You win some, you lose some, and the #14 UCSB men’s water polo team did a little of both this holiday weekend defeating #10 Loyola Marymount (LMU) on Thursday 7-3 and losing to #4 Stanford on Saturday 14-6. The Gauchos drop to 12-15 overall and 0-6 in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation.

“We played really well in the LMU game,” senior driver Bret DeMuth said. “But the team felt that we played really badly in the Stanford game.”

Loloya junior two-meter Matt Reynolds got the scoring started with three minutes to go in the first quarter, netting his first of the three Lion goals. The Gauchos and freshman driver Miles Price answered back 23 seconds later to even the score. Santa Barbara scored three goals to LMU’s one in the second to take a 4-2 halftime lead.

Solid Santa Barbara defense and five saves in goal during the second half of the game by senior goalkeeper Jon Bonafede strangled the Lion offense, which was only able to score once in the second half. Senior driver Ramiro Saldain helped secure the victory with three goals, all of which came in the final two quarters.

“We played really strong; we draw a lot of kick-outs against their top players, and defensively we were able to shut them down,” DeMuth said. “All around, we controlled the game from the beginning to the end.”

Up at “The Farm,” UCSB quickly fell behind 4-2 in the first quarter, a lead that Stanford never relinquished. The Cardinal exploded in the second period, scoring six times and only allowing one Gaucho goal.

After being held scoreless in the third, Santa Barbara scored three consecutive goals within a minute, two of which came from freshman driver Travis Watts and once from sophomore driver Coulson Lantz. Sophomore goalkeeper Rick Wright started the game in goal for the Gauchos and saved one shot before Bonafede finished the game, tallying six saves. Senior driver Peter Varellas led the offensive for the Cardinal with five goals, tying a personal season-high.

“We gave them too many chances to score,” DeMuth said.