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The upsets keep coming at this weekend's SoCal Tournament, and the latests has host, and No. 6 ranked Santa Barbara Gauchos taking out No. 2 UCLA Bruins 11-10. This ended an extremely long losing streak that UCSB had against UCLA.
No. 2 UCLA upset by No. 6 UCSB today, 11-10, snapping a 35-match winning streak for the Bruins over the Gauchos that spanned 20 years.
— UCLA Water Polo (@UCLAWaterPolo) September 30, 2012
That is a long time to not beat one team, and this win coupled with their 12-9 win over Stanford have to make UCSB a contender to win the MPSF and possibly make some noise in the NCAA tournament -- if they qualify. Not be dramatic, but this could be the biggest win ever for UCSB, but at least their biggest win in years.
Hosting this tournament has been huge for UCSB, and that played a part to why they were able to notch an upset against a pair of top-five teams. That is not the only factor, because UCSB nearly took out Stanford at their home pool two weeks ago.
UCSB was looking to run away with the game as they raced out to an 8-4 halftime lead. However, UCLA made plenty of halftime adjustments and outscored UCSB 5-1 in the third quarter to tie the game at nine goals apiece. Then in the fourth quarter both defenses came alive, and the game winning goal came from Derek Shoemaker who had four goals on the day.
Goalie work was a reason that UCSB won as Myles Christian had 10 saves, and UCLA's keeper Matt Rapacz had five saves.
UCSB now advances to the title game against No. 1 ranked USC Trojans at 8:40 p.m. ET, while UCLA is in the third place game against No. 5 UC Irvine.
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