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Gauchos Win 13-12 Nailbiter With University of San Diego

Box Score

Apr. 13, 2014

Santa Barbara, CA - UCSB held on to win 13-12 over visiting University of San Diego in the final regular season game for both teams. The Gauchos were up 9-5 at halftime but the 21st ranked Toreros made a game of it and it took two point blank saves by UCSB senior goalie Megan Hughes (Santa Ana, CA) to preserve the win. Earlier, junior Lori Marchildon (Haddonfield, NJ) scored the game winner for UCSB on an unassisted goal with just under 4 minutes left in the game.

It was the senior game for four UCSB players and emotions were nice and high all around for the Gauchos. Seniors Blair Evans (Salinas, CA), Katie Hubbert (San Jose, CA), Megan Hughes (Santa Ana, CA) and Samantha Wilson (San Jose, CA) played their final regular season home game of their careers. The Gauchos led 9-5 at halftime with a nice dodge to goal by Hubbert that resulted in a goal with 3 seconds to put UCSB up four goals at the intermission. On the way to the halftime lead the Gauchos scored on a nice mix of fastbreaks, early offense and settled offense. Some Gauchos nursing ailments rested in this game but the four goal lead at halftime showed UCSB reserves can play the game. UCSB has had nine different starting line-ups this season and while sometimes they were only off by a player or two other times it's been a markedly different group that takes the field on game day compared to other game days. 

The second half illustrated it will be nice if everyone is healthy next weekend for the WWLL Championship Tournament. The good news first is the Gauchos scored four times on six shots and shot 66.7%. The other news is no matter who is in the game for UCSB the group is too athletic to only muster six shots in a half. San Diego eventually tied the game at 12-12 with just under 10 minutes to play and it took 9th leading scorer on the UCSB team Marchildon putting in the game winner and then some great defense to win it for UCSB. 

"That was Lori's fifth goal in a 14 game season and even though we have all these other players sometimes that's what a team needs," commented UCSB head coach Paul Ramsey.  "You need some unsung hero to step up and do something that makes her team sing."

The goalie stick of Hughes was certainly doing some singing. The UCSB senior followed up a solid 6 save performance in the first half with an operatic ten saves in the second half. Reserve defender Anne Holston (San Diego, CA) stood her ground on defense on the final USD possession and the sophomore drew a charge to get to finish the game with the ball for UCSB.

"Needed those saves in crunch time and got those saves, needed great on-ball defense and go it too," praised Ramsey.

The Gauchos improved to 9-5 overall and 8-2 in WWLL play.  San Diego dropped to 8-5 overall and 5-4 in the WWLL. The Gauchos now await the release of the tournament seedings from the league office in San Francisco hoping to land a spot somewhere in the top three. The Toreros will wait to find out if they get into the event but have a good shot based on wins over Cal Poly SLO, UC Davis and San Diego State. The WWLL quarterfinals are Saturday, April 19th, at the UCSB Recreation Center Sports Complex.