Gauchos Defeat Golden Bears 17-7 On The Road

Box Score

Feb. 9, 2013

Berkeley, CA - UCSB took to the road for their first away game of the season and ran off with it early in a 17-7 win over the club from UC Berkeley. The Gauchos outscored the Bears 11-1 in a little under 20 minutes to open the game and then cooled it off the rest of the way. It was the third straight win over a team from a Pac-12 institution for UCSB. The Gauchos have already bettered USC and Arizona. A new leading scorer emerged for the third time in three games as freshman Nicole Rockwell (San Jose, CA) led all scorers wth 4 goals. Four UCSB players scored 3 goals each to follow closely behind Rockwell.

"We are doing well getting out to a quick start so far and hope to continue that even with some much more competitive games coming up on the schedule," said UCSB head coach Paul Ramsey after the game.

Ramsey was refering to the upcoming stretch of five straight ranked opponents. The slate starts with a home game against 8th ranked Brigham Young University on Thursday and then top ranked Colorado State University on Saturday. Also in that run of tougheners are 3rd ranked University of Florida, 5th ranked University of Michigan and a road game at 11th ranked UCLA on February 23rd.

"We'll know where we are as a team at the end of the next two weeks," added Ramsey.  "These are great opportunities for us to over-achieve."

The duo of freshman Morgan Ryan (Salt Lake City, UT) and senior Megan Hughes (Santa Ana, CA) continued to provide good goal stopping in front of the net for UCSB. Ryan had 5 saves in the first half and Hughes had 4 saves in the second half. The two combined to save 56.3%. Junior Blair Evans (Salinas, CA) had 5 draw controls, a ground ball and scored 3 goals on 4 shots. 

UCSB improved to 3-0 and next plays at home when they host 8th ranked BYU in a Valentine's Evening game at 7:00pm on Thursday at the UCSB Recreation Center Sports Complex, Field #4. UC Berkeley dropped to 1-3 with the loss and next plays March 2nd when they host UCLA in a 3:00pm game.