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UCSB Doubles Up San Diego State 18-9

Box Score

Apr. 10, 2016

Santa Barbara, CA - It was Senior Day for the Gauchos on the UCSB Recreation Center turf and the six UCSB seniors made the most of it. An eight goal run midway through the second half did it for the Gauchos in the regular season finale for both teams as UCSB took down the club from San Diego State 18-9. The score was 11-3 in favor of UCSB at the end of the run of eight straight and that was only twenty-three minutes into the game. Later, at ten minutes into the second half, with 20 minutes left to play the Gauchos were up 17-6 before slowing it down on offense.  Everyone dressed played in the game and that added up to twenty-three Gauchos seeing the field.

A lot of goals were scored but despite shots taken by both teams it were more than six minutes before anyone scored. Both goalies had saves on shots against them before freshman Hollie Pelland (San Diego, CA) found the net on an unassisted goal for UCSB. The Gauchos went up 2-0 less than a minute later when senior Madison Sabbag (Mt. View, CA) fed Pelland. The Aztecs answered with an unassisted goal and outscored UCSB 3 to 1 and it was a 3-3 game. Then came eight straight by the Gauchos for their early 11-3 lead and it was a lead never relinquished. The play of the half was punctuated by reserve attacker Naomi Meave (San Diego, CA) who entered the game at 28:45 to receive a pass 10 yards out from goal and executed a nice face dodge to beat her defender and the slide to score at 28:54, just nine seconds after getting into the game.  It was that kind of day for UCSB.

Senior goal keeper Morgan Ryan (Salt Lake City, UT) had seven saves while allowing five goals playing the first half and only re-entering the second half to close out Senior Day on the field. Sophomores Kaitlyn Pike (Seaholm, MI) and Cyrena Malkowski (Lake Forest, CA) had three saves and two saves, respectively, while allowing just two goals each in the second half. The defense played well with seven defenders rotating through four spots on the field and everyone getting more experience. 

Sabbag led all scorers with 3 goals and 5 assists.  Pelland followed closely with 6 goals and one assist. If Meave punctuated the first half looking smooth in her opportunity then reserve midfielder Omari Harmon (Salisbury, MD) made her own statement in the second half. The sophomore scored the last three goals of the game for UCSB. The first came assisted by Meave in a nice tic-tac-toe-three-in-a-row sequence that started with a center hash free position opportunity for freshman Valerie Smetanka (Trabuco Canyon, CA) after she was fouled on her dodge. On the whistle Smetanka passed to Meave open low who then spotted Harmon cutting in from the top and dished it to her for the goal.  A sequence like that is hard to stop. Harmon scored again unassisted three minutes later and then again ten minutes later before UCSB stopped shooting.

"We're deep and a lot of players on this team can contribute but there's only so many spots on the field and there's only one ball out there," commented UCSB head coach Paul Ramsey. "The more our style becomes share the ball the more players we can use."

UCSB is into the post-season now. The concept of All For One & One For All taking effect for the Gauchos and the team peaking next weekend should mean good things on game day from now on. The Gauchos improved to 10-4 and wait to hear their seed for a WWLL Quarterfinal. All quarterfinals are at 10:00am on Saturday, April 16th, so UCSB knows their game time but not their opponent. A twice in eight days match-up with UC Davis is possible.