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UCSB Wins WWLL Championship

Box Score

Apr. 19, 2009

Santa Barbara, CA - UCSB rallied to come from behind against Santa Clara to win 12-10 and capture the Western Women's Lacrosse League championship in Harder Stadium at UCSB. The Gauchos were on the short end of it with 10 minutes remaining after Santa Clara went up 10-9 on a free position goal from junior Claire O'Leary (Del Mar, CA). UCSB then scored three straight in just over four minutes to ice their second consecutive WWLL title. Freshman Maegan Cruse (San Diego, CA) assisted junior Francesca Perrone (Davis, CA) for the tying goal with 8:03 remaining. Sophomore Ashley Antoon-Algieri (San Ramon, CA) baited and then dodged her defender for a solo score to put UCSB ahead 11-10 with 6:41 to go. Then junior Sam Lutz (San Diego, CA) fed Antoon-Algieri an opposite post feed which the attacker quick-sticked in for the insurance goal with 3:54 to go in the game. That provided the final 12-10 score.

During the UCSB rally freshman goalie Jeni Centner (Tustin, CA) turned back a point blank Santa Clara shot at a time when a score would have put Santa Clara up by a goal. Antoon-Algieiri got her unassisted goal at the other end after UCSB cleared the ball down the field and settled on offense to work for a good opportunity. The two back to back plays, Centner save and Antoon-Algieri goal right afterward, made for a two goal swing for UCSB that sealed the victory. In keeping with the UCSB theme of the last two years, though, scoring was balanced among 8 different Gauchos and that really made the difference for them. Five Broncos got in on the action, which is a good amount of involvement on offense, but it's not like eight getting involved.

Perrone was 8th in overall goals on the team going into the game with 10 goals in 17 games but that didn't stop junior Maggie Aker (Oakland, CA) from giving her the ball when she was open in front of goal ten minutes into the second half. Perrone turned after catching the pass from Aker, avoided a Santa Clara defender and took the time to fake All-American Renee Eligio (San Francisco, CA) before slipping it past her. That score put UCSB up 8-5. Later when Cruse fed Perrone with eight minutes remaining in the game the attacker to attacker combo tied it at 10-10. Ditto earlier in the game as senior captain Katie Moran (San Rafael, CA) nonchalantly fed senior Matty Evoy-Mount (Davis, CA) 9 minutes into the game to give her an opportunity to score.

"I love winning that way," said head coach Paul Ramsey after the game. "We won by two goals and Fran scored two. But then Katie had two and Ashley had two. Matty got one. Maggie had three goals and an assist to lead all scorers. Sam got a goal coming in as a reserve for the first time all season. Meg Cruse had 1 goal. We had assisted goals on 6 of our 9 goals from the field. At the other end our defense was clamping down and winning ground balls. Then Jeni comes up with a big save that really sparks us."

"It all adds up, it's great lacrosse and it's dynamic."

UCSB entered the WWLL tournament 15-2 and ranked #1 in the WDIA National Poll. The 3 wins run their record up to 18-2 and now the Gauchos look like a lock to get the #1 seed in the WDIA National Championship Tournament when selections are announced late in the day Monday. The WWLL champion receives an automatic bid to the tournament. The national championships will be held in Scottsdale, Arizona May 6th - 9th.

Rec Sports Website Article (GauchosPlay.com).

Photo gallery from the game.

Photo gallery from the entire WWLL Championship weekend.