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Golden Coast Conference Championships
Raleigh Runnels Memorial Pool – Malibu, Calif.
Nov. 22-24
Tournament Central | Tournament Bracket

GCC First Round
No. 6 UC Irvine (7-14, 0-5) vs. No. 3 UC Santa Barbara (19-6, 3-2)
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15^th ranked UCI opens action at the Golden Coast Conference Tournament Friday, Nov. 22 against third-seeded No. 6 UC Santa Barbara

TOURNAMENT STORYLINES
> Pacific won the GCC regular season and earned the No. 1 seed after finishing conference play a perfect 5-0. The Tigers are 16-3 on the season
> Pepperdine, the No. 2 seed will play the winner of the UCI/UCSB game on Saturday, Nov. 23 at 11:15 a.m. in the first semifinal
> The first semifinal will feature top-seeded Pacific vs. the winner of Friday's game between No. 4 Long Beach State and No. 5 San Jose State at 1 p.m.
> Championship Sunday will start with the third place game at 11 a.m. followed by the title game at 1 p.m.
> The winner of the tournament earns the GCC's automatic bid to the NCAA Championships Nov. 30-Dec. 8
> All six tournament teams are ranked inside the top-20 in the latest Collegiate Water Polo Association Poll
> UCI is 4-4 all-time at the GCC Tournament. The Anteaters made an appearance in the third-place game last season falling to Pepperdine, 10-8. UCI beat San Jose State, 10-8, in the first round before falling to Pacific, 9-8, in the semifinals
> The Anteaters are No. 15 in this week's edition of the CWPA national poll after ranking as high as No. 9. The 'Eaters started the season ranked No. 13

ABOUT THE GAUCHOS
> UCSB ranked as high as No. 1 in the country this season but finished 4-6 in its last 10 games including a loss to Pepperdine, 17-10, in its regular season finale
> Boris Jovanovic leads the Gauchos with 78 goals while Ivan Gvozdanoic has 25 assists, 48 goals and 37 steals on the season
> Tiago Bonchristiano has 19 starts in goal notching 149 saves for a .558 save percentage
> UCI fell to UCSB 15-10 in the regular season. In the meeting, Casey Lynton finished with a team-best three goals

LAST TIME OUT
> UCI split a pair of games including a 16-5 win over Concordia Irvine before falling to No. 8 Long Beach State, 11-8
> Against the Eagles, Lynton finished with three goals and four assists while Jason Evezard tallied four goals and Harrison Land made 12 saves
> Against LBSU, Jon Polos had a team-high three goals while Harrison Land made seven stops in goal

ALL-GCC SELECTIONS
> Three Anteaters earned All-GCC honors for the 2019 season including Casey Lynton, Harrison Land and Chad Gornay
> Lynton earned second team honors for the first time in his career after being an honorable mention selection in 2019. He is second on the team in goals (26), assists (21) and steals (21)
> Chad Gornay was named on the All-Freshman team. He has nine goals, 10 assists and eight drawn exclusions this season
> Harrison Land was placed on the All-Freshman Team as a goal keeper. He has 139 saves and a .471 save percentage

TOP PERFORMERS
> Jason Evezard leads the Anteaters with 54 points (44 goals and 10 assists)
> Casey Lynton is second on the team with 26 goals
> Bryant Joudrie has 21 goals on the season and leads the team in assists (22) and steals (22)  
> Jon Polos has drawn a team-high 30 exclusions and has 21 goals
> Zlatan Nikocevic  and Ivan Mercep are also in double-figures with 17 and 13 goals apiece, respectively  
> Harrison Land has totaled 139 saves for a .471 save percentage
> UCI is averaging 9.14 goals per game while allowing opponents 11.62 goals per game
> The 'Eaters are shooting .287 on the season and average 8.86 saves per game