Denver, CO - UCSB lost a heartbreaker to Cal Poly SLO in overtime of their WDIA National Championship Tournament semifinal game in Denver. The score was 4-4 at halftime and 8-8 at the end of regulation. The overtime was 3-2 in favor of the Mustangs providing the final 11-10 score. Junior Katie Moran (San Rafael, CA) led UCSB with 2 goals and 2 assists. The Gauchos took an 8-7 lead with less than two minutes remaining when senior Kristen Dickey (Davis, CA) assisted freshman Ashley Antoon-Algieri (San Ramon, CA) but Cal Poly SLO tied it at 8-8 on an unassisted goal with 7 seconds left in the game. Overall UCSB outshot the Mustangs 34-25, including 17-8 in the second half, but were turned away repeatedly by Mustang goalie Paige Spalding. The sophomore turned in a 19 save performance.

More to come.

Denver, CO - The Gauchos pretty much repeated their regular season performance against 8th ranked Lindenwood in a 19-13 quarterfinal win at the WDIA National Championship Tournament in Denver. UCSB won the February 9th contest 19-9 at home. This time around in the national championship quarterfinal UCSB led 9-3 at halftime and were up 17-7 with 12 minutes remaining in the game with an 8-4 performance in the first 18 minutes of the second half. Lindenwood then took advantage of some liberal subbing by the Gauchos and went on a 6 goal run over a seven minute span against UCSB reserves to get to within 4 goals. Gaucho starters returned to the game and silenced the Lions by scoring 2 goals while holding them scoreless in the last 4 minutes and finished the game with the ball.

"Our reserves are among the best in the country," said head coach Paul Ramsey after the game, "but I may have been a little too ambitious clearing the bench against the 8th ranked team in the WDIA."

Ramsey was referring to the 6 goal run by Lindenwood but at this point in the season just being able to work reserves into a national quarterfinal game with a Top Ten team is a good sign for the program. At no other point before that was Lindenwood able to put more than two goals together back to back while the Gauchos scored on runs of 3, 5 and 4 straight goals, respectively.

Denver, CO - Five UCSB players have been selected for WDIA All-American honors and one of them also earned a Player of the Year award. During the US Lacrosse WDIA Tournament Awards Banquet at the Denver Renaissance Hotel senior captain Kristyn Gherardi (San Mateo, CA) was named Defensive Player of the Year for all of the 170 team WDIA. The award followed up on Gherardi being named First Team All-American for the second time.

First-time UCSB All-Americans are seniors Kristen Dickey (Davis, CA), Emily Ruby (Davis, CA) and junior Katie Moran (San Rafael, CA) who were all selected to the First-Team. Sophomore Maggie Aker (Oakland, CA) was named Second Team All-American. Aker scored her 50th point of the season earlier in the day during the Gauchos win over the club from Boston College when she assisted freshman Ashley Antoon-Algieri (San Ramon, CA) on the final UCSB goal of the game.

Denver, CO - In the first round of the WDIA National Championship Tournament UCSB led 7-3 at the half against the club from Boston College and won 12-8 to advance to a quarterfinal game with Lindenwood University. The 8th ranked and 8th seeded Lions beat the Bruins 11-10 in a repeat result from the regular season. Lindenwood won 9-8 at UCLA on February 8th. The Eagles were unranked all regular season and 16th seeded in the tournament but they didn't make things easy for the Gauchos. BC did finish the regular season 8th in the RPI and may have received a bum deal getting the 16th seed and having to face the top seeded Gauchos.

"That was a good team we just played," said head coach Paul Ramsey after the game. "It took some work to put them away."

The point where the outcome seemed somewhat assured was when UCSB led 12-5 midway through the second half. However, the Eagles kept at it and scored the last three goals of the game over the final 15 minutes against UCSB reserves for the final 12-8 score.

UCSB sophomore Maggie Aker (Oakland, CA) led all scorers with 3 goals and 1 assist. Aker was one of 8 Gauchos to get a point on a goal or an assist. Sophomore Samantha Lutz (San Diego, CA) put in 2 goals and contributed an assist while sophomore Michelle Davis (San Diego, CA) scored 1 goal and had 2 assists. Junior Katie Moran (San Rafael, CA) and Monora Seth (San Diego, CA) led the UCSB defensive efforts. Moran had 6 caused turnovers and 6 ground balls while Seth had 7 caused turnovers and 5 ground balls. Freshman goal keeper Diane Clow (San Diego, CA) had 9 saves. UCSB used all 24 players who traveled and finished the game with all but two starters standing on the sideline.

Santa Barbara, CA - Fundraising for UCSB post-season expenses climbed above the $17,000 mark this morning. Giving leaped past the $10,000 mark on April 26th in a campaign that started on April 21st. It jumped past the $15,000 mark on April 30th. The amount raised now sits only $2,750 from the goal of $20,000. Numerous parents, alumni and friends of the program have stepped up and responded to the amount needed to be raised. The giving thermometer shows the current progress.

The target of $20,000 is part of the estimated $22,862.11 that will be spent for all post-season activities. This includes expenses for the WWLL Championships, the WDIA Championships and the team awards banquet later in May. If everyone turns out to be too generous then the team will be able to apply any extra amount raised to the $3,608.98 uniform loan UCSB Rec Sports provided this year. That's half of what was spent to purchase 54 sets of new uniforms (home jersey, away jersey and kilt) for the A, B and C teams. The other half of the new uniform bill has already been paid by the team. Therefore a donation from any parent will benefit their daughter.

Please visit the Support UCSB Lacrosse page of this website to get information on how to make a tax deductible donation to support the Gauchos.