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Mustangs Stun UCSB In 10-8 Upset

Box Score

Mar. 15, 2013

Santa Barbara, CA - Cal Poly SLO upset 5th ranked UCSB 10-8 tonight at the UCSB Recreation Center Sports Complex stadium. The 17th ranked Mustangs came back from being down 1-3 and outscored the Gauchos 9-5 the rest of the way to get the win. Spectators saw only 3 goals scored in the first 25 minutes of play. It was an uncharacteristically low output for UCSB. After that the Gauchos went up 3-1 on a pass from freshman Charlotte Brooks (Owings Mill, MD) to senior Katie Mitchell (Lafayette, CA) at 25:11 that resulted in a goal. Then a flurry of action benefited the Mustangs and it was 4-4 at halftime. Cal Poly put 3 goals in to one by UCSB in the last four minutes of the first half. Eventuallly the Mustangs pulled off their second upset in a row, having beaten then 8th ranked University of Colorado, Boulder 10-4 last week.

The Gauchos were without starting defender Cailan Howey (Charlotte, NC) and sophomore Lindsay Alex (Tustin, CA), the WWLL assist leader with 37 assists. At the same time, Cal Poly welcomed All-American midfielder Emily DeSimone (Danville, CA) back to action. DeSimone had 2 goals and an assist in her first game back since a January 26th knee injury. The junior scored the first goal of the 3-1 closing moments flurry of the first half for the Mustangs and her unassisted goal with 1 second remaining in the first half that was what tied the game 4-4.

"DeSimone's a good player and her return buoyed them quite a bit but we have lots of good players," said UCSB head coach Paul Ramsey.

"Lots of talent out there on the field for us regardless of who was missing and we didn't get it done."

DeSimone had an impact but Mustangs senior Megan Weinell (Laguna Niguel, CA) led all scorers with 4 goals and junior Christa Nelson (Encinitas, CA) followed her with 3 goals. At the same time senior Kelly Harris (Scotts Valley, CA) anchored Cal Poly with 10 saves.

UCSB seemed out of sorts and slow to react compared to the Mustangs but mostly played solid defense. The Gauchos started off holding Cal Poly to one goal in the first 25 minutes and outshot the Mustangs 19-15 overall but the Mustangs won the majority of the loose balls. Cal Poly won 12 of 20 draw controls and won the ground ball battle 23-16.

"Sometimes it doesn't come easy and when the game turned blue collar we got outworked by the other team," added Ramsey.

"We can fix that though, for sure."

Cal Poly scored two quick goals at the start of the second half to follow up DeSimone's buzzer beating solo effort at the end of the first half. The first goal came while UCSB was down a player after a yellow card infraction with 3 seconds remaining at the end of the first half. Another goal from the Mustangs came when UCSB was down two players on defense after another yellow card. It was a momentary loss of composure for the Gauchos that opened up the door for Cal Poly. The fourth goal of the 4 goal run came later when all was even again and it put the Mustangs up 7-4. After that UCSB was chasing the game and Cal Poly didn't give the ball away often enough for the Gauchos to come back, only able to outscore them 4-3 the rest of the game.

UCSB dropped to 9-4 overall and 2-1 WWLL Central with the loss. Cal Poly improves to 5-5 overall and 1-1 in WWLL Central. The result creates the potential for a three-way tie for first place in WWLL Central. The Gauchos beat USC 19-3 on January 26th and USC upset Cal Poly 8-4 on February 17th. The Trojans and the Mustangs have match-ups remaining with UCLA the final weekend of the regular season, April 13th & 14th, respectively, that could give either team a tie for first. Two wins by UCLA (3-5, 0-1) would leave the Gauchos alone in first place.

The last time UCSB was upset in a WWLL game was April 14, 2012 in a 12-20 loss at Santa Clara. The Gauchos went on to win the 2012 WWLL Championship, running the table in the quarterifnals, semifinals and final of the conference tournament. Both UCSB and the Mustangs enter two weeks of final exams and spring break before resuming play at the Western States Tournament April 6th & 7th at the Morgan Hill Sports Complex. The tournament schedule will be released March 20th.