Saint Mary's men's water polo plays two ranked opponents Saturday, Oct. 3, at the BW Invitational in San Jose.

The No. 20 Gaels face No. 9 San Jose State at noon and No. 13 UC Santa Barbara at 3 p.m. at the Spartan Recreation and Aquatic Center. The Moraga program heads south after a week that earned national attention: junior Noah Bigara's acrobatic goal against No. 4 Cal landed at No. 2 on SportsCenter's Top 10 Plays, according to the Gaels' athletics department.

Bigara has scored nine goals over his last four matches, bringing his season total to 15. He also leads the Gaels with 44 drawn exclusions.

The San Jose State matchup carries extra weight. The Spartans have won two of the last three West Coast Conference (WCC) championships, in 2023 and 2025, and reached the NCAA Tournament both years. San Jose State enters at 6-7 after a 20-10 win over UC Merced following four straight losses to Stanford, UC Irvine, Long Beach State and USC.

Saint Mary's assistant coach Jamie Steingraf was a member of San Jose State's 2023 WCC championship and NCAA Tournament team. Oct. 3 marks his return to San Jose.

The afternoon game against UC Santa Barbara is a rematch. The Gauchos beat Saint Mary's 16-14 in the Gaels' inaugural game at the Triton Invitational. UC Santa Barbara enters at 16-8 and riding a four-game winning streak. Freshman attacker Luigi Canepa leads the Gauchos with 59 goals.

Saint Mary's is in its inaugural season under head coach James Lathrop, who previously served as director of boys water polo at Lamorinda Water Polo Club. The Gaels opened the year ranked 20th in the Collegiate Water Polo Association (CWPA) preseason poll.

The Gaels fell to No. 4 Cal 22-8 on Sept. 24 at Berkeley's Spieker Aquatics Center. Bigara and senior Mason Black each recorded hat tricks. Leo Hachem added his team-leading 26th goal of the season, and goalkeeper Federico Castrucci made eight saves to bring his season total to 58, fifth in the conference.

Saint Mary's followed the Cal loss with a 23-4 exhibition win over Diablo Valley College on Sept. 26 in Moraga. Fifteen different players scored.