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Gauchos Draw Club From CAL For Quarterfinal Match-Up

Apr. 12, 2011

Palo Alto, CA - The Western Women's Lacrosse League released their championship tournament seedings and schedule late Monday night. UCSB will face the club from UC Berkeley in a WWLL Quarterfinal on Saturday morning at 10:00am. The WWLL Division One and Division Two championship tournaments will be held simultaneously April 16th - 17th on UCSB Storke Field and in Harder Stadium. The Gauchos are the #3 seed and the Bears are the #6 seed. Six of the eight teams in this conference tournament are ranked in the Top 20 in the country. It is the first meeting between the two teams in more than a decade. Berkeley moved up to WWLL D1 this season after having played in WWLL D2 the last three years. The Gauchos are in WWLL Central while CAL is in WWLL North.

Seedings:
#1 - UC Davis
#2 - Santa Clara
#3 - UC Santa Barbara
#4 - UCLA
#5 - Cal Poly SLO
#6 - UC Berkeley
#7 - Arizona State
#8 - Southern California

UCSB is ranked 7th in the nation while the up and coming Bears are ranked 17th. The Gauchos are excited about the chance to play another University of California program. The winner will advance to a 2:00pm semifinal against the winner of the Santa Clara versus ASU quarterfinal. The Broncos are seeded 2nd and the Sun Devils are seeded 7th. Factoring in common opponents UCSB appears to have the edge. Anyone CAL has beaten so has UCSB but in addition to that the Gauchos have defeated two teams that have beaten UC Berkeley. UCSB has a 21-10 win over  8th ranked UCLA on February 13th and a 16-15 win over 9th ranked Cal Poly SLO on March 12th. The Bears lost 9-5 to the Mustangs on February 20th and dropped a 20-18 double overtime decision to the Bruins on March 5th.

"What we need to know going into this game is that we should play with confidence but not assume it's in the bag," says UCSB head coach Paul Ramsey.

"They are ranked and they got ranked by being good."

The last two seasons UCSB has opened up the WWLL Tournament seeded higher than their first round opponent. In 2009 the top seeded Gauchos squeaked by 8th seeded ASU in the first round, eking out a 10-9 win. Earlier in the season the Gauchos had beaten the Sun Devils 20-4 and may have taken ASU lightly going into the post-season contest. UCSB got by the Sun Devils, though, and went on to defeat UCLA 12-11 in overtime in the semifinals and then won the championship with a 12-10 win over Santa Clara.

The 2010 WWLL Tournament again pitted the Gauchos against ASU in the quarterfinals. This time it was the #2 seed versus #7 seed match-up. The game was close for a while but UCSB eventually won 12-8. In the semifinals the Gauchos reversed a 21-9 drubbing at the hands of Cal Poly SLO on April 3rd with a 10-9 play-off win over the Mustangs on April 17th. Santa Clara won the title game over UCSB, squelching Gaucho hopes for a three-peat, with a convincing 12-6 win after UCSB had played the top ranked team in the country close in a 12-11 loss during the regular season.

What do all these Top 10 team results going both ways against each other over the last few years show?  Any given day baby, any given day. But it works both ways and to turn around regular season losses against 2nd seed Santa Clara and top seed UC Davis the Gauchos need to get past CAL. If the Gauchos take the Bears seriously and go for it to put their best effort out there, even though the game seems already won on paper, then they get their shot at the Broncos and maybe even the Aggies.

"We don't want to overlook anyone in the post-season and while it is always one game at a time for us we really can use the motivation of playing well against CAL to get to the semifinal to play Santa Clara," said Ramsey.

Of course, with the Sun Devil's history of not backing down to anyone in the play-offs it's not assured that it will be the Broncos in the semifinals just like UCSB is not assured of getting there either.

Complete WWLL Championships Information Packet and Schedule Here

The winner of the WWLL Tournament receives an automatic qualifier spot in the U.S. Lacrosse WCLA National Championship Tournament May 4th - 7th in Scottsdale, Arizona.