NORTHRIDGE – With the regular season in the rearview mirror, No. 19 CSUN Water Polo now sets its sights on the Big West Conference Tournament.

Seeded sixth, the Matadors will take on third-seeded UC Irvine in the quarterfinals on Friday at 2:00 p.m. at UCI’s Anteater Aquatics Complex. Live stats will be available for every Matador match this weekend and links can be found on the women’s water polo schedule page.

CSUN finished 15-16 overall in the regular season and in sixth place (0-5) in the Big West standings. Hawai’i won the outright title after going 5-0 in league play while UC Davis and UC Irvine finished tied for second with 3-2 records, and UC Santa Barbara and Long Beach State posted identical 2-3 records. By virtue of tiebreakers, UC Davis received the No. 2 seed and earned a first round bye along with Hawai’i. The winner of the Matadors and Anteaters will take on UC Davis on Saturday while Hawai’i awaits the winner of No. 4 UC Santa Barbara and No. 5 Long Beach State.

Heading into her final Big West Tournament, senior Madeleine Sanchez looks to cement her legacy as one of the top conference players in history. Sanchez broke the Matadors’ career scoring record on April 14 against UC Davis and then shattered the Big West scoring record a day later versus Hawai’i, pushing her career total to 226.

This season, Sanchez has scored a Big West-leading 51 goals to go with 35 assists and 43 steals. Sanchez has been directly responsible for 34.4 percent of the Matadors’ entire scoring output. In league play, Sanchez paced the Matadors with nine goals, eight steals and six assists. Among her many highlights this season, Sanchez posted 14 multiple-goal scoring performances and she received her third career Big West Player of the Week nod on March 28. In her career, Sanchez has netted 10 goals at the Big West Tournament including eight last season against the likes of UC Davis (four goals) and UC Santa Barbara (four goals).

Also leading the way offensively, senior Katelyn Fairchild is fifth in the Big West in goals with 44 while she is tops in the conference in steals (47). Fairchild has notched 14 multiple-goal games on the year, and picked up 27 assists. Senior Shannon Hovanesian leads the Big West in assists with 37 to go with 43 steals and a career-best 28 goals. During the season, the Matadors received a boost from centers Paula Abellan Garcia and Madasonne Butler who netted 21 and 20 goals respectively.

In front of the cage, senior Niki Van Vugt has collected a Big West-best 192 saves, which are four short of her career-best total she put up as a sophomore. Van Vugt has posted a personal-best 7.68 goals-against-average in over 621 minutes of action.

The Matadors are 9-11 all time at the Big West Tournament and seek to end a four-match losing streak in non-consolation contests. CSUN’s last victory in the winner’s bracket took place in 2014 when the Matadors defeated Hawai’i in the semifinals. The Matadors have finished in fifth place in the tournament in each of the last two seasons.

UCI leads the all-time series with the Matadors 28-3 as CSUN seeks its first win over UC Irvine since April 2009. Earlier this season, UCI defeated CSUN 19-6 at the Triton Invitational and 13-3 to open Big West play. The Matadors and Anteaters have faced off three times in the history of the Big West Tournament with UCI winning all three meetings. The teams met up in the championship match in 2009 and 2014 and once in the semifinals in 2012.

A Closer Look at UC Irvine
Last season’s Big West Tournament champions, No. 9 UC Irvine went 11-13 during the regular season but posted victories over UC San Diego and Long Beach State over the last two weeks. In the nine-year history of the tournament, the Anteaters have won the event six times including last season over Long Beach State. Of the team’s three losses at the tournament, each defeat came in overtime.

The tandem of senior Natalie Seidemann and freshman Tara Prentice led the Anteaters on the offensive end throughout the season. Seidemann finished with 34 goals and 10 steals while Prentice tallied 33 goals, 34 steals and 19 assists. In front of the cage, junior Jenna Phreaner posted a 6.41 GAA and 142 saves.