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UCSB Stops #4 Aggies With Last Second Goal

Box Score

Feb. 27, 2010

Santa Barbara, CA - The Gauchos hosted 4th ranked UC Davis in a Western Women's Lacrosse League inter-region match-up and prevailed 19-18 on a goal scored by junior Ashley Antoon-Algieri (San Ramon, CA) with 1 second remaining. It was the first loss of the season for the Aggies. At one point it looked like 2nd ranked UCSB was going to run away with it when they went up 16-10 with a little under 18 minutes left in the game on an unassisted goal by senior Maggie Aker (Oakland, CA).

The Aggies fought their way back into the game with 4 straight scores to make it 16-14 before Aker stemmed that with a goal on a free position shot. UC Davis then scored 3 in a row to tie it 17-17 with 3:57 remaining, a lot of time for both teams to make something happen for themselves. Antoon-Algieri found Lindsay Remigio (Syosst, NY) alone in front of the net and the freshman finished her opportunity to put UCSB up 18-17. UC Davis midfielder Jacklyn Taylor (Poway, CA) netted an unassisted goal to get her 4th of the game and tie it 18-18 with 51 seconds to go. That set the stage for the last second heroics of Antoon-Algieri.

After a successful draw control UCSB set up and waited until there were 15 seconds left before going into a basic motion offense. The off-ball movement and ball movement resulted in a skip pass to Antoon-Algieri. The midfielder dodged in from the top corner and weaved her way through the Aggie defense to shoot a hard bouncer from about 6 yards out. The shot found net with 1 second showing on the clock. The remaining draw control, a long one snared by attacker Remigio as time expired, was anticlimactic but the ensuing celebration was not. 

UCSB freshman midfielder Katie Mitchell (Lafayette, CA) had 8 draw controls, 2 goals, 2 assists and 2 ground balls to aid her team. The Gauchos won the draw control battle 22-17 and outshot the Aggies 36-26. UCSB needed all those possessions and shots because UC Davis junior goal keeper Miriam Kolni (Dallas, TX) had 16 saves on the 35 shots on goal by the Gauchos.

Seven UCSB players got involved in scoring with six Gauchos getting at least a goal and senior midfielder Brittany Barry (Basking Ridge, NJ) assisting one of Mitchell's 2 goals in the first half. Aker had 5 goals, sophomore Maegan Cruse (San Diego, CA) had 3 goals and 2 assists, junior Alyssa Nelsen (Denver, CO) had 3 goals and Remigio finished with 1 goal and 1 assist. Game winning goal scorer Antoon-Algieri led all scorers with 5 goals and 3 assists.

The Aggies had 8 players score at least one goal, with 4 of them getting at least 3 goals each, to show they are balanced too but all 18 of their goals were unassisted, suggesting that even only a few more UCSB double teams on the player with the ball before she got into scoring range would have given the Gauchos a more comfortable win. The defense did force 3 UC Davis shots wide and that certainly made a difference in the final outcome.

"We did a great job on offense today in both our settled attack and our transition looks," said UCSB coach Paul Ramsey after the game. "But we need to improve our team defense and that includes when we're defending ball as well as our 1st, 2nd and 3rd slides."

"We will be drilling that all week."

UCSB upped their record to 9-0 overall and 8-0 in the WDIA. The Gauchos next play top ranked Santa Clara on Saturday, March 6th, in a 2:00pm game at UCSB. The Broncos are 8-0 subsequent to their 15-11 win at Cal Poly SLO today. UC Davis dropped to 6-1 and plays at 6th ranked UCLA on Sunday