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Gauchos Hold Steady at 2nd in WDIA National Top 25 Poll

Mar. 18, 2009

Baltimore, MD - UCSB remained 2nd in the nation in the National Top 25 Poll for WDIA teams. This is Week 5 of the weekly season vote by pollsters who consider 221 USL WDIA teams when casting their votes. The Gauchos started out at 5th the first two weeks of the poll, jumped up to 3rd with a 14-13 overtime upset of then 2nd ranked Cal Poly SLO during Week 3 and then improved themselves to 2nd with a 12-4 shocker over then 2nd ranked Santa Clara about a week later, just before the poll for Week 4 was released. An 18-10 win over 17th ranked Pepperdine improved UCSB to 11-2 overall and kept the Gauchos in the 2nd spot for Week 5.

University of Colorado, Boulder held onto the top spot despite dropping to 11-2 overall with a forfeit loss following  the discovery of an ineligible player used in their win over University of Northern, Colorado. The player, who is not a starter, was not on the original eligiblity roster submitted to USL and a supplemental eligiblity form wasn't sent to the USL offices before their Northern Colorado game. It's unclear whether all the voters knew of the forfeit before their votes were due or if they didn't consider the administrative oversight damaging enough to sway their votes. Colorado picked up 9 first place votes, UCSB received 4 and a 9-2 Michigan team received 2 first place votes.

Elsewhere in The Top 25 Poll are the next three opponents the Gauchos face when they resume play after spring break at the Western States Tournament. Fourteenth ranked Michigan State, 23rd ranked Oregon and 24th ranked Texas are all lined up to play UCSB April 4 - 5 at Stanford. The Spartans have a shot at #3 Michigan before that, though, with their game in Ann Arbor on March 22nd. Texas is a team that was ranked as high as 11th, 12th and 15th  in the poll up until a week ago. That was when it was discovered they had been using an ineligible player in their first seven games and their 6-1 record became 0-7 overnight. The player wasn't a starter and despite their record on paper now, the Longhorns have only lost to top ranked Colorado 10-9 at the Santa Barbara Shootout. Texas is back in the poll now with a string of four straight wins that brings their record up to 4-7.