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Gauchos Are #2 Seed For Nationals

Apr. 24, 2012

Baltimore, MD - UCSB has been seeded second in the sixteen team WCLA National Championship Tournament hosted by U.S. Lacrosse, the National Governing Body for the sport. The event is May 9th - 12th in Colorado Springs at the El Pomar Sports Complex.

The second ranked Gauchos were winners of the WWLL Automatic Qualifier spot with their 10-4 win over Chapman in the WWLL Championship game this past Saturday. UCSB faces 15th seeded Minnesota in a first round game on Wednesday, May 9th. The tournament selection committee saw fit to pick four additional WWLL teams for at-large spots in the national championship hunt. It is the second year in a row five WWLL teams have made the tournament, solidfying the conference as the strongest top to bottom collection of teams in the WCLA. It also makes it likely WWLL teams will face each other in one round or another as they navigate their way through the event. 

WCLA Division I First Round Games (Wednesday, May 9)
No. 1 Colorado State vs. No. 16 Oregon
No. 2 UC Santa Barbara vs. No. 15 Minnesota
No. 3 Michigan vs. No. 14 Virginia Club
No. 4 Florida Club vs. No. 13 Penn State Club
No. 5 Colorado vs. No. 12 Santa Clara
No. 6 Central Florida vs. No. 11 Brigham Young
No. 7 Texas vs. No. 10 UC Davis Club
No. 8 Chapman vs. No. 9 UCLA

• Lacrosse Magazine On-Line Article
• Complete Tournament Information

Two-time defending champion Colorado State is the #1 seed and on the other side of the bracket from UCSB for the first time. Each of the last two seasons it was the Rams who eliminated the Gauchos. In 2010 it happened in an 8-7 Quarterfinal game and that was the closest game for CSU in the tourament.  Then in 2011 the Rams eliminated UCSB in a 10-7 Semifinal that was also 8-7 until the Gauchos gave up 2 goals at the end of the game pressuring out to try to force turnovers and make something happen.

The teams that tend to qualify for the post-season are the teams that try to play each other during the regular season as much as possible.  Six of the sixteen teams were on the UCSB regular season schedule and this is because the Gauchos play in the WWLL and schedule as high as possible in non-league games.

"This is an event where we know we will play someone a second or third time," said UCSB head coach Paul Ramsey.

"Playing them before we get to the tournament and then playing them again is just part of the deal at our level and it's the same for every team in this tournament."

Success in the first round puts UCSB playing the winner of the 7th seeded University of Texas vs. 10th seeded UC Davis first round game. Success there puts them in a possible semifinal match-up with 3rd seeded University of Michigan. The Wolverines got the better of UCSB in an 11-8 Game in Santa Barbara on February 17th. Of course, Michigan has to get past some combination of games with Virginia, Central Florida and Brigham Young before they can worry about the semis and it's the same for UCSB.

"The #1 seed has only won this tournament once in the history of the event, since 2001. Seeds as low as #12 have advanced to the final.

"It is not an exact science, obviously," says Ramsey, "but is proven that a team that plays well there does well no matter what their seed and starting point."

"We respect that!"