With its visit to the Inland Empire Classic now in the rear view, the No. 13 UC Santa Barbara Men’s Water Polo team heads home on a four-game winning streak thanks to Saturday victories over Pomona-Pitzer and Occidental. 

Luigi Canepa scored four more times while co-captains Finn Genc and Landon Lassahn each tallied hat-tricks in the 14-12 win over the Sagehens, while Kyle Franks was the standout of the 17-8 win over the Tigers in the afternoon, with four goals to lead all scorers.

UCSB 14, Pomona-Pitzer 12

Like yesterday morning’s meeting with the Sagehens’ neighbors Claremont-Mudd-Scripps, there was a back-and-forth to start Saturday, but this time Santa Barbara managed to pull a big lead by halftime.

Tied at three midway through the second quarter, Genc kicked off a 4-0 run for the Gauchos to finish the first half, giving them a 7-3 lead at the break.
 
The Sagehens got one of those goals back to start the third quarter, but again the Gauchos put together a streak to pull further away. Lassahn kicked this one off, with goals from Charlie Johnson and Hayden Tully putting Santa Barbara into double digits with a 10-4 lead.

Pomona-Pitzer got that margin down to 10-6 with a minute left in the quarter, but Genc and Lassahn both scored before the buzzer to send the Gauchos into the final frame up by six.
 
As it ended up, the Sagehens scored six goals in that final quarter — three of them in the final 90 seconds — but contributions from Genc and Canepa were enough to keep Santa Barbara ahead and secure the win.

UCSB 17, Occidental 8

The Gauchos started the second game strong, scoring two goals for every one that the Tigers tallied in the first quarter to lead, 4-2.

Johnson scored a pair to start the second quarter and to keep the two-for-one trend going, and thanks to goals from Oliver Sherwood, Franks and Tyler Roller, Santa Barbara held a 9-4 lead at halftime.
 
The Gaucho defense continued to hold the Tigers to just two goals per quarter after halftime, and freshman defender Luka Spasic was one of the three Gauchos who scored in the third quarter to further expand the lead. 

Sean O’Brien also got his first of three goals on the day, with Jake Reinke beating the buzzer for the third. O’Brien scored twice in the fourth to complete his hat-trick, but Franks did him one better, scoring with one second left on the clock to complete a four-goal game.

Santa Barbara’s younger Sean, Sean Keane, also got on the scoresheet as part of a five-goal fourth quarter.

The Gauchos now return home to conclude their weekend, hosting No. 3 Stanford and Cal Lutheran at Santa Barbara High School on Sunday. Start times are set for 11 a.m. against the third-ranked Cardinal and 3 p.m. against the Kingsmen.

Admission at Santa Barbara High is free and open until the venue’s capacity is reached, and fans can catch all the action live on ESPN+ or by following along with live stats through ucsbgauchos.com.