The UCSD women’s lacrosse team received a low blow when it was placed in the second division of a major tournament this past weekend. The tournament, the Santa Barbara Shoot-Out, draws some of the best competition in the country, but tournament organizers decided that the Tritons didn’t belong in the top division. Instead of playing down to its competition, the women’s team used the lower seeding as a platform for showing its true prowess, and battled its way to a championship game appearance and a second-place trophy.

Going into the tournament, UCSD’s league standing was better than that of many of the teams that were placed in the top division at the shoot-out. That, along with an impressive win against the University of Southern California last weekend, still wasn’t enough to get the Tritons into the top division. Senior Elisha Agee believed that the low ranking was an attempt at balancing the divisions.

“”They were trying to stack the bracket, so we got put in the second division,”” Agee said. “”It wasn’t fair to us or the other teams, because now you have a really good team beating up on the regular lower-division teams.””

In the first three games of the tournament, with games against Occidental College, the UCLA “”B”” team and Pepperdine University’s “”B”” team, the Tritons outscored their opposition 33-7. At the forefront of these victories was sophomore goalie Oriana Yanes, who set the tone for the Tritons’ dominant defense all weekend.

Despite the drop in division, the Tritons did have teams threatening their hope at a straight sweep of the weekend games. After plowing their way into the semifinals, the women found themselves pitted against the UC Santa Barbara “”B”” team. Only a few weeks ago, this same UC Santa Barbara team beat up on the Tritons at a warm-up day. The UCSD team let its true colors show throughout the match and outlasted the Gauchos 5-4.

After earning a place in the championship game, the Tritons knew that they had proven themselves to the teams at the tournament. The only thing that stood in the way of a first-place finish was the Cal Poly San Luis Obispo “”B”” team. The two teams battled each other point for point until the final moments of the game.

With the scored tied 5-5 and three seconds left on the clock, a Cal Poly San Luis Obispo player flicked the ball across the ground into the back end of the goal. Immediately, the referee signaled “”no goal,”” claiming that the player was in the crease. As the Triton players began mentally preparing themselves for overtime, the bench erupted in protest after the referees reversed their call and allowed the winning goal to count for Cal Poly San Luis Obispo.

“”If we had ended up winning, then Cal Poly would have just complained that the goal should have counted,”” junior co-captain Leah Weinstein said. “”In any game, one team always has to lose.””

While they were the team that took the loss, the Tritons return from Santa Barbara having dominated a division in which they felt they didn’t belong and holding a second-place trophy.