Nov. 20, 2003

Santa Barbara, Calif. - UC Santa Barbara begins MPSF post-season play at home, Sunday November 23 at 1:00 p.m. against Pacific. Santa Barbara earned home-pool advantage for the annual MPSF play-in game by beating Pacific last week 12-7. The win improved UCSB's overall record to 12-15.

The winner of the play-in game will travel to Belmont Plaza in Long Beach to battle No.1 USC in the 2003 MPSF Men's Water Polo Championships. USC enters the tournament with a 17-3 record overall and a league-leading 7-1 mark in the MPSF.

The Gauchos enter Sunday's match with a slight edge over the visiting Tigers. In last week's game, Santa Barbara had one of its best offensive showings of the season, as nine different players scored goals in the victory over Pacific. The win was the first MPSF win for Santa Barbara this year and was also UCSB's 12th on the season, doubling the win total of last year.

Leading the way for UCSB has been junior Brian Alexander. Alexander has tallied 60 goals on the season, the most by any Gaucho since 1995. However, Alexander hasn't been doing the job alone as nine different Gauchos have double-digit goal totals on the season.

Junior Andrew Schoneberger is second on the team with 34 goals while seniors Doug Arthur and Steve Traverso have netted 30 and 28, respectively.

Guarding the goal for UCSB has been freshman Rick Wright. Wright enters the post-season with an average of 7.54 saves per game while giving up 7.9 goals per game.