss to UC Davis on Saturday. The Gauchos were able to erase deficits of 4-1 and 8-6 in that game with the help of Adam Giennis hat trick.
LET THE GAUCOS KNOW
This year’s UC Santa Barbara team features five 30-goal scorers, led by a redshirt junior Brock Zamanianwho has 42 and 36 assists to lead the team in both categories. Giennis is close behind Zamanian with 39 and 30 and has the hot hand after posting three goals and two assists on Saturday afternoon.
There are two rookies in the Gauchos’ 30-goal club: a redshirt freshman center Dom Brown and a true freshman hitter Danilo Dragovic. Brown’s tally of 37 goals and three assists is the most unbalanced collection, while Dragovic has a near-perfect balance of 31 goals and 28 assists.
Sophomore Luke Bachler finished the club with 30 goals with 35 and 16 assists. Bachler, Brown and Zamanian are all hitting over .500 on the year, with Brown hitting nearly 60% of his hits.
INTELLIGENCE OF ARIES
Fordham (15-0) has yet to lose a game this year and has become one of the stories of the year. Seven of their 15 wins have come against ranked opponents, with their highest-ranked win coming against then-No. 7 Princeton, 12-9. Their last competitive game was a 23-6 drubbing of Iona in New York on October 12. On Friday, they played an exhibition game against the New York Athletic Club.
Tuesday will be the Rams’ first trip west of the Mississippi this season and their third game against a California team. In the first two weeks of the season, Fordham defeated both California Baptist and UC San Diego by a combined score of 36-17.
The Rams do have eight Californians on their roster, including two Santa Barbara natives. Center James Oriskovich is a graduate of UC Santa Barbara and Santa Barbara High School, while goalkeeper Reggie Robles graduated from Dos Pueblos High School.
INTELLIGENCE OF ANT-EATERS
UC Irvine (12-7, 2-0 Big West) will have a week off before hosting the Gauchos on Saturday. They are riding a three-game winning streak after narrowly beating Long Beach State, 13-12, on Friday. They also won their first Big West game of the year by one goal, 12-11 over UC San Diego.
Luka Krstic scored seven of UC Irvine’s 13 goals against Long Beach State; his season total reached a team-high 42. Krstic was named Big West Player of the Week twice this season, with teammates Cole Francisco and Zaid Mahmoud picking up the award once each.
Francisco is third on the team in goals with 25, while Mahmoud might not even feature on Saturday; he is the backup to goaltender Jacob Pyle, who was honorable mention All-Big West and Big West Championship MVP last season. Pyle made 12 saves in his last game against Beach Friday night.
NEXT
The Gauchos will stay on the road after their visit to UC Irvine, with their next stop being La Jolla on Nov. 1, where they will play under lights against UC San Diego.