Gauchos Meet Anteaters in Big West Semifinal for Sixth Straight Tournament
Santa Barbara visits Anteater Stadium at 6 p.m. Saturday, two weeks after a 1-0 loss at the same venue decided which team would host.
UC Santa Barbara and UC Irvine will play each other in The Big West Championship for the sixth tournament in a row on Saturday night, according to a UC Santa Barbara preview published Nov. 4. Kickoff is set for 6 p.m. at Anteater Stadium in Irvine, with the match streamed on ESPN+ and live statistics carried through the university's athletics site.
The two programs have met 10 times since the conference began its tournament in 2008, the university said. In their four semifinal meetings, the host has won each of the last three. Santa Barbara has won at Anteater Stadium only twice in the past 10 seasons.
Santa Barbara arrives as the No. 3 seed with a 9-5-4 overall record, its schedule shows. The Gauchos closed the regular season on Oct. 31 with a 3-2 home win over CSUN, in which senior Kaden Standish assisted the first and third goals and scored the second himself, the preview said. The Daily Nexus, reporting the same match on Nov. 4, recorded the No. 3 seed and put the other semifinal as top-seeded Utah Valley against No. 4 seed Cal State Bakersfield, with the final set for Nov. 13.
The pattern behind Santa Barbara's season is in its halves. The preview counts 18 goals scored and eight conceded in first halves, against 10 scored and 15 conceded after halftime. The Gauchos scored first in seven of their nine wins and lost only once after leading at halftime, the university said.
Irvine took the top-two seed and the right to host by beating Santa Barbara 1-0 at Anteater Stadium on Oct. 24. Shane Kaemerle scored the only goal of that match, his only goal of the season, while the Gauchos held forward Gage Lyons, who has seven goals, without a score and limited Irvine to eight shots and two on target, according to the preview. Irvine also enters off a Halloween loss to California Baptist, decided by a penalty kick, in which its attack again produced two shots on target.
Speaking after the CSUN win, in comments the university published in its Nov. 4 preview, head coach Tim Vom Steeg said he was looking forward to Saturday and felt his side had held much of the play in the first meeting with Irvine. The preview also expects Donovan Sessoms and Colby Renton back after both missed the Oct. 31 match, with Jack Middleton a possible return as well.
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