The seventh-ranked UCSB men’s water polo team opens its 2011 season Saturday at the UCLA Invitational, a round robin tournament being held at the Bruins’ Spieker Aquatics Center. The Gauchos will play a pair of regular season contests against La Verne and Pomona Pitzer while also mixing in a pair of exhibition games against No. 9 Pepperdine and No. 3 UCLA.
Coach Wolf Wigo fields a relatively young roster this season that features just eight returning letterwinners from the 2010 campaign and no seniors. The additions to the active roster include six redshirt freshmen, five true freshmen and one junior transfer. In all, UCSB will have five juniors, six sophomores and a whopping 11 freshmen on the squad.
The freshman class includes Dos Pueblos grads Chase Racich and Derek Shoemaker and Santa Barbara’s Brendan McElroy.
Key returners for the Gauchos this season will be juniors Brian Shoemaker (Dos Pueblos High) and Myles Christian and sophomores Matt Gronow and Lazar Komadinic. Shoemaker is the top returning scorer from last season after ranking second on the team with 22 goals. Christian made 18 appearances in the goal and averaged 12 saves per game. Gronow appeared in all 24 games last year and was fourth on the team with his 18 goals. Komadinic, meanwhile, contributed 15 goals and was second on the squad with 20 steals.
The Gauchos have been ranked seventh in the Collegiate Water Polo Association’s Preseason National Poll after finishing the 2010 campaign ranked sixth nationally. In a preseason poll of the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation coaches, the Gauchos were predicted to finish eighth in the extremely competitive conference.
