St. Mary's Bests Gauchos in Scrimmage
Moraga, CA - St. Mary's jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the first 5 minutes against visiting UCSB in a fall scrimmage on the Gael's practice field. The two teams played three 25 minute running periods. It was the first meeting with an NCAA Division I team for the USL WDIA Gauchos in more than a decade. UCSB responded to tie it at 3 apiece before St. Mary's surged again to go into half-time up 6-3. In the second half the two teams traded tallies before the Gaels went on a run of 3 unanswered goals to put it away. The final for the first two periods was 12-7 in favor of St. Mary's. The Gaels were coming off a scrimmage last weekend where they outscored the UC Davis NCAA team. The Gauchos hung with St. Mary's in many facets of the game but early trouble defending the St. Mary's up-tempo transition was the difference in the outcome and the reason UCSB was playing catch up from the get go. The Gauchos had trouble getting organized in the face of the initial onslaught. Staying marked up on defense was a task since low defenders were forced to leave their player far too often to help slow the ball. Initially even when play settled UCSB was still scrambling to mark up while the ball was already in dangerous territory. "Once we adjusted and got them into settled situations where their speed wasn't as much of a factor we did a nice job on defense," said UCSB head coach Paul Ramsey . "Dealing with their aggressive back door cutting and diagonal passes in transition was an eye opener but we stepped up nicely and learned from it." "Unfortunately we got behind early and found ourselves chasing the game the rest of the way and that's a difficult thing to do against a faster team." Despite the faster than normal opponent UCSB eventually adjusted to the pace of play and started scoring on some fast breaks of their own. Low attackers slipped back door in transition for the Gauchos and got some easy looks at goal too. Overall for the game the Gauchos were better on settled defense than transition defense and better at scoring on unsettled plays than in set offense situations. That's pretty much what you might expect, though, after only 9 fall ball practices and UCSB players still getting to know each other. Junior midfielder Megan Puckett (Poway, CA) said after the game it was difficult to stay tight on St. Mary's players but she noticed they were often far off their mark on defense too. "We had some room off-ball on offense but we didn't capitalize like they did," said Puckett. The 3rd period was a chance to make sure everyone got some playing time. UCSB went all the way through 24 players. St. Mary's suited up only 17 players for the scrimmage and the same 17 all played against a mix of players mostly new to the UCSB program and on the UCSB "B" team last season. (The third 25 minute period shows as an overtime period in the box score). The result was a 9-4 St. Mary's score in the final stanza but Ramsey was not discouraged. "First of all I think everyone we brought played in the first 50 minutes anyway because we needed to see different combinations of players on the field," commented Ramsey. "Both our goalies got equal time and there were stretches where a good number of our top players were out so we could see everyone else." "We needed to see how our inexperienced players would react to being overwhelmed and then having to fight back and contribute in one of the most adverse situations they'll face this year," added Ramsey. "Overall I think they did a decent job of that which is good because I'd really like to go deep early and often every game in the spring." UCSB continues it's short Fall Ball season at the Hawaii Lacrosse Tournament next weekend. The Gauchos will play 4 to 6 games against U.S. mainland, Hawaiian and Japanese teams. The defending champion is a team called Crease Monkeys, made up mostly of former NCAA Division I players who play for the New York Athletic Club.
|
Copyright 2024 - UCSB Womens Lacrosse | Website by LaxTeams.net