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Gauchos Move Up to 6th In National Poll

Mar. 16, 2011

Baltimore, MD - UCSB women's lacrosse recaptured the 6th spot in the U.S. Lacrosse WCLA Division I National Rankings released today. It's the fourth week of the regular season poll. The Gauchos  (7-4, 3-0) were ranked 6th the first two weeks of the poll but slipped to 8th following losses on the road at UC Davis and Santa Clara. Recent success over unranked USC and a 16-15 upset of then 6th ranked Cal Poly SLO last week boosted UCSB.

The Gauchos have now beaten two teams currently ranked in the top ten. UCSB bested 5th ranked Lindenwood 12-10 on February 20th and the now 8th ranked Mustangs 16-15 on March 12th. Another two Top 20 wins have come over 12th ranked UCLA and 17th ranked Michigan. The Gauchos put on a show looking fast and dangerous with a 21-10 stunner of the Bruins at their place on February 13th and bested the Wolverines 13-8 in Santa Barbara on February 18th. UCSB faltered against the 2nd, 3rd and 4th ranked teams UC Davis, Florida and Santa Clara, respectively, and were upset 8-7 in overtime by 10th ranked Pittsburgh. 

"It really is just a matter of putting it together at the right time for us," says UCSB head coach Paul Ramsey.

The Gauchos were in all but one of the four games they lost and the UCSB strength of schedule is high up on that index at 4th in the country for WCLA Division One teams. Six of their 11 games so far have been played against current Top 10 teams. The Gauchos dropped close ones to two of their Top 10 opponents with the 1 goal losses to 4th ranked Santa Clara and 10th ranked Pittsburgh.

Next up for UCSB is a game at unranked Pepperdine on March 29th before taking to the friendly skies to play at the Rocky Mountain Shootout. The Gauchos will take on BYU, Virginia Tech, Colorado State and University of Colorado in games played in Fort Collins and Boulder.