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Gauchos Upend Brigham Young

Box Score

Feb. 16, 2008

Santa Barbara, CA - Shootout play continued for UCSB on Saturday. The Gauchos followed their Friday evening upset of 2nd ranked Colorado State with a 10-4 drubbing of 4th ranked Brigham Young that included a shutout of the Cougars in the second half. UCSB took an evenly played 4-4 first half and cranked it up a notch, maybe two notches, with a 6-0 run to finish the game and put the Cougars away. 

A balanced UCSB scoring effort kept BYU off balance. Eight Gauchos scored goals and ten earned points with at least an assist. It was impossible for the Cougars to figure out who they should defend. Sophomore Maggie Aker (Oakland, CA) and freshman Alyssa Nelsen (Denver, CO) had two goals apiece to lead all scorers and that left room for six other Gauchos to score a goal apiece.

"We're doing a great job of sharing the ball," said head coach Paul Ramsey after the game. "Everyone is selfless right now."

The unselfish play of the offense paid dividends after then second leading scorer Ashley Antoon-Algieri (San Ramon, CA) went down with a quadricep contusion early in the first half. A collision between a BYU defender and Antoon-Algieri while the attacker was receiving a pass in front of the goal resulted in the BYU player's knee in Antoon-Algieri's quad. The freshman couldn't even put weight on it after the dust settled and had to come out. She is expected to miss at least a week while recovering.

"Losing Ashley with the game that close but then breaking it open anyway in the second half," said Ramsey, "is another indicator of our talent level and style of play."

While the offense was busy sharing the ball and involving each other on the attack at the BYU end of the field the Gauchos defense handcuffed the BYU offense. Senior Kristyn Gherardi (San Mateo, CA) caused 6 turnovers and scooped up 5 ground balls to lead her team while freshman Diane Clow (Poway, CA) had four of her game total seven saves in the second half. It was a game that BYU won in only one category. They had 12 of the 16 draw controls in the game. It didn't phase UCSB as the Gauchos worked hard on immediate double teams in the midfield and took the ball away. UCSB had 20 caused turnovers overall.

The win raised UCSB to 5-0 and set up an afternoon contest with 9th ranked and undefeated Michigan. The Wolverines were a 15-7 winner in their Friday game against BYU so the common opponent comparison makes them seem 2 goals better than the Gauchos.