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UCSB Wraps Up Regular Season With Success Against Trojans

Box Score

Apr. 11, 2009

Santa Barbara, CA - The top ranked Gauchos hosted unranked USC for Senior Day on the Rob Field Turf and won 19-5 with all five seniors starting together for the first time this year. It was the first home game for UCSB since a February 28th contest with unranked UC San Diego, a game UCSB won with an identical score in a similar fashion. Thirteen different Gauchos got involved in scoring against USC with at least a goal or an assist. The number of players who contributed on offense in this game is more than there are positions on the field, which is twelve, and it set a new standard for UCSB for scoring participation this season. The previous best had been eleven Gauchos getting involved on offense in a 20-5 win over Arizona State at the Surfside Cup in San Diego on January 25th.

"We are sharing the ball really well right now and we're getting selfless play out of everyone," said second year head coach Paul Ramsey after the game. "The best thing is there was no conscious effort to spread it around this particular game, it's just our style of play."

UCSB players passed off numerous times instead of taking their own shot and it created even better opportunities on goal with cross crease looks and diagonal passes to trailing cutters. The Gauchos had one tic-tac-toe passing sequence in front of the goal where two different players could certainly have justified taking the shot but each made one more pass until a cutting Matty Evoy-Mount (Davis, CA) got a layup on a dish-off from Camille Elguero (Redwood City, CA) for a tight feed and bounce shot finish. It started with a dodge from behind the goal that drew a double team that led to a skip pass to the top corner where that dodge drew another extra defender which resulted in an entry pass to backdoor cutting Elguero that she then dished off to Evoy-Mount on the other side of the crease. USC needed four consecutive slides to cover the sequence and they didn't get them.

"Everyone just looks for each other and it's more unconscious than anything else," said Ramsey. "It's like we have a dozen basketball point guards out there."

With UCSB seniors Selina Eadie (Davis, CA), Elguero, Evoy-Mount, Kateri McLucas (Walnut Creek, CA) and Katie Moran (San Rafael, CA) all starting the game the Gauchos took a 3-0 lead in the first 5:19 of play. Freshman Meg Cruse (San Diego, CA), Evoy-Mount and junior Sam Lutz  (San Diego, CA) scored the first three goals and were assisted by Lutz, Elguero and sophomore Ashley Antoon-Algieri (San Ramon, CA), respectively. That was three goals and five point scorers in five minutes of play. 

A USC goal interupted the flow of UCSB offense at the 7 minute mark but then the Gauchos went on a run of 10 unanswered goals over a span of 26 minutes, through the end of the half and the first 4:24 of the second half. During that run the UCSB 'spread the wealth' philosophy was even more apparent. Eight different UCSB players scored the 10 goals. The Trojans mounted a small comeback by scoring 4 of the next 5 goals to make it 14-5 in favor of UCSB with 15 minutes remaining. The result was the Gauchos responding with a run of 5 straight scores, 4 of them assisted, in the next ten minutes before shutting it down with about 4 minutes to go and stopping at 19 goals for the game. The Gauchos now have 10 players with at least 10 points on the season. Fifteen different UCSB players have scored at least a point.

Draw controls, ground balls and defense led to the numerous offensive opportunities for UCSB. The Gauchos had 16 of the 26 possible draw controls, 39 ground balls and caused 21 USC turnovers. The 76 gained possessions led to UCSB outshooting the Trojans 33-18. Junior Monora Seth (San Diego, CA) played sparingly to make room for seniors but had 5 caused turnovers, 8 ground balls and 1 draw control. She was eclipsed only by Moran, who had 6 caused turnovers, 6 ground balls and 7 draw controls. Freshman Jeni Centner (Tustin, CA) had 10 saves against 15 shots on goal and the UCSB defense forced the other three USC shots wide.

UCSB improved to 15-2 overall and 9-0 in league play. The Gauchos locked up the #1 seed for the WWLL Division One Championship April 18-19 with the win over USC. The Gauchos are hosting the 8 team championship tournament and will likely face ASU in a 10:00am Saturday quarterfinal matchup on Storke Field. The 8 team bracket is being played out with four quarterfinal games on Storke and the semifinals and championship game in Harder Stadium. ASU beat Arizona 16-7 Friday night to secure the last spot in the 8 team field. Semifinals for the side of the bracket UCSB is on will be at 2:00pm on Saturday in Harder. Stadium. The championship game is at 2:00pm on Sunday in Harder Stadium.