Santa Barbara, CA - Two new coaches will assume their roles at SBCC when practice starts on January 20th. Maddie Garcia and Marissa Higgins take over for departed coacn Mike Terry, who will be the head coach for the new CIF boys lacrosse program at Santa Barbara High School. All three local public high schools and the four public junior high schools have added boys and girls lacrosse for the 2015 season. The move bodes well for SBCC as the two year college has been depending quite a bit on lacrosse players who move to Santa Barbara to attend the school. Now the Vaqueros will have a steady influx of local homegrown lacrosse players to go along with the players who come in from all over the state to attend SBCC.

Garcia was a three-time WCLA national champion player at Colorado State University played at CSU during the 2010, 2011, 2012 & 2013 seasons. The Rams won titles in 2010, 2011 & 2013 and were runners-up in 2012. Following her undergraduate career Garcia enrolled at NCAA Division II Regis University for her Masters of Arts in Counseling and discovered the NCAA considered one of her WCLA years a redshirt year. The midfielder played a season of NCAA lacrosse to top off her collegiate year. Additional lacrosse experience comes from running tournaments and lacrosse outreach in the Philippines.  The Portland, Oregon native resides in downtown Santa Barbara and will also be an assistant coach at UCSB.

Higgins will assist Vaqueros head coach Maddie Garcia. The former head coach for the club at University of Florida in Gainesville, Higgins played goal keeper for both the WCLA team and the NCAA Division I team at Florida after prepping at Vero Beach High School in Vero Beach, Florida. Her collegiate career started before Florida added an NCAA program so Higgins played for the WCLA team her first two years. Her junior year she tried out for and made the first year NCAA program in 2010. Higgins returned to Gainesville to get her P.h.d. in Clinical Care and coached the club at Florida from 2013 to 2014.  Higgins is a native of New England but some family moves took her south to the Sunshine State before high school. The Townsend, Massachussetts native resides in downtown Santa Barbara and will also be an assistant coach at UCSB.

The Vaqueros open up the season on the road at UC Irvine and Biola College on Saturday, January 31st. The game at UC Irvine is at 11:00am and the game at Biola is at 4:00pm. 

Irvine, CA - SBCC traveled a small group of players to the Irvine Beach Breakaway Tournament at UC Irvine today.  The Vaqueros were 2-1 in three scrimmage games against two WWLL Division 2 opponents and the UCLA B Team.  In the first contest SBCC were tied 5-5 with the Bruins at halftime before edging them 10-8 for the final score.  The second game of the day was with Biola University. SBCC won that contest 13-3 after leading 5-1 at halftime. In the third and final game for both teams Cal State San Marcos led SBCC 5-4 at halftime and held off the Vaqueros to win 8-6. 

It was the first time playing together since SBCC bested Humboldt State 15-1 on October 4th.  San Marcos is a favorite among WWLL D2 teams to qualify for the final four of the WWLL in April so the close two goal result with them hints at the possibility of a post-season appearance for the Vaqueros.

Rookie goalie Jordyn Reardon (La Jolla, CA) had a breakout day between the pipes and made key saves for the Vaqueros who were on their only road trip of their fall ball season. SBCC wraps up fall ball at the SB Fall Brawl at UCSB November 22nd. 

Santa Barbara, CA - SBCC opened their Fall Ball season with a 15-1 win over visiting Humboldt State. The Vaqueros led 9-0 at halftime on a series of fastbreak goals and some settled play.  Statistics were not recorded but rookie goalie Jordyn Reardon (La Jolla, CA) had her first save. That's first as in first since Reardon prepped at La Jolla High School but did not play lacrosse. It was her first time playing in a lacrosse game. The same was true for first year players Meredith Bowen (San Rafael, CA), Maria Herrera (Lompoc, CA) and Brittney Petersen (Oxnard, CA). The four rookies got their first action outside of practice.

The seeming sea of white-side-out Santa Barbara Lacrosse reversible jerseys, with 15 players in them, contrasted the last game of the spring season. In that last game SBCC were with only 9 players on the field in a 10-11 loss to Loyola Marymount on April 13th. Compared to how they finished  last season the Vaqueros start to 2014-15 on October 4th is full of promise for good things to come.