The UC Irvine Men’s Water Polo team won the Big West Men’s Water Polo Championship as they defeated the UC Santa Barbara Gauchos, 11-9, at the Canyonview Aquatics Center in San Diego on Sunday, Nov. 19.
For the first time since 2000, the Anteaters were able to secure their conference’s championship as they claimed their tenth conference title in program history.
The Big West hosted a conference competition this season as they were able to achieve six-member institutions with California State University, Fullerton sponsoring a team for the first time this century. Prior to this season, the UC Irvine Men’s Water Polo team played in the Golden Coast Conference, a college athletics conference which features teams throughout California.
The Anteaters went 4-1 in conference play this season, which earned them the first seed in the Big West tournament.
Having control of the first seed allowed them to skip the first round of the tournament. In the semi-finals, the Anteaters played the No. 10 UC Davis Aggies, who they defeated, 11-10.
The championship game of the tournament against No. 9 UC Santa Barbara was the second meeting for the two teams this season. The Anteaters were victorious in the first matchup, defeating the Gauchos, 8-7, in Santa Barbara on Oct. 21.
UC Irvine had the first strike of the game as redshirt junior defender Jake Liechty scored a goal in the first minute. However, the Gauchos answered back with a goal within the next minute of play.
The Anteaters had three more goals in the first period as sophomore defender Luka Krstic scored a goal on a penalty attempt. Junior attacker Stewart Campbell and junior attacker Dylan Patist also scored one goal each.
UC Santa Barbara answered back with a goal of their own in the first 30 seconds of the second period, shortening the Anteater lead to 4-2. The ‘Eaters answered back with Krstic scoring a goal on a penalty attempt, alongside a goal by freshman attacker Johann Thrall.
The Gauchos scored two more goals in the second half to make the score 6-4 going into halftime.
Carrying over the momentum from the second period, the Gauchos scored three additional goals and took their first and only lead of the game in the early stages of the third period.
Following those points, junior attacker Ethan Shipman scored twice for the Anteaters, which ended up being their only goals in the third period.
The Anteaters added onto their lead with a goal in the first 92 seconds of the fourth period, courtesy of junior defender Thomas Cass. The Gauchos struck back with another goal within the next 20 seconds, but Thrall reciprocated with a goal of his own to make the Anteaters lead 10-8.
UC Santa Barbara’s final goal of the game came within the final four minutes of the fourth period, before Liechty ended the match with a goal.
UC Irvine head coach Dan Klatt chimed in for some analysis of the game proceeding the final whistle.
“I thought we came out playing amazing,” Coach Klatt said. “First quarter was really one of the better quarters that we played all year and we just got a little sloppy with the ball for the next, say, quarter and a half or so, and we kind of put ourselves in tough spots. Mostly, it was offensive decisions that were making it kind of tough to play the kind of defense that we wanted.”
UC Irvine’s junior goalkeeper Jacob Pyle was awarded the Big West Men’s Water Polo Championship Most Valuable Player award following the championship game, where he recorded 14 saves.
“[This achievement] doesn’t really just start with today, it [started] a whole month ago, two months ago, preparing for the conference regular season, and then coming into this tournament was preparation,” Pyle said. “ [The team] slowed it down and stuck to the schedule and that is what held us through it.”
While UC Santa Barbara’s season has come to an end, No. 6 UC Irvine made their first appearance in the NCAA Men’s Water Polo Championship since 1993.
The Anteaters traveled to the Uytengsu Aquatics Center in Los Angeles to play the No. 5 Princeton Tigers. who previously defeated UCI 11-9 during an Oct. 15 match, on Friday, Dec. 1. The Anteaters were defeated by the Tigers 12-7, their final game of the 2023 season.
Jack Fedor is a Sports Intern for the fall 2023 quarter. He can be reached at jfedor@uci.edu.
