News|Schedule / Results|Roster|Officers &Coaches|

UCSB Jumps Two Spots To 4th In The Nation

Mar. 14, 2012

Baltimore, MD - Following a 17-11 upset win over 5th ranked UCLA the pollsters have deemed UCSB the 4th ranked team in all the land in the U.S. Lacrosse WCLA Rankings. The Gauchos are 8-1 and winners of five straight games, all against ranked teams, last dropping a contest at the hands of now top ranked Michigan on February 17th. UCSB lept over inactive Colorado State, previously ranked 4th, to move from 6th to 4th. The Rams are themselves winners of four straight games after starting the season 1-3. The value of UCLA was tarnished only slightly with the loss to UCSB. The Bruins dropped just one spot in the poll, from 5th to 6th. Michigan, an 11-8 winner over UCSB, received 11 of 12 possible first place votes.

• Click Here For The Complete Poll

UCSB is 2-0 in WWLL Central and 3-0 against North and South region WWLL teams for a perfect 5-0 overall league record. Four WWLL opponents remain on the schedule for regular season games before conference tournament play April 21st & 22nd.

The Gauchos have to like the way they're inching their way up the rankings a game at a time. It fits with their mindset this season. The team focus is on enjoying playing the game and not worrying too much about the outcome until the game is over. It's a tough sell to get competitive athletes to relax about the outcome and whether it will be a win or a loss but UCSB seems to be pulling it off.

The Gauchos next play unranked University of San Diego in a home game on Friday, March 30th, at 6:00pm. The game is in UCSB Harder Stadium and the team will start transitioning to playing on grass as much as possible. The WWLL Championship Tournament and the WCLA National Championship Tournament are both played on full size natural grass fields.

"We're looking to continue competing at a high level in our game with San Diego even though we'll be coming off a break for final exams," says UCSB head coach Paul Ramsey.

"We'll focus back in on playing good lacrosse after the break but this time away from it is going to be refreshing."

When UCSB is back in action they will wrap up the regular season with games against two unranked opponents before moving on to games with two Top Ten teams.