STANFORD – No. 5 UC Santa Barbara split its final two matches at the Northern California Invitational to take sixth place at the tournament. The Gauchos posted an 8-4 victory over No. 8 Pepperdine before falling to No. 6 UC Irvine, 12-11, in overtime during the fifth-place game.
In the first game of the day, UCSB (8-2) got out to a 5-2 lead at halftime and built that lead to 7-4 in the third quarter. The Gauchos tallied another goal in the fourth while shutting down the Waves to post the 8-4 victory.
Matt Gronow and Bryce Miller, who had two goals apiece, led UCSB in the win. Myles Christian tallied 11 saves in goal.
During the fifth-place game against UC Irvine, the two teams each opened with three goals in the first quarter and then piled on two more in the second to remain deadlocked at 5-5 at halftime.
UCSB was able to pull away with a big third quarter in which the Gauchos tallied four goals to the Anteaters’ two to take a 9-7 lead into the fourth.
Irvine got consecutive goals from Bojan Hrlec and Mitch Wise in the opening minutes of the fourth quarter to pull even with the Gauchos at 9-9. Hrlec then scored a six-on-five goal with 3:55 to go in regulation to give UCI a one-goal lead. Evan Dellinger’s third goal of the game with five seconds remaining tied things up and sent the game into overtime.
In the first of two three-minute overtime periods, Dylan Baliani scored at the 1:59 mark to give UCSB an 11-10 lead. Hrlec answered with 53 seconds left to tie the game up once again. With just 29 seconds remaining in the second overtime period, Hrlec’s posted the game-winning goal for the Anteaters.
Dellinger’s hat trick led the Gaucho offensive effort while Christian posted eight saves.
UCSB will be back in action next Sunday, Sept. 23 when it plays Concordia in a neutral site contest at USC at 11 a.m.
