UCSB’s recent home mojo disappeared on Saturday at Campus Pool, as the No. 7 Gaucho men’s water polo team suffered a 11-4 drubbing from No. 2 UCLA to snap a six-game home winning streak.
The Gauchos started off holding on to the good vibes, quickly grabbing a 2-0 lead in the first quarter. From there, the Bruins scored 11 unanswered goals to break a third-place tie in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation.
“I thought the first quarter we played awesome,” explained UCSB coach Wolf Wigo, who had no explanation for what happened after that. “We just stopped doing what we were doing. There was no reason.”
Miles Price and Dane Lindstrom netted goals in the first before the Gauchos went flat, failing to score again until the fourth quarter when Stefan Partelow and Marko Pance picked up garbage-time goals.
Until Saturday, the Gauchos had been unbeatable in their home pool this season, most recently knocking off No. 2 Stanford 5-4 last Sunday.
“We have to give Stanford a little credit,” said UCLA head coach Adam Krikorian. “For our guys to see that score, I think that woke our guys up a little bit. It made us realize that, hey, Santa Barbara is a really good team.”
“Obviously they were a little off today,” said Krikorian, who had expected a tougher matchup. “They didn’t have the game they would have liked but they’re still a very good team and they can do some damage in the conference tournament.”
The Gauchos fall to 15-9 and 4-3 in conference while the Bruins improve to 15-5 and 5-2.
Sunday’s match against Pepperdine is the Gauchos’ final regular season contest before the MPSF Tournament starting Nov. 28.
UCLA 11, UCCB 4
1 2 3 4 Final
UCLA 1 3 4 3 11
UCSB 2 0 0 2 4
UCLA Goals: Ben Hohl 4, Scott Davidson 3, Chris Allen 1, Jacob Murphy 1, Krsto Sbutega 1, Clay Jorth 1. Goalie Saves: Chay Lapin 6.
UCSB Goals: Dane Lindstrom 1, Stefan Partelow 1, Marko Pance 1, Miles Price 1. Goalie Saves: Fraser Bunn 9.
