The UCSB women’s basketball team is in desperate need of a victory after three straight losses, and a win against rival Cal Poly Saturday afternoon might be the perfect remedy.

The Gauchos begin a three-game homestand currently sitting in seventh place in the Big West (3-5 in conference, 8-12 overall). Coming off two straight wins at home, the Mustangs are tied for third with UC Irvine (5-3, 8-12).

We just have to keep fighting and not let losses get us down,” senior forward Kelsey Adrian said. “[This game is] big and we’re excited to have them in the T-dome.”

If there’s one key to this game for UCSB, it’s shutting down Cal Poly’s all-star, forward Kristina Santiago, who racked up her third Big West Player of the Week honor this week. The 6’2’’ redshirt senior ranks fifth in the nation in points (23.3 per game), 10th in field goal percentage (56.1 percent), and 23rd in rebounds (10.2 per game).

“She’s going to get her points, but we have to keep her from getting easy baskets and pressure her defensively,” Adrian said. “[Then] we need to box her out and not let her get any easy second chance points.”

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The start of MPSF conference play has not been kind to the No. 15 UCSB men’s volleyball team, as the Gauchos will attempt to win at Pepperdine today after losing their first four conference games.

Falling to No. 4 USC on Wednesday in straight sets, Santa Barbara concludes a three-game road trip against the Waves.

“We need to improve on everything, to be honest,” Head Coach Rick McLaughlin said. “We didn’t do any one skill particularly well [Wednesday] night, so we need to improve on every single thing. The most important thing is to be a little bit more competitive, to try harder.”

After Wednesday’s loss, the Gauchos sit at 2-6 on the season and are in search of their first MPSF victory at 0-4 in conference. Previously losing in straight sets to a pair of top-five teams in UCLA and USC, the schedule does not appear to get any easier for UCSB.

“We’re not worried about playing top teams, because we consider ourselves a top team,” junior outside hitter Miles Evans said. “We’re just worried about playing well ourselves, and making sure we do our job on our side of the net.”

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The UCSB swim and dive team will play host to familiar opponent Cal Poly this Saturday at Campus Pool in their final dual meet of the season. The Gauchos will have a lot of emotion on their side as they plan to send their senior swimmers off on a high in their senior meets.

The Gaucho men will be honoring seven of their seniors, including captain Kevin Ferguson, who competes in the sprint freestyle and backstroke events. The women will bid farewell to four of their seniors, including their two captains, butterfly swimmer Miranda Schneider and backstroke swimmer Kendall Neely, who also swims as part of the 200-yard medley “A” relay team.

“This is an emotional meet,” Head Coach Gregg Wilson said. “All of the underclassmen want to win this for the team but also to send our seniors off.”

After coming off a huge victory against defending conference champions UC Davis, the women’s team will now shift its focus and turn their attention to Cal Poly which earlier in the fall handed the women’s team their worst defeat of the season (177.5-117.5).

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The UCSB men’s basketball team will travel to Cal State Fullerton tomorrow night to face the Titans in its final game of a four game road trip. Three games into the trip, the Gauchos are 3-0 and will look to capture its fourth straight against Fullerton. The Gauchos (12-7 overall, 7-2 Big West) are currently in second place in the Big West, behind only first place Long Beach State (16-6, 9-0).

“It will be completely different playing [Fullerton] on the road,” Head Coach Bob Williams said. “They will be more comfortable and shoot the ball better.”

Santa Barbara beat Fullerton in a home game earlier this season by a score of 77-64 on Jan. 5.

“You get an idea the first time of what the other team wants to do against you,” senior guard Christian Peterson said. “The second time around is always harder, especially on the road — teams are more prepared.”

After this weekend, Santa Barbara will host one home game against UC Riverside (10-11, 4-4) before hitting the road for another three games. One of those games is an ESPN Bracket Buster game at Utah State (12-10, 4-3 WAC) on Feb. 18.

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If the UCSB women’s basketball team could find a way to score, it would be a very dangerous team.

Offensive inconsistency once again killed the Gauchos, who lost to USC 50-39 in a nonconference matchup. The loss was the third straight for UCSB, which drops to 8-12 overall. The Trojans improve to 11-9.

“It’s a game of 40 minutes and we did dig ourselves into a whole,” senior guard Emilie Johnson said. “We didn’t expect to just hang in there. We wanted to win.”

The Gauchos’ defense kept the score close throughout the first half, despite shooting just 19.4 percent from the floor, and went down by only six at halftime.

“Our kids know we’re getting wide open shots, so I feel it’s just a mental thing,” Head Coach Carlene Mitchell said. “You can give [USC] credit, but we’re getting the looks that we want and that we work on every day. We have to focus and knock down the open jumpers.”

After halftime, UCSB couldn’t buy a basket. It wasn’t until a free throw by Johnson seven and a half minutes in that the Gauchos scored, which allowed USC to go on an 11-0 run.

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The following is the first Online Nexus Sports Blog, from Christian Peterson, senior forward on the UCSB men’s basketball team.

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On the road for the second match of a three game road trip, the No. 15 UCSB men’s volleyball team lost to MPSF foe USC in straight sets last night, failing once again to capture their first conference victory of the season.

Falling in the first two sets, the Gauchos narrowly dropped a tightly contested third set to end the night with their fourth consecutive loss, the third in a row coming against a top 10 team.

“[USC] didn’t make as many errors as we did,” senior outside hitter Blaine Nielsen said. “When things get tight, we start making some errors. They cut down on the errors and we didn’t.”

Santa Barbara fell to 2-6 (0-4 MPSF) with the loss to USC, and is still in search of its first conference win. After dropping their previous three contests, the No. 4 Trojans won their second in a row to improve to 5-3 (4-3 MPSF).

Southern California captured the first set with relative ease, dispatching the Gauchos with a 25-16 victory behind four kills apiece from senior outside hitter Tony Ciarelli and sophomore opposite Tanner Jansen.

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Ask any American what their favorite day of the year is and you will almost always find that it’s their birthday or Christmas — or 4/20 if they live in I.V. However, Super Bowl Sunday comes in a close second for many.

As football legend Art Donovan once said, “I’m a light eater. As soon as it’s light, I start to eat.” In line with Donovan’s thoughtful insight, many of us will take a similar approach this Sunday and eat like we’re linemen.

What plays out for most of us on this uniquely (fat) American holiday is Richard Simmons’ worst nightmare: bottomless buffalo wings, halftime cheeseburgers and excessive amounts of booze are all reasons viewers can say goodbye to any visible abs. According to a study conducted by The Nielson Company, the Super Bowl ranks seventh among national beer sales, accounting for more than 49 million cases of brewskies sold solely for the momentous occasion. Although there are abundant societal pressures guiding the ideal Super Bowl Sunday schedule, you can dramatically diminish the harmful effects you are self-inflicting by taking note of the following recommendations:

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This Sunday, you can expect upwards of 173 million Americans to be glued to a television, watching the battle unfold between the Patriots and the Giants. But of those 173 million viewers, only 47.3 percent are tuning in for the game.

The Super Bowl is a rare social phenomenon; beside the World Cup and the Olympics, it remains one of the only media events to reach a mass audience — and advertisers have been more than happy to take advantage of it. The game is now known just as much for the football as for the commercials; more than a quarter (25.8 percent) of viewers watch Sunday night specifically for the ads.

In 1967, NBC charged $37,500 for 30 seconds of advertising space during the first Super Bowl; this year, the network is raking in $3.5 million, and $4 million in at least one case, for the same airtime.

Soon to boast the largest viewing audience with the price tag to match, Super Bowl XLVI promises to deliver the best of the advertising world. Expect to see the regulars — Doritos, Budweiser, GoDaddy.com and Pepsi — but be prepared for some newcomers.

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Matchup: New York Giants’ Defensive Line vs. New England Patriots’ Offensive Line

Much maligned for a good part of the season, New England’s O-line is finally healthy. It showed in the AFC championship game, as the group allowed only one sack to a dominant Ravens defense. They will have their hands full once again against an intimidating Giants defensive line featuring the likes of Jason Pierre-Paul, Osi Umenyiora and Justin Tuck. Against the 49ers, the trio forced three sacks on their own, stalling San Francisco’s offense. With three all-pro defensive ends wreaking havoc on the field, the Giants will pressure Brady into making a few mistakes.

Matchup: New York Giants’ Wide Receivers vs. New England Patriots’ Secondary

Giants receiver Victor Cruz, a talented deep threat receiver with the potential to take it to the house on any play, came out of nowhere to make the NFL All-Pro second team this season. Fellow receivers Hakeem Nicks and Mario Manningham will also prove tough to stop for a generally weak, but surging Patriots’ secondary. Although safety Patrick Chung is once again healthy, and corner Sterling Moore has emerged into a major playmaker, New England will have a difficult time stopping Eli Manning from finding his group of receivers.

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Proposition bets are fun opportunities to handicap some aspect of a game beyond the usual winner and over/under bets. A quick explanation: All the lines are based on within the context of a $100 bet. A bet of $100 on +300 (+ indicating the underdog) odds means you bet $100 to win $800. Inversely, a bet of $100 on -800 (- indicating the favorite) odds means that you’ll need to bet $800 just to win $100.

What will be the largest lead of the game by either team?

Over 13.5: -160 ; Under 13.5: +140

I will gladly take the under at +140, thank you very much. I expect a close, hard-fought game where neither team gets a two-touchdown lead.

What will the final score of the game be?

Touchdown: -240 ; Any other score: +200

Not a bad bet if you are convinced the game will be decided by a late field goal…

How many carries will Brandon Jacobs have?

Over 7.5: +105 ; Under 7.5: -125

I will gladly take the over. If Jacobs gets the ball less than eight times, helmets will be thrown, and kegs will be tapped.

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So the big day is finally here. Beer, chips and dip, wings, blunts and more beer will consume my Sunday afternoon on this lovely national holiday. Go America.

And go NFL for giving us such a great matchup, not only for the storylines on the field, but off as well. Rematch anyone?

With the Patriots, it has to all start with Tom Brady and Bill Belichick. The scheming duo has already played in four Super Bowls, winning three. And that one loss, you ask? Yup. To the New York Giants.

It’s hard not to see this year’s Giants team as a flashback to 2007’s team, when New York beat the Patriots in the Super Bowl. That 2007 team backed into the playoffs as a wild card team with a 10-6 record. After three consecutive playoff wins, a fighting underdog attitude and a miracle play in the Super Bowl, the New York Giants became the first wild card team to win the Super Bowl, defeating the previously undefeated Patriots.

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Over the last couple weeks I’ve been hearing people say that they aren’t excited for this year’s Super Bowl. Now if they were referring specifically to the halftime show, I would understand. Why the NFL thinks people want to see Madonna is beyond me. But if you aren’t excited to see a rematch of one of the best Super Bowls in recent memory, then I have two words for you: Get Out. If 2007’s Super Bowl was “A New Hope,” then this is certainly “The Empire Strikes Back,” which everyone knows is the best of the Star Wars movies. Fuck you, George Lucas.

For Tom Brady and the Patriots, this is a revenge game. Revenge not only for 18-1, but also for the game they lost to the Giants earlier this season, and Brady excels in revenge games.

Fast forward to the present, and the Giants team from week nine is nowhere to be found. The current Giants sport a formidable defense and a killer passing attack behind Hakeem Nicks and Victor Cruz. Sure, they didn’t look all that impressive against the 49ers, but they were facing one of the best defenses in the league. A win of any kind against a team like that is nothing to scoff at.

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The No. 17 UCSB women’s water polo team began a six-game home stand last Friday, four of which were part of the 2012 UCSB Winter Invite. After dropping their first game of the weekend to No. 6 Arizona State, the Gauchos rattled off four straight victories against Concordia, Sonoma State, No. 19 Cal State Northridge and CSU Bakersfield before losing their final match of the weekend to Indiana. Santa Barbara will end January with a 7-5 overall record.

“We are very inexperienced,” Head Coach Cathy Neushul said. “We lost 87 percent of our goal production last year so it was really important that we came out early and challenged ourselves, and we did that.”

The weekend’s closing game against Indiana could hardly have been closer. Halftime saw Indiana up 2-1 after matching the Gauchos’ lone goal in the first period and then blanking them in the second to take the slight lead. The second half opened with a 2-2 third period, but the Gauchos outmuscled Indiana 3-2 in the fourth to force overtime. However, the comeback fell short. Indiana’s defense kept UCSB off the board throughout both overtime periods while the offense added two goals to give the Hoosiers an 8-6 win.

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The UCSB women’s basketball team takes a break from conference play tonight to take on USC, the strongest team on the schedule for this year.

The Gauchos enter the game at 8-11 overall and 3-5 in the Big West, while the Trojans are 10-9 and 5-4 in the Pac-12 conference.

Both teams are looking for a win to break a losing streak. USC has lost three in a row, but shouldn’t be underestimated, as they’ve already beaten great teams such as Cal and UCLA this season. UC Santa Barbara lost two critical Big West contests last week at home.

“This one is going to be an interesting test,” Head Coach Carlene Mitchell said. “We have one day and it’s … game time. This will be a great mental test for our team — to see if we’re going to continue to fight because it’d be real easy to lie down after two home losses.”

The Trojans will certainly provide that test, especially offensively. Four players average 11 points per game or higher. In addition, USC also has four players shooting 40 percent or better from three-point range, a spot on the court where opponents have been successful against the Gauchos.

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