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UCSB Ranked 2nd in Lacrosse Magazine Pre-Season Poll

Dec. 22, 2009

Baltimore, MD - Lacrosse Magazine pre-season rankings were released today for all associations and divisions of collegiate lacrosse. UCSB nabbed the second spot in the 20 team U.S. Lacrosse Women's Division Intercollegiate Associates (WDIA) poll. The club from Virginia Tech, defending national champions, was selected as the top team. Interestingly, the Gauchos were picked ahead of University of Colorado, Boulder who were a 18-16 winner over UCSB in the national semifinals last season.

"This is nice but it's a little bit of a gift from the voters," commented UCSB head coach Paul Ramsey after he saw the press release. "Yes, it shows the voters have confidence in our program but it really slights Colorado."

The Gauchos host Colorado on February 13th when they come to town for the Santa Barbara Shootout February 12th - 14th. The Buffalos now have some motivational material to help inspire them for the game.

UCSB does return ten starters and all five reserves from the 2009 season but the two players who have graduated leave open important roles that need to be filled. Second Team All-American defender Selina Eadie (Davis, CA) and First Team All-American midfielder Katie Moran (San Rafael, CA) graduated. Moran was the WDIA Player-Of-The-Year in 2009 and led UCSB in numerous ways all over the field and it may take multiple players to pick up the slack. Eadie was a vocal leader on defense that UCSB did not find in Fall Ball but will need to find by February.

The cupboard is not bare for UCSB, though, so there's no reason for despair. The Gauchos have four returning All-Americans.  They are senior midfielder  Maggie Aker  (Oakland, CA), junior attacker  Ashley Antoon-Algieri (San Ramon, CA) and senior defender  Monora Seth (San Diego, CA) from the First Team and senior attacker  Sam Lutz (San Diego, CA) from the Second Team. Six other starters return along with all five reserves. Four freshmen managed to make the 'A' Team to put UCSB at 19 strong players all aiming high. It was more competitve to make the 'A' Team this year at UCSB than it has been for the last two seasons.

"This poll highlights for me that pre-season polls are about what the voters think teams are going to do," concluded Ramsey.

UCSB is not shooting for the second spot at the end of the season. The Gauchos have their eyes on the number one spot.

US Lacrosse WDIA Pre-Season Poll *

  1. Virginia Tech Club
  2. UC Santa Barbara
  3. Colorado
  4. Santa Clara
  5. Michigan
  6. Florida Club
  7. Cal Poly SLO
  8. Colorado State
  9. Lindenwood
10. UCLA
11. Georgia
12. Texas
13. Central Florida
14. UC Davis Club
15. Michigan State
16. BYU
17. Maryland Club
18. Minnesota
19. Pittsburgh
20t. Boston College Club
20t. Virginia Club

Preseason Player of the Year: Krista Shaw, Santa Clara

* Teams in bold are on the UCSB regular season schedule.

For a complete listing of all pre-season polls please visit Lacrosse Magazine On-Line.