Santa Barbara, CA - Second ranked UCSB held the 7th ranked Bruins scoreless for 24 minutes in the second half of a WWLL Central game played at night under the lights at Harder Stadium to win 14-5 and get their 10th win of the season. The Gauchos reeled off 7 unanswered goals to break the game open. Senior All-American attacker Sam Lutz (San Diego, CA) had a hand in the first 5 goals of the 7 goal run with 1 goal and 4 assists. Lutz, who led all scorers with 2 goals and 4 assists, was playing in just her second game back after an ankle injury sidelined her for the first 9 games of the season.

The game started off all UCSB as the Gauchos scored 4 straight to open it. Four different players tallied a goal each in the first 12 minutes ending with Lutz getting her first goal of the season when senior Maggie Aker (Oakland, CA) assisted her at 11:12 elapsed in the game.

"Sam is working her way back into form after missing two and a half months of practice and far too many games," said UCSB head coach Paul Ramsey after the evening was over.

"She did a nice job today of letting the game come to her and not trying to force it all to happen her first ten minutes back."

Lutz was the second leading scorer for UCSB in 2009 with 42 goals and 31 assists. Having her back in action adds more fuel to the UCSB offense. The fact the Gauchos are 10-1 against 9 ranked teams without Lutz in top form speaks volumes about the depth of their offense.

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Baltimore, MD - UCSB women's lacrosse remained firmly in place at the #2 spot in the WDIA National Top 25 Poll. The Gauchos dropped a close 12-11 game to #1 ranked Santa Clara this past weekend but the voters didn't think a 1 goal loss to the #1 team was a reason for UCSB to drop below the 2nd ranked spot. On the heals of the Gauchos are 3rd ranked Lindenwood. UCSB received 312 points and the Lions received 295. Santa Clara received all 13 possible first place votes and 325 points in the poll.

The Gauchos were 15-14 winners over the Lions on February 12th. Lindenwood has been reeling off lopsided wins over unranked teams the last few weeks but the head to head result between the two teams carried enough weight, even through this voting coming more than a month later. WWLL counterparts Cal Poly SLO, UC Davis and UCLA are ranked 4th, 5th and 7th, respectively, putting five WWLL teams in the Top 10.

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Santa Barbara, CA - The 2nd ranked Gauchos hosted top ranked Santa Clara and lost by a goal in a tight 12-11 contest. Both goalies had 16 saves apiece but the Broncos outshot UCSB 32-29 to get the win. Santa Clara fueled their efforts by winning the draw control battle 17-8 and ground balls 20-15.

The Broncos scored the first goal of the game when senior Krista Shaw (Denver, CO) assisted freshman Maggie Burke (Lake Forest, IL) at 4:22 into the match. UCSB answered that when senior Sam Lutz (San Diego, CA) fed sophomore Maegan Cruse (San Diego, CA) at 5:55 to tie it 1-1. The Gauchos went up 3-1 on unassisted goals by Cruse and freshman Katie Mitchell (Lafayette, CA) but Bronco freshman Juliana Onieal (New York, NY) found junior Gracie Binder  (Seattle, WA) open in front of the UCSB goal and it was 3-2. That's pretty much how it went all game with one team scoring one or two and the other team scoring one or two. The Gauchos did lead by 2 goals twice more in the first half but could not put any distance between themselves and Santa Clara.

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Baltimore, MD - Santa Clara stayed top ranked and UCSB stayed in the second spot for the second consecutive week in the WDIA National Top 25 Poll. The most recent rankings confirm the #1 versus #2 match-up looming on the horizon. The Gauchos host the Broncos at 2pm on Saturday on the Rob Field Turf. Both teams are 9-0 overall. One of the Gauchos' wins came against NCAA DIII Claremont while all of Santa Clara's wins are against WDIA teams.

Santa Clara received 10 of the 13 possible first place votes in the poll but the overall points total was Broncos 322 and UCSB 311. The list of Top 25 teams illuminates the Gauchos strength of schedule. Already played and bested this year are the 3rd, 4th, 7th, 8th, 13th and 20th ranked teams in the WDIA. Coming up in the next three games are the 1st, 5th and 6th ranked teams.

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Santa Barbara, CA - The Gauchos hosted 4th ranked UC Davis in a Western Women's Lacrosse League inter-region match-up and prevailed 19-18 on a goal scored by junior Ashley Antoon-Algieri (San Ramon, CA) with 1 second remaining. It was the first loss of the season for the Aggies. At one point it looked like 2nd ranked UCSB was going to run away with it when they went up 16-10 with a little under 18 minutes left in the game on an unassisted goal by senior Maggie Aker (Oakland, CA).

The Aggies fought their way back into the game with 4 straight scores to make it 16-14 before Aker stemmed that with a goal on a free position shot. UC Davis then scored 3 in a row to tie it 17-17 with 3:57 remaining, a lot of time for both teams to make something happen for themselves. Antoon-Algieri found Lindsay Remigio (Syosst, NY) alone in front of the net and the freshman finished her opportunity to put UCSB up 18-17. UC Davis midfielder Jacklyn Taylor (Poway, CA) netted an unassisted goal to get her 4th of the game and tie it 18-18 with 51 seconds to go. That set the stage for the last second heroics of Antoon-Algieri.

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Los Angeles, CA - UCSB made the short drive south to face 19th ranked University of Southern California on the road in a weeknight game and picked up their 8th straight win this season with a wet 15-6 outcome. Heavy rain prior to the game soaked the turf but it didn't slow down the 2nd ranked Gauchos. UCSB scored the first two goals but then led only 2-1 after an unassisted Trojan goal 4:25 into the first half. An unassisted goal by freshman Lindsay Remigio (Syosset, NY) started a 9 goal run and the Gauchos sprinted out to an 11-1 halftime lead. Six different UCSB players scored during the run which extended to the first goal of the second half to make it 10 unanswered goals. The Gauchos led 12-1 on the first goal of the second half but USC reeled off 3 straight goals of their own to close the gap at 12-4 with 20 minutes remaining. Then each team traded goals 1 for 1 over the last four goals of the game for the 15-6 final.

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Baltimore, MD - UCSB dropped to #2 and Santa Clara moved up to the #1 spot in the USL WDIA National Top 25 Poll released today.  The Gauchos did not play last week and remain 7-0 overall and 6-0 in the WDIA. The Broncos stunned #5 UCLA 18-5 on February 20th in their only game of the week to leap over the inactive Gauchos to become the #1 team in the land. The big score swayed the voters. Santa Clara received 6 first place votes, UCSB received 4 and defending national champion Virginia Tech (2-0) received 1 first place vote but finished way down in the poll at 15th overall.

Five of the six remaining regular season opponents remaind ranked starting with #19 USC. UCSB takes on the Trojans (3-3) on their home turf this evening in a 7pm game. USC also dropped one spot in this week's poll, from 18th to 19th, despite not playing.

Read more in the Lacrosse Magazine On-Line article.