IRVINE, Calif. --- The Anteater split their opening weekend up in Santa Barbara, and head to Riverside for another Saturday doubleheader of action in the Cal Baptist Mini Invitational.

 
At the CBU Mini Invite

• UC Irvine plays in the CBU Mini Invite for the seventh time in its history, entering 2019 with a spotless 13-0 record in games played in the tournament
• UCI's last visit was in 2017 when it opened with double-digit victories over CBU and Bakersfield
• Fans can follow both matches on Saturday via live stats while UCI's 11:30 a.m. match with host Cal Baptist will be live streamed for fans to watch

Team Notes

• Four Anteaters finished the first weekend with four goals apiece - Mary Brooks, Tara Prentice, Piper Smith, and Kayleigh Schultz - with each posting a hat trick over the weekend
• Piper Smith scored her first career goal in the match against UCLA closing the deficit to 3-2 in the second period
• Marissa Echelberger, Toni Shackelford, and Megan Falcon each had a goal over the weekend
• The 'Eaters opened the season tied for sixth in the nation alongside Hawai'i, the sixth time in the last eight seasons opening at No. 6. UCI broke free of its tie as the sixth-ranked program now clearly ahead of No. 7 Hawai'i
• The Anteaters fell to No. 3 UCLA, 10-6, to start 2019 moving its record to 13-6 all-time in season openers

Record Pursuit

• Mary Brooks returned to the fold in 2019 with 157 career goals scored, eighth-most in program history. She stands 63 goals away from the top spot held by Jessy Cardey with 224. Brooks would reach the mark with a pace of nearly 2.5 goals per match
• Brooks is four goals away from matching Hannah Croghan's career mark of 165 career goals which is seventh-most in program history
• Jenna Phreaner enters her senior season with 388 saves, fourth all-time among Anteater keepers. With 12 saves, she will become the fourth 'Eater goalie with 400 career saves
• The program enters its 19th season with a total of 326 wins. UCI could reach 350 wins with a 24-win season in 2019, something the team has accomplished twice (2012, 2014)
• UC Irvine women's water polo entered the 2019 season with 4,776 goals in program history standing 224 goals away from 5,000. The 'Eaters have scored 224 goals in a season in 14 of 18 seasons including each season since coach Klatt took over as head coach
• Head Coach Dan Klatt enters his 15th season as head coach of UC Irvine posting 277 wins. He will reach 300 career head coaching wins with a 23-win season in 2019, something his squads have accomplished five times (2009, 2011, 2012, 2014, 2017)

Cal Baptist

• Cal Baptist opened its 2019 season like UCI at the Gaucho Invite
• It started 2019 as No. 24 in the nation and remains that in this week's rankings
• CBU fell on the first day of the invite with a 10-goal loss to UCSB and 20-goal defeat to USC
• CBU turned it around Saturday defeating No. 18 CSUN, 10-8, before falling to UCLA, 17-8
• The Lancers are coming off a 17-17 campaign in 2018 where it went 3-4 in Golden Coast Conference play. Some victories came at the hands of Brown, Bucknell, and Marist along with one-goal losses to San Diego State (twice), LMU, and UC Davis
• UCI is 18-2 all-time against the Lancers. CBU won the first two meetings in 2001 and 2002, and the 'Eaters have taken the last 18 including 13 wins away from home and six at CBU
• The Lancers were led over the weekend by Kira O'Donell and Lizette Perez who each scored six times. O'Donell also led with four assists tied with Krista Krantz. Katie Quon had a team-high four steals and was the primary sprinter winning just twice in 11 sprints
• Grace Ramirez made two starts in net including the win over CSUN. Ramirez made 13 saves and stole the ball six times. Victoria Reardon also played 48 minutes in net over the weekend stopping just six of 29 shots

Azusa Pacific

• The Cougars also started 2019 in the Gaucho Invite as an unranked squad, but jumped up to No. 25 for the first time in program history this week
• APU fell to CSUN by two and USC by 15 before upsetting No. 14 Wagner with a 7-5 victory on Saturday
• APU ended the weekend with a 1-3 record after falling to UCSD, 13-5
• The Cougars will start the CBU Invite against Pomona-Pitzer at 9:00 a.m. before matching up with UCI in the afternoon
• APU and UCI have met just once before with the 'Eaters winning, 15-10, in the 2016 Gaucho Invite to begin the year
• Azusa Pacific has been in the Golden Coast Conference since 2014 and hovered around the .500 mark the last couple seasons
• The 2018 Cougars finished 16-16 with a 3-4 league mark with a pair of narrow losses to CSUN and taking SDSU to double overtime during the season
• APU's win over Wagner was its third win over a top 25 opponent in program history erasing a 5-2 deficit entering the fourth quarter to win 7-5
• The Cougars' scoring leader from the weekend was Mirei Tutusaus Alcaraz scoring six times including a hat trick in the final period to defeat Wagner. Milena Guzman scored four times, all in the loss to CSUN, while Mar Pastor Alvarez, Gabrielle Martinez, and Sarah Adams each had three goals on the weekend.

Fall Roundup
Head Coach Dan Klatt - "We set up our Fall as best as we can. We hosted two Fall invitationals and those allow us to get more people looks. China is physical, they're professional players so its a great advantage for us."

The Anteaters grew even more in their fall tournaments which each included the Chinese National Team as well as their international exemption match last weekend.

Senior Statement
The 2019 season is the return of Mary Brooks who utilized her red-shirt season in 2018. Brooks' scoring presence where she's scored over 50 goals in each of her last competitive seasons was missed last season as the 'Eaters' depth-laden roster produced a high scorer of 41 goals.

Coach Klatt has his eye on more than just her athletic abilities. "Team comradery is very strong, they look out for each other in both ways - picking players up in rough times and keeping everyone grounded. I equate a lot of that to Mary's senior leadership. She's a fifth-year, but has had a consistent work ethic all the way through and everyone here has gotten a chance to see that and its well-respected both her work ethic and what she has to say."

Brooks brings two Big West Player of the Year awards, a Freshman of the Year award, and a conference tournament record number of goals from the 2017 competition which included a six-goal game making her the only player in program history with two such games. Brooks is also within shouting distance of the program's career scoring record standing 67 goals away from the current leader, Jessy Cardey, one goal higher than her season-high she set in 2017.

Riding the Wave
Surrounding Brooks is a roster full of depth, talent, and, despite just three seniors, a healthy amount of experience.

"Last year's experience provided was valuable for everyone. Newcomers got to see what postseason play was like, the intensity of a conference tournament or NCAA matches."

That postseason experience led to an underdog victory at the Big West Tournament and into a pressure-packed NCAA Tournament appearance led by Tara Prentice's 41 goals in her sophomore season. Big West Freshman of the Year Isabel Rack is also trending up after scoring 25 goals, and a class of sophomores along with her that combined for 53 goals in their first Anteater seasons.

The incoming class of freshmen is not as large as it was a year ago, but the impact in the pool will be just as strong led by the five-meter potential from Piper Smith and more attacking pieces ready to jump into the mix in Rylee Williams, Jessica Lynch, and Ariana Bockstahler.

The goalkeeper position is also a fierce competition between senior Jenna Phreaner and second-year talent Morgan Jones. The veteran cage presence of Phreaner took over in 2018 with a 4.06 goals-against-average and 187 saves. Jones proved her worth holding her own against the likes of USC, UCLA, and Cal. Phreaner and Jones each had impressive double-digit save performances with eight and three, respectively, with high games of 16 from Phreaner (vs. Hartwick) and 15 from Jones (vs. USC)

Fast and Furious
"We start fast, we play two teams on our first day that made the NCAA Tournament last year in UCLA and Wagner."

Coach Klatt sees the first weekend of action up in Santa Barbara as an intriguing test out of the gate. A pair of NCAA Tournament-caliber squads will be who the Anteaters are pitted against early on, and the 'Eaters square off with the Bruins twice within the first month for a chance to finally get the program's first career win over the storied class of collegiate water polo which includes Stanford and USC.

Inviting the Challenge
The 'Eaters will really see how they stack up in the mid-season invitationals in the month of February, first at UC San Diego and finishing with the pride of the collegiate water polo season, the Barbara Kalbus Invitational at UC Irvine.

UC Irvine battled it out at the 2018 Triton Invite falling by a total of three goals in losses to USC and Arizona State. The 2018 Kalbus was a rough road for the 'Eaters finishing eighth behind a loss in the grudge match with Arizona State and an overtime loss to Pacific. The experience once again served vital helping the squad toward its late run finishing on a 10-5 run to reach the postseason

Bigger and Better
The Big West Conference more than ever is wide open amongst its six women's water polo programs. The 'Eaters scratched and clawed through the competition in 2018 falling during the regular season to Hawai'i and UC Davis before finding three tournament wins. Coach Klatt understands the level of competition in the Big West will remain high in 2019.

"Our conference is going to be tight as usual. I don't have any expectation for any huge wins or huge losses. I expect to play every game to within a one or two-goal margin."

Many of the squads in the Big West return a majority of their impact players with Hawai'i, coming off a 21-5 record and Big West regular season title, entering as the class of the conference. The Big West has seen different regular season champs in each of the last three seasons, and in three of the last four years, the representative in the NCAA Tournament has not been the regular season champion. The 2019 Big West Tournament will take place at Long Beach State in late April with the winner earning an automatic berth to the NCAA Championships being held at Avery Aquatic Center at Stanford University