Baltimore, MD - Pre-season rankings by Lacrosse Magazine were released on December 29th for all associations and divisions of collegiate lacrosse. The Gauchos are ranked 7th in the 20 team U.S. Lacrosse Women's Collegiate Lacrosse  Associates (WCLA) Division One poll. Colorado State, two-time defending national champions, were selected as the top team. Six WWLL teams are ranked in the National Division One Top 20 and 4 WWLL Division Two teams are ranked in the Top 20 of their national poll.

The pre-season poll generally mirrors the finish of teams from the season before but, interestingly, the Gauchos were picked 7th despite advancing to the national semifinals last year. UCSB upset the club from the University of Florida 12-11 in overtime in the national quarterfinals. UCSB finished higher in the post-season than three teams deemed fitter by the pollsters for higher pre-season spots. UC Davis, Colorado and Florida were all eliminated in the quarterfinals while the Gauchos advanced. UC Davis and Colorado are ranked 2nd and 3rd, respectively, while Florida is 6th. The only loss for UCSB in the regular bracket at the tournament was a 7-10 loss to eventual national champion Colorado State.

The Gauchos have 8 pre-season ranked teams on their schedule and 6 of them are in the Top 10. It's a schedule strong enough for a solid strength of scheduling rating at the end of the season. UCSB returns ten starters but the two players who have graduated leave open important roles that need to be filled. First Team All-American attacker Ashley Antoon-Algieri (San Ramon, CA) and left-handed midfield Alyssa Nelsen (Denver, CO) graduated.

The cupboard is not bare for UCSB, however. The Gauchos have four returning All-Americans.  They are senior attacker Maegan Cruse (San Diego, CA), senior goalie Jeni Centner (Tustin, CA), junior midfielder Katie Mitchell (Lafayette, CA) and junior defender Emilia Norlin (Mill Valley, CA).

U.S. Lacrosse WCLA Division I Pre-Season Poll *

 1. Colorado State
 2. UC Davis
 3. Colorado
 4. Santa Clara
 5. UCLA
 6. Florida Club
 7. UC Santa Barbara
 8. Cal Poly SLO
 9. Michigan
10. Brigham Young
11. Georgia
12. Texas
13. Maryland Club
14. Pittsburgh
15. Virginia Tech Club
16. Boston College Club
17. Virginia Club
18. Washington
19. Arizona State
20. Central Florida

Preseason Player of the Year: Clayton Crum, University of Texas

* Teams in bold are on the UCSB regular season schedule.

For a complete listing of all pre-season polls please visit Lacrosse Magazine On-Line.

Santa Barbara, CA - The 24th Annual Santa Barbara Shootout is more than two months away but 52 of 64 spots in the event have already been claimed. The Shootout is February 17 - 19, 2012 at UCSB, SBCC and Girsh Park. Participation in the tournament is capped at 64 teams across all divisions. Shootout teams will be descending on Santa Barbara from all over the United States ...16 different states to be exact... from Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Texas, Utah, Washington and Wyoming. The Shootout annually brings in about 1,200 athletes to Santa Barbara. More than 1,500 additional people come to town too in the form of family members, fans and officials.

The WCLA D1 bracket is full at 24 teams and has 2 teams on the waiting list. Spots are likely to be created in that division based on the open slots in other divisions. Divisions not filled by December 15th will reduced to a minimum number optimal to offer the division to allow for accepting teams on the waiting list in any division. The December 15th date for this adjustment lets waiting list teams know they're accepted a full two months out from the tournament.

• 2012 Participating Teams (PDF)

If any teams look at what's open and their division isn't open they should still register to get on the waiting list before December 15th. It will be first come, first serve to get off a waiting list. Similarly, if a team wants a spot in a division with space they should register before December 15th because after that there might not be space.

The Sweet Teen Division is expected to get a handful more teams but a sleeper division for filling up quickly is the Super Division. It allows for post-collegiate teams, NCAA teams and alumni teams to mix together. The benefit of this mix for these types of teams is getting to play a different slate of opponents than might be normal. The NCAA teams can get scrimmages that won't count on their record before they open the regular season. The po-co teams have a chance to line up against an NCAA team and alumni teams create the opportunity for friends who haven't seen each other all at once in ages to make that happen too.

There were some early concerns about other tournaments moving their events to the same three-day weekend in February that has been the traditional date for the Shootout for most of its 24 years. The concerns have proven unfounded with 52 teams registered more than two months out being the most in the history of the Shootout.

Santa Barbara, CA - The annual UCSB Lacrosse Alumni Weekend featured a series of games at the UCSB Lacrosse Field (aka The Pit). The UCSB men's team took care of business in their game against their alumni and won 12-5. The score was 11-2 until UCSB cleared the bench in the final period. The outcome was never really in doubt, starting from before warm-ups, based on how the current men's team were all together at the field by 11am to watch the UCSB Lacrosse Hall of Fame Game and then immediately took to the field for sharp looking line drills to warm up. The efficiency continued throughout the game as UCSB dismantled their alumni from start to finish. Following that show the UCSB women's lacrosse alumni game commenced. UCSB led 4-2 at halftime against an alumni team featuring 7 former WDIA or WCLA All-Americans. A strong second half propelled the alumni past the current Gauchos for the first alumni win in the history of the series. It was a last second goal with 1 second left on the clock that won it for the alumni.

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Santa Barbara, CA - The UCSB 3 v 3 Tournament Sponsored by Brine has been postponed from November 6, 2011 to the January 21 - 22, 2012 weekend due to the grass UCSB Lacrosse Field being closed in advance of the incoming rain. The precipitation is forecast to start at 3am and continue until about 3pm. With the Lacrosse Field already a fragile surface, and the tournament being an informal Fall Ball individual registration event, the turf in January will be better than wet muddy grass in November. The UCSB turf is not available November 6th but is already reserved for team use all day January 21st and 22nd for the UCSB Nifty 60 Camp. A schedule for the two days that allows for both events will be crafted and a change to a 7 v. 7 format is something also being considered.

"This is a super fun event and great format where everyone on the field is involved in non-stop action but it's a play, watch, play, watch, play, watch situation," comments event director Paul Ramsey. "It's one thing to play a game in the rain and then head out home or back to your hotel and a hot shower."

"It's another to stand around in the rain for five hours during a fall ball event."

Please direct questions about the January 21st - 22nd events to Paul Ramsey.

Santa Barbara, CA - The three Santa Barbara squads playing in the 4th Annual Santa Barbara Fall Brawl at UCSB combined for a 6-3 overall record on the day. The Fall Brawl featued 27 teams all playing three 40 minute games. A total of 40 games were played in the one day event by teams from all over California and from Nevada.

In the opener for a Santa Barbara team UCSB Blue won 10-6 against a post-collegiate team from San Diego calling themselves the Brawlers. Playing at the same time on the adjacent field UCSB White led UCLA White by a goal at the half and then won the second half by a goal to win 9-7 overall. SBCC opened with a 13-10 win over UNLV. The Vaqueros were down 6-8 at halftime but stormed back to win the second half 7-2 and eclipse the Runnin' Rebels.

In the second round for the UCSB squads a team of players from the University of Redlands on a team named Yah Doode for this tournament broke open a 5-5 halftime score to win 10-7 over UCSB Blue. It was a run-away for UCSB White over UC Irvine. The Gauchos led 8-1 at halftime and then blanked the Anteaters 5-0 in the second half to win 13-1. SBCC held off a surging Sonoma State team to win 8-7. The Vaqueros led 5-2 at the half but the Seawolves outscored SBCC 5-3 in the second half. Getting 3 goals in the second half clinched it for SBCC.

UCSB Blue trailed Tricheck 3-6 in the first half of the last game of the day for both teams. The post-collegiate team from Los Angeles ran away with the second half to get a 10-5 win. The UCSB White team was stymied by Sonoma State, losing 9-2 in the last game of the day for both of those teams. Wrapping up the day in a fine fashion were the Vaqueros. SBCC led UC Irvine 6-1 at halftime and won 9-4, finishing the day 3-0 overall.

The next event for UCSB is their own 3 v. 3 Tournament on Sunday, November 6th, and the short Fall Ball season ends with an alumni game on Saturday, November 12th.

Santa Barbara, CA - Twenty-seven teams will play forty games at the Santa Barbara Fall Brawl Sponsored By Brine. This is the 4th Annual version of the event and it will take place at UCSB Storke Field on Sunday, October 23rd. It is the largest field of teams for the Fall Brawl since it's inception in October 2008. The Fall Brawl is a set schedule event with opponents and game times pre-determined.

• 2012 Fall Brawl Schedule
• More Information (Directions, Maps and More)
  

The Fall Brawl features divisions for post-collegiate, collegiate, high school and middle school teams. All teams are girls and women despite an attempt to include boys and men for the first time. A few boys and mens teams entered but not enough to include them.

"I really thought we'd have the opposite problem when we announced the boys and mens lacrosse divisions last May," said tournament director and head UCSB women's lacrosse coach Paul Ramsey.

"I was bracing to have to turn away boys and mens teams so the girls and womens divisions wouldn't be impacted," added Ramsey. 

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Orange, CA - The Santa Barbara Fall Ball Squad won 1 and lost 2 in the inaugural Chapman University Play-Day. In the first contest UCSB Blue led 5-4 at halftime over Chapman Black and led by a goal late in the 40 minute scrimmage. The Panthers stormed back to win 11-9. The second game was also a two goal game but with different teams from each University having the opposite experience. This time Chapman led 3-2 at halftime but it was Santa Barbara coming back and winning it in the end by a score of 8-6.

The next game pitted UCSB against the NCAA Division One team from San Diego State. Neither team scored for a few minutes and it was 2-2 at one point but the Aztecs started connecting and fastbreaked to an 8-2 halftime lead. At the start of the second half a defensive stand by Santa Barbara stymied SDSU for a while but then another run by the Aztecs resulted in 6 straight goals. In the closing minutes Santa Barbara and San Diego State traded goals for a final of 15-3 in favor of the Aztecs. The last game of the day featured Chapman and San Diego State just minutes after the UCSB vs. SDSU game ended. Chapman scrapped their way to a three goal game in a 7-10 loss.

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