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Gauchos Wallop 7th Ranked UCLA

Box Score

Mar. 12, 2010

Santa Barbara, CA - Second ranked UCSB held the 7th ranked Bruins scoreless for 24 minutes in the second half of a WWLL Central game played at night under the lights at Harder Stadium to win 14-5 and get their 10th win of the season. The Gauchos reeled off 7 unanswered goals to break the game open. Senior All-American attacker Sam Lutz (San Diego, CA) had a hand in the first 5 goals of the 7 goal run with 1 goal and 4 assists. Lutz, who led all scorers with 2 goals and 4 assists, was playing in just her second game back after an ankle injury sidelined her for the first 9 games of the season.

The game started off all UCSB as the Gauchos scored 4 straight to open it. Four different players tallied a goal each in the first 12 minutes ending with Lutz getting her first goal of the season when senior Maggie Aker (Oakland, CA) assisted her at 11:12 elapsed in the game.

"Sam is working her way back into form after missing two and a half months of practice and far too many games," said UCSB head coach Paul Ramsey after the evening was over.

"She did a nice job today of letting the game come to her and not trying to force it all to happen her first ten minutes back."

Lutz was the second leading scorer for UCSB in 2009 with 42 goals and 31 assists. Having her back in action adds more fuel to the UCSB offense. The fact the Gauchos are 10-1 against 9 ranked teams without Lutz in top form speaks volumes about the depth of their offense.

UCLA closed it to 4-2 but the Gauchos finished the first half outscoring the Bruins 3-1 to lead 7-3 at the break. UCSB outshot UCLA 14-7 during the first half and 32-15 overall. UCSB held a slight edge on draw controls at 11-10 but won the ground ball battle 22-16. The UCSB offense had 10 assisted goals to have 71.4% of their scoring come on helpers.

The Bruins pulled to within 3 on the first goal of the second half but it was as close as they would get. UCSB went on the previously mentioned 7 goal run to break it open. It was the Lutz show. The senior assisted junior Ashley Antoon-Algieri (San Ramon, CA) for the first goal of the run at 11:10 and then assisted freshman Katie Mitchell (Lafayette, CA) for the second. The third goal in the spree came when Antoon-Algieri assisted Lutz at 12:36 into the second half. Then Lutz found sophomore Megan Dawe (Martinez, CA) open in front of goal in transition before feeding Antoon-Algieri again in settled offense for her 5th point in a 4 minute and 10 second span that started at 11:10 and ended at 15:20. If the game had an announcer he or she would have had to say Lutz five times fast and still be saying Lutz correctly at the end.

UCSB added two more goals over the next four minutes and it was all but over. During the melee that was the second half the Gaucho defense handcuffed UCLA for 24 minutes. Sophomore Jeni Centner finished the game with 8 saves for 61.5% on stops. Midfielder Mitchell had 5 draw controls and 2 ground balls to go with her 2 goals. Senior defender Monora Seth (San Diego, CA) had 4 caused turnovers and 2 ground balls while responsible for marking UCLA leading scorer Wheeler (20 goals and 6 assists coming into the game).

"We're starting to realize our potential," said Ramsey. "It's been a one goal overtime game the last two times we've played UCLA."

"They're a good team but we played at a high level tonight."

UCSB improved to 10-1 overall and 2-0 in WWLL Central play. The Gauchos enter an extended period without a game during final exams week and spring break. UCSB next plays at 4th ranked Cal Poly SLO on April 3rd. UCLA drops to 6-4 and next plays on April 2nd against 8th ranked BYU in the Rocky Mountain Shootout at Colorado State.