UCSB drew BYU as its first-round opponent in the NCAA Women’s Soccer Tournament. The Gauchos and Cougars were placed in the Stanford Bracket when the 64-team field was announced Monday afternoon. They will square off on Thursday at 4:30 p.m. at Stanford.
The top-seeded Cardinal (20-0-0) take on Northern Arizona (9-8-2) in the other first-round game. Thursday’s winners will play in the second round on Saturday.
BYU was the regular season champion in the Mountain West Conference, but the Cougars lost to San Diego State, 1-0, in the conference tournament final in Provo, Utah. San Diego State is coached by former UCSB assistant Mike Friesen.
The Cougars drew national attention last week as they were the team whose players were the recipients of the violent actions from New Mexico’s Elizabeth Lambert during the MWC Tournament semifinals. Shown on ESPN and YouTube, Lambert was caught pulling Cougar forward Kassidy C. Shumway to the ground by her pony-tail and punching leading goal-scorer Carlee Payne in the face.
“I don’t really know too much about BYU other than that video of them getting beat up by that girl,” said UCSB senior goalie Tammy Lenham. “Obviously they’re expected to beat us but they’ve lost to teams that we’ve beaten, and I think we can beat anybody.”
The Gauchos defeated William and Mary 2-0 on the road on September 9th, just five days after BYU had lost to them 1-0 at home in Provo, Utah.
BYU enters the NCAA Tournament with a 17-3-2 record. Payne, a freshman from Pleasanton, has 13 goals and 10 assists, while Shumway has tallied seven goals and four assists.
“BYU has an outstanding program,” said UCSB coach Paul Stumpf. “They have a lot of experience in the postseason, but getting them on a neutral field should make things interesting.”
The Gauchos are led by Kailyn Kugler with nine goals and five assists. Jacqui Simon and Katy Roby each have four goals. Roby scored in both Big West Tournament matches.
UCSB (9-9-3), which is making its second straight NCAA appearance, earned the berth by beating Cal Poly in the Big West Tournament final in a penalty-kick shootout, 5-4. The teams battled to a 1-1 tie through regulation and two overtime periods.
Cal Poly, which won the Big West regular season title and went 14-5-1 this season, did not receive an at-large berth.
Seven Pac-10 teams were given at-large berths, tying it with the Atlantic Coast Conference with the most in the tournament.
UCLA, North Carolina and Florida State are the other top seeds.
