On Friday, the #11 UCSB women’s water polo team beat #14 UC Davis, 5-3. The victory improved Santa Barbara’s overall record to 7-4 and handed the Aggies just their fourth loss of the season. The Gauchos battled from behind to overcome an early 2-0 deficit to edge UCD.

“Even though we came out slow, we picked it up in the end,” senior captain Mica Bell said. “It was a really good game.”

Freshman two-meter defense Aimee Stachowski scored UCSB’s only goal before halftime, and the Gauchos were down 2-1 at the break. In the second half, Santa Barbara turned things around with goals from sophomore utility Jennifer D’Anna, junior two-meter defense Katy Kunkel and sophomore driver Anne Kiening. UCSB scored a total of four goals while only allowing the Aggies to tally just one.

“This was an important league game. It was definitely one of the highlights of the weekend,” freshman utility ZiZi Clark said. “The Davis game was one of our first league games, and it was really nice to get a win before the big tournament.”

On Saturday and Sunday, Santa Barbara hosted its annual UCSB Invitational Tournament. UCSB started the tournament in good spirits and played strong against the University of Hawaii but ultimately succumbed to the Rainbow Warriors.

“In the first half of the game, we played really good, strong defense,” senior goalie Erin Enriquez said.

Santa Barbara could not find the back of the net enough and suffered a close loss to Hawaii, 4-5. Yet, the Gauchos did finish the day with a impressive victory against the University of the Pacific.

“We played really well together as a team,” Bell said. “But most of all, we had a lot of fun.”

The Gauchos defeated the Tigers by a score of 11-3.

“Both the UCSB teams [A and B squads] played really well against Pacific; it really shows the depth of our team,” Enriquez said.

Going into Sunday with a tournament record of 1-1, UCSB played two difficult teams to round out the weekend. On Sunday, the Gauchos lost 5-2 to San Jos

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