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UCSB Takes Care of BYU With Strong Second Half To Win 15-9

Box Score

Feb. 15, 2010

Santa Barbara, CA - UCSB hosted 16th ranked BYU on the grass in Harder Stadium and broke open a 6-6 game with a 9-3 second half comprised of inspired transition offense and a stifling defense. It was a performance that gave the Gauchos their most goals scored in a second half this season and their biggest margin of scoring against a ranked team, for a half or an entire game.

UCSB could have done little better on defense in the second half than they did. One of the Cougar goals came when a BYU player stepped into the crease before shooting and then ran into UCSB sophomore goalie Jeni Center after shooting but the violation wasn't called. Prior to that the Cougars got a gimme goal on  a long overthrown pass that looked like it was going to hop but instead skimmed under Centner's stick and into the goal. Since those were 2 of the 3 second half BYU goals, the Cougars earned one. Centner did very well putting the two unusual goals behind her and knuckled down to make two nice saves to close the door on the Cougars in the last 6 minutes of the game.

"That's as impressive as anything else Jeni does out there," said UCSB head coach Paul Ramsey after the game. "It would have been easy to lose focus and let something like either of those plays affect her but she didn't."

UCSB was playing their 5th game in four consecutive days due to having hosted and played in the 22nd Annual Santa Barbara Shootout Sponsored by Brine. The Gauchos dispatched #9 Lindenwood on Friday, #6 Florida and #12 Texas on Saturday and #3 Colorado on Sunday before working clean up for a few hours after the Shootout ended Sunday afternoon. The Cougars were 2-2 in the Shootout with Friday and Saturday games before resting on Sunday. It was a good recipe for a Monday upset but that was not something UCSB let happen.

"That was the situation we wanted to put ourselves in," said Ramsey following the game. "We wanted to simulate the four days of games played at Nationals."

Ramsey was referring to the USL WDIA National Championship Tournament in Scottsdale May 5th - 8th where it takes four wins in four days to win it all and the mental toughness aspect of it is just as important as the fitness, skill and strategy.

UCSB outshot the Cougars 26-18 with a handful of those shots coming off take-aways in transtion defense. Junior Ashley Antoon-Algieri (San Ramon, CA) was a perfect 7 for 7 on shooting to net 7 goals and lead all scorers. The sophomore also assisted on a goal to contribute 8 points for her team.

"Tash stepped up on a day when everyone was tired and our offense wasn't flowing the way we might have liked," commented Ramsey. "Any number of our players are talented enough to take over a game and help make it happen for us and today it was Tash."

The numbers bear out Ramsey's sentiments. It was not just the Antoon-Algieri show since 6 other UCSB players also scored goals. Sophomore Megan Dawe (Martinez, CA) was one of those goal scorers and also snagged 4 draw controls and 4 ground balls to put UCSB in the position to distance themselves from the Cougars.

UCSB improves to 7-0 overall and 6-0 in the WDIA having played 5 games against ranked teams. The Gauchos have a BYE weekend on the schedule and resume play with a  7:00pm game at USC on Wednesday, February 24th.