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UCSB To Open Up Season In Grand Canyon State

Jan. 28, 2016

Santa Barbara, CA - The Gauchos travel to Arizona to open up Western Women's Lacrosse League play at University of Arizona and Arizona State University. The bus will be packed as both the UCSB A, B and X teams are traveling. The Gauchos A-Side will be playing league games while the B and X teams are scrimmaging. Everyone the A Team is playing is putting together a B-Side just for this trip for the Gauchos. Fifty-seven players will be making the trip.

Recruiting efforts that started three years ago for this freshman class and the continuing practice of encouraging freshmen beginners to learn to play lacrosse have paid off this year for UCSB.  It will be like traveling with a small college football team with the 57 players. Twenty-five players are on the A Team and twenty-four players are on the B Team. Another eight players are red-shirting this season but still travel. 

The games with the Wildcats are at Rincon Vista Fields, the home field for the Arizona NCAA Division I soccer program. The games at ASU are at the ASU Band Field. The first stop in the Grand Canyon state is fittingly at Grand Canyon University in Phoenix in first-time match-ups. The UCSB X Team will scrimmage Grand Canyon University and then the UCSB B Team will scrimmage Grand Canyon B. The UCSB X Team is a new side this year. It is made up of a mix of SBCC and UCSB students. SBCC is not fielding a team this year and the SBCC players on the UCSB X Team are redshirting in the UCSB program. X get a limited number of games this season but it is a chance for everyone to get to play.

UCSB is aiming at April and May this year with a one game at a time philosophy. Last week the Gauchos faced fully funded NCAA Division I Fresno State in an exhibition game without five prospective starters. Rested and sitting out at Fresno to recover were a mix of strained hamstrings & quads plus a player in her last phase of recovery from mononucleosis. It wasn't the ideal way to face a full scholarship program but the Gauchos played hard for a full length NCAA game and stayed focus on getting better throughout it to prepare to be at their best in April and May. UCSB expects to be at full strength in the Grand Canyon state. 

Friday, January 29th:

• 6:00pm - UCSB X at Grand Canyon. (Exhibition)
• 7:30pm - UCSB B at Grand Canyon B

Saturday, January 30th:

• 12:00pm - UCSB at Arizona (Rinconv Vista Field)
  
• 2:00pm - UCSB B at Arizona B

Sunday, January 31st:

• 9:00am - UCSB at ASU (ASU Band Field)
  
• 11:00am - UCSB B at ASU B