The UC Santa Barbara Women’s Water Polo team went 1-1 in Saturday’s action at the Triton Invitational, starting the day with a 9-6 win over Concordia but suffering a tough, 10-5 loss to Loyola Marymount in the afternoon. 

Leigh Lyter led the team with four goals on the day, including a hat-trick in the opening game, with Jojo Scheer and Drew Halvorson each posting two-goal games on the day as well.

The Gauchos will face hosts UC San Diego in their final action of the weekend on Sunday.

“This is a great time to trust the process,” UCSB head coach Serela Kay said. “An opportunity to choose how to respond tomorrow after a tough battle this evening.”

UCSB 9, Concordia Irvine 6

As they would have been expected to do, the Gauchos led from the first possession to the last against Concordia, though things did get dicey after halftime.

Lyter opened the scoring on the Gauchos’ first attack, and Santa Barbara only built their lead from there, ending the first quarter up, 3-0. 

Juju Amaral scored to make it 4-0 early in the second quarter, and the Gauchos only conceded one goal in the first half, leading 4-1 at the break.
 
However, the Golden Eagles scored the first two goals after halftime, cutting the Gauchos’ lead to one on a five-meter penalty shot midway through the third quarter.

As an answer, Santa Barbara went on a 3-0 run, started by veteran leader Halvorson and capped by Lyter completing her hat-trick.

After that, the Gauchos kept Concordia at arms’ length, with Scheer scoring a pair of goals in the fourth quarter to ensure the Golden Eagles never came within three goals of Santa Barbara.

UCSB 5, LMU 10

The Gauchos were the ones trailing early in their second game of the day, but they mounted an impressive rally in the third quarter before LMU pulled away in the fourth.

It took seven minutes for Santa Barbara’s first goal, with Camilla Mackay denting the twine to make it 2-1, Lions, at the end of the first quarter.

Lyter scored first in the second quarter to tie things at 2-2, but that would be the last time the Gauchos were level.
 
LMU led, 5-2, at halftime, but Santa Barbara out-scored them, 3-1 in the third quarter to make things interesting again.

Halvorson found the back of the net twice in the frame, both times with the Gauchos on the powerplay.

The Lions’ lead was only one goal, 6-5, heading into the final eight minutes of action, but Santa Barbara failed to score in the final frame while LMU did so four times, including twice in the final 45 seconds.

UC Santa Barbara will conclude the Triton Invitational with a single game on Sunday at 9:40 a.m.

The Gauchos will get their first matchup of the year against a Big West opponent on Sunday, taking on No. 9 UC San Diego, though the game will not count toward the conference standings.

Live stats will be available through ucsbgauchos.com.