Anteaters Continue Homestand With UC Santa Barbara; Pepperdine - UCI Athletics
IRVINE, Calif. – The Anteaters continue their home stand with a Big West meeting with No. 16/15 UC Santa Barbara (Oct. 26) before re-matching non-conference for No. 7/10 Pepperdine (Oct. 27).Week Eight Notes
THIS WEEKEND
No. 16/15 UC Santa Barbara vs. No. 9/8 UC Irvine
Saturday, October 26 | 12:00 PM | Anteater Aquatics Complex
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No. 7/10 Pepperdine vs. No. 9/8 UC Irvine
Sunday, October 27 | 1:00 PM | Anteater Aquatics Complex
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THIS WEEK'S STORYLINES
> UC Irvine enters the week ranked ninth in the CWPA Weekly Poll and are slated eighth in the Association of College Water Polo Coaches poll
> UCI remains at home for two contests over the weekend, the first versus Big West foe No. 16 UC Santa Barbara on Saturday Oct. 26 before taking on No. 7 Pepperdine in a rematch of the contest from three weeks ago where UCI won 20-10
> Junior Luka Krstic collected his third weekly honor of the season, fourth of his career, following a monstrous offensive performance at Long Beach State on Oct. 18
> No. 16 UC Santa Barbara enters the weekend with a 14-8 overall record and 1-1 in Big West play
> Over the last weekend, the Gauchos dropped a narrow league match at No. 12 UC Davis, 10-9, before falling to No. 5 Fordham 12-10 on Tuesday (Oct. 22) afternoon
> The meeting between UCI and UCSB pits the two Big West Championship teams together
> Brock Zamanian leads the Gauchos and the league with 80 total points behind 44 goals and 36 assists
> UCSB has five players who have tallied 30+ goals on the season
> Levi Lentin has played 17 games in the cage where he has saved a Big West best 146 shots
> Lentin along with Danilo Dragovic lead the their squad with 27 steals
> No. 7 Pepperdine heads into the week of play with a 15-5 overall record, 1-0 in the WCC
> In their last times out, the Waves were defeated by No. 11 Princeton, 12-11, before claiming the 24-13 victory over Air Force
> Prior to their stop in Irvine, Pepperdine heads to LMU on Friday Oct. 25 and Cal State Fullerton on Saturday Oct. 27
> Adam Csapo and Christian Hosea are the forefront of the Waves offense with 76 and 70 total points respectively
> Hosea is the team leader in goals (55) with Caspo right behind (46)
> Max Smirnov has blocked 129 shots in 12 games in goal for Pepperdine
PLAYER NOTES
> UC Irvine went 2-0 over the weekend taking down then No. 8/6 Long Beach State 13-12 in the Anteaters first Black and Blue regular season win since 2015 before defeating Westcliff 24-12
> At No. 8/6 Long Beach State
- Ethan Shipman and Gage Verdegaal each netted two goals in the win
- Jackson Matos and Brody Luke rounded out the scoring with one each
- The Anteaters remained efficient on offense converting 13 of their 22 shots (0.591)
- Jacob Pyle blocked 12 shots for his sixth double figure save performance of the season
- UCI edged LBSU in power play conversions, 5-4
- Cole Francisco and Shipman dished out a team best two assists
- Tyler Padua led all players with seven drawn exclusions, one off his career high
> Against Westcliff
- Tyler Padua, Gage Verdegaal, and Ethan Spoon all notched hat-tricks in the contest to pace UCI's scoring effort
- Johann Thrall, Brody Luke, Ben Youngblood, and Wyley Dale rounded out the multi-goal scorers for the 'Eaters with two apiece
- Samuel Otta, Cole Francisco, Alex Lopez, Jack Stevens, Keegan McGann, Maddox McEwen, and Jasper Dale each contributed a goal
- Senior Zayd Mahmoud played the first period in the cage where he blocked three shots
- Senior Aidan Byrne recorded six saves in 24 minutes
- J. Dale, Padua, Thrall, and Jackson Matos dished out two assists each
- Otta recorded a game high four drawn exclusions
> In the Big West as of Oct. 22, several Anteaters rank in the top-10 in several statistical categories: goals (3rd- Krstic), assists (6th- Shipman, 8th- Verdegaal), points (5th- Krstic), field blocks (1st- Krstic, 4th- Shipman and Cass, 8th- Matos and Stevens), steals (7th- Francisco), saves (5th- Pyle, 6th- Mahmoud), save percentage (1st- Mahmoud, 6th- Pyle), and goals against average (3rd- Mahmoud, 6th- Pyle)
