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Santa Clara Nips UCSB 12-11

Box Score

Apr. 17, 2016

Santa Barbara, CA - UCSB trailed Santa Clara by two goals at halftime in the third place game of the WWLL Championship Tournament and mounted a come-back but fell short to the Broncos in a 12-11 loss. The Gauchos improved their shooting in this contest, burying 11 of the 19 shots they put on goal, and outscored Santa Clara 5-4 in the second half to pull within a goal with 3:29 remaining. After the Gauchos disrupted the Santa Clara possession that almost ran out the clock UCSB transitioned and took the potential game tying shot with 11 seconds remaining.  A great save by junior Maggie Von Massenhausen (San Jose, CA) let Santa Clara eke out the win. 

Santa Clara scored two quick goals to open the second half of play and led 10-6. Goal keeper Cyrena Malkowski (Lake Forest, CA) entered the game and sparked UCSB. The sophomore had 9 saves and only allowed 2 goals over the final 26:07 of the game. 

As was the case in all three WWLL Tournament games the Gauchos got behind to a fast starting team and had to climb back to make a game of it. In this case it were 2 and then 3 and then later a 4 goal deficit UCSB had to overcome to get within striking distance. When freshman Sarah Griffin (Garden City, NY) assisted freshman Rachael Shaw (San Ramon, CA) the Gauchos had pulled to within one and trailed 10-11 with 5:53 to play. That was the fourth goal in a 4-1 burst to catch up to the Broncos. Freshman Hollie Pelland (San Diego, CA) scored unassisted, Griffin assisted junior Maddy Montague (Aliso Niguel, CA) and junior Meghan Vijayraghavan (Pleasanton, CA) scored unassisted. The offensive output was only marred by a single Santa Clara tally on the way to the almost comeback. 

Santa Clara then scored on a backdoor cut play but UCSB senior Kelsey Trepa (San Diego, CA) answered right back scoring unassisted. The Broncos won the draw but the Gauchos caused a Santa Clara turnover at the defensive end and it led to the final UCSB flurry. Von Massenhausen made her final save against a shot from a nice cross crease feed by the UCSB offense and that sealed the one goal win for the Broncos. 

Eleventh ranked UCSB dropped to 11-6 overall and now waits to hear about an at-large bid for the WCLA National Championship Tournament in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Sixteen teams go and there are nine at-large spots in the event. Thirteenth ranked Santa Clara improved to 9-5 and similarly waits to hear if they will receive an at-large bid.