SANTA BARBARA, Calif. --- UC Irvine women's water polo continues to rise winning its first match as the No. 6 team in the nation Saturday downing No. 16 UC Santa Barbara, 16-8.

UCI (13-4, 2-0) was shot out of a cannon in the very first period with the first two goals in the opening two minutes by Tara Prentice. She would go on to score four times in the period, and Elena Flynn punctuated things with a goal with one second left on the clock to put UCI up, 6-2.

The lead grew to 8-2 thanks to two goals from Jessica Lynch. UC Santa Barbara (10-8, 0-1) closed it back to 8-4 with a pair of goals right before the half. The sides traded goals to start the second half including a fifth goal from Prentice, and then the 'Eaters pulled away with four different goals scorers manning a four-goal surge over seven minutes to go up by eight goals.

The final score of 16-8 on the afternoon saw Jensine Bugelli and Gracie Helberg score late in the fourth giving UCI nine different goal scorers on the afternoon.

Prentice continues to grow her career scoring mark now with 209 surpassing the likes of Marty Brooks and Erica Horman on the afternoon for third in UCI history. Toni Shackelford added a hat trick of her own. Faith Tedesco wrapped up her 13th win of the year with nine saves.

UCI has nearly three weeks until its next Big West contest, but are back in the pool next week once traveling to No. 2 UCLA on Friday, March 11.