HONOLULU, Hawaii — The No. 4 seeded UC Santa Barbara women’s water polo team went for a dramatic finish Friday night in their Big West Tournament matchup against the fifth seed UC Davis Aggies. With time running down the Gauchos were unable to score the game-tying goal and fell to Davis 10-9 in Honolulu, Hawai’i.
Six different players scored for UCSB, as Bryn Hudson, Brenna Thomas, and Samantha Murphy each collected a pair of goals. Taylor Shore, Tess Wardle, and Jade Wentz-Fitzgerald also contributed to the offensive effort. Goalkeeper Mackenzie Brokaw had nine saves in the game, including five in the second quarter alone.
The closing eight minutes were a battle for UCSB to maintain the ball and create scoring opportunities over Davis’ gritty defense. Timeouts were taken to slow the pace but the Aggies were not letting up. Samantha Murphy was finally able to break through in the last minute, however, it became too late to send the game into overtime and UCSB was defeated by UC Davis with a final 10-9 score.
The loss puts UCSB out of contention for the conference championship game, but will continue play Sunday for the fifth place game.
