Stockton, Calif. - The No. 4 Pacific men's water polo team was topped by No. 5 UC Santa Barbara on Friday night at Chris Kjeldsen Pool, 13-9, in a battle of undefeated Golden Coast Conference teams.
Aleksandar Petrovic scored three goals for the Tigers, while Devon Thumwood posted a pair. Derek Clappis, Luis Araya, Tim Reeves and Ikko Saito also scored for Pacific.
Reed Cotterill led UCSB with four goals, while nine different Gauchos scored.
Osmanovic finished with 15 saves and a pair of steals, while UC Santa Barbara goalkeeper Liam Lenihan tallied 12 saves and a steal in the win.
Pacific fell behind 1-0 before Saito tied the game off a Thumwood assist. However, UCSB tallied three-straight on two goals from Cotterill and one from Boris Jovanovic before Araya finished an Ai pass to cut the Gauchos lead to 4-2 after one quarter.
Thumwood tallied back-to-back goals, both assisted by the keeper Alen Osmanovic, early in the second quarter. But Cotterill put UCSB up 5-4 and Cameron Yates finished a Cotterill pas for a 6-4 Pacific deficit at halftime.
In the third, Thomas Martinho and Petrovic traded goals, before Cotterill's fourth put the Gauchos up 8-5. Josh Jordan tallied for the Gauchos, but Petrovic answered again as the Tigers trailed 10-6 after three quarters.
In the fourth, Ivan Gvodanovic stretched UCSB's lead to 11-6 before Reeves finished a feed from Clappis. Shane Hauschild answered back for UCSB before Petrovic finished another Clappis pass to cut the margin to 12-8. A goal by Tor Jensen rounded out the scoring for UCSB, and Clappis finished late to settle on the final margin.
Pacific falls to 15-6 on the season, 3-1 in GCC play. The Gauchos improve to 15-6 overall, 4-0 in the conference.
UCSB and Pacific each clinched first-round byes in the inaugural men's Golden Coast Championship, with UCSB locking down the top seed. With one conference game to play, the Tigers hold the tie-breakers on No. 7 Long Beach State and No. 9 Pepperdine, who each have two GCC losses. Pacific will host the GCC tournament Nov. 18-20.
Pacific faces No. 6 Stanford in Palo Alto on Saturday at 10 a.m.
