IRVINE, Calif. – Six UC Irvine men's water polo players earned All-Big West honors, the conference office announced Friday.

The Big West Champions Anteaters went 18-9 in the regular season and return to the NCAA Championships for the 22nd time, but the first in thirty years. Head Coach Dan Klatt has led UCI to their second consecutive season after taking over the helm last year.
 
UCI landed Luka Krstic on the All-Big West First Team.
 
Krstic was awarded a spot on the All-Big West First Team as a dominate season on the attack for UCI. The sophomore leads the team with 68 total points behind 43 goals and 25 assists. Krstic had 13 multi-goal showings and two of those efforts helped him to earn Big West Player of the Week honors on Oct. 25. The attacker holds a 26-9 sprint record which is best on the team and a top three mark in the Big West. Krstic earned the Big West Championship semifinal win for UCI against UC Davis with his five goals where his final goal was the game winner in the last 30 seconds of the contest.
 

The duo of junior Tyler Padua and freshman Johann Thrall earned spots on the All-Big West Second Team.
Padua earns his third postseason honor in his third year as an Anteater. The center leads the team with 50 drawn exclusions and 12 field blocks. Padua's 12 field blocks is the best mark overall in the Big West. The junior poured in 26 goals this season and notched his one hat-trick against USC on Sept. 10.

Thrall leads the team in goals scored with 48 and is second on the team in points with 65. The freshman also dished out 17 assists, stole the ball 21 times, and blocked six shot attempts in his freshman campaign. In Thrall's 15 multi-goal games he scored exactly four goals in a contest, a season best, three different times.
 
 
The All-Big West Honorable Mention team is made up of goalkeeper Jacob Pyle and center Jack Stevens.

Junior Jacob Pyle put on a show in the cage this season with 146 total saves. In the first game of the season, the goalkeeper notched a career high 14 saves in a game and tied it three other times during the season. Since then, Pyle has recorded seven total double figure save games, two of which came in the Big West Championships. The junior has a 10-6 record and a 0.469 save percentage. Pyle was named the Big West Championships MVP for his dominant performance in goal.

Stevens has earned his first career postseason award after a dominate year. The center totaled 40 points on the season with 27 goals and 13 assists as well as recording 28 steals. The junior's defining moment of the season was when he scored the game winning goal in overtime in the regular season meeting with UC Davis, 13-12, to help UC Irvine take first place in the league standings.
 

Lastly, Gage Verdegaal joins Thrall on the All-Big West Freshman Team.

In his first year in the pool for the Anteaters, Verdegaal totaled 62 points off 34 goals and 28 assists. Both marks are good for third best in each category on the team. The freshman also tallied 17 steals and two field blocks. Verdegaal had 11 multi-goal performances on the year and scored in 16 of 27 games played.
 

UCI's season continues next week at the NCAA Tournament taking on No. 4 seed Princeton in their quarterfinal matchup, Friday, Dec. 1 at 2:00 p.m.