Big Splash of the Week: Aggies vs. Anteaters

UC Irvine's Chelsea Nagata will pit her speed against UC Davis' finest this week.

If anyone can put a stop to the UC Davis women's phenomenal five-meet winning streak, it just might be UC Irvine. But all that will be settled in the water soon enough. The Aggies are hosting the Anteaters this Friday for a more personal rematch of the look they got at one another at the Big West Shootout way back in November. UC Irvine managed to edge out the UC Davis women 94-46 at the Shootout, but experience has weighed largely in the Aggies' favor at this point.

UC Irvine competed in its first dual meet of the season last week. UC Davis, on the other hand, had swept through five in this month alone — all wins, by the way — including a pair of victories over Big West opponents UC Santa Barbara and Cal Poly.

But the Anteaters are making a push to pick up the slack this week. They follow up their first Big West dual meet showdown with another one against another powerful squad, Pacific. The Tigers women are also already 2-0 against Big West foes, while the men have split with a win over Cal State Northridge and a loss to UC Santa Barbara.

The Gauchos, having garnered some conference experience last week, move back into nonconference waters with a trip to UNLV. The two squads already got an eyeful of each other at the UNLV Invitational, but this weekend's fling offers a chance to go head-to-head. Also competing outside of the Big West this weekend are Idaho and Cal Poly. Those squads are hitting the road to take part in separate three-team meets, heading to Oregon State and UC Santa Cruz, repectively.