If the UCSB women’s basketball team wasn’t familiar with Kassandra McCalister from their last meeting, when she scored 21 points, it is now.

On Irvine’s senior day, the senior guard proved too much to handle for the Gauchos (5-7 Big West, 11-14 overall) as she led the Anteaters (8-6, 12-14) to a 72-65 victory, snapping UCSB’s three-game winning streak.

“It’s very disappointing,” Head Coach Carlene Mitchell said. “Give Irvine credit, because they played extremely well, but I know that the last four to five minutes we made a lot of critical mistakes that cost us; and on the road, you can’t afford to do that.”

McCalister scored a career-high 36 points, the eighth-most allowed by an opponent in Gaucho history. Scorching hot, she hit five threes and shot 15 of 16 from the line.

“I’m going to give her all the credit,” Mitchell said. “She made a lot of contested shots, but you can’t put her at the free throw line that many times. It became a long game for us.”

Even with McCalister shooting the lights out, UCSB beat themselves with 18 turnovers, which led to 27 points by UCI.

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On the road at Long Beach State to kick off a four-game road trip, the No. 12 UCSB men’s volleyball team fell to the 49ers 3-1 on Friday.

After defeating No. 15 Northridge on Wednesday, the Gauchos dropped the match to a suddenly hot Long Beach team in a battle for eighth place in the MPSF.

“They played pretty good,” Head Coach Rick McLaughlin said. “They earned their win, but we look forward to getting them up here and playing them again because I think it’s a team that we can compete with for sure.”

UCSB drops to 4-8 overall (2-6 MPSF) with the loss and now sits one game behind the 49ers for the final spot in the conference playoffs.

No. 9 Long Beach meanwhile has won two straight after defeating then No. 1 UCLA on Tuesday, a marquee upset for the 49ers. Long Beach sits at 7-6 overall with a 3-5 mark in the MPSF.

“They felt good; you could see a new confidence level,” McLaughlin said. “Beating the number one team is going to do that for you. They were ready to go. We actually played tough with them the first two games, then they took over.”

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After a pair of losses last weekend, the No. 62 UCSB men’s tennis team bounced back with a 5-2 win at No. 55 UC Irvine yesterday and a 4-3 win over SMU on Saturday. Santa Barbara improves to 6-4 overall and 1-0 in the Big West. In other action, the No. 65 women’s team finished its long weekend with a 7-0 loss at Santa Clara yesterday after beating San Francisco 4-3 on Sunday and losing at No. 36 St. Mary’s on Saturday 6-1.

“We’re feeling great; it was kind of a must-win situation for us [this weekend],” freshman Greg Scott said. “Now we’re confident that we’re gonna win the Big West … we know we can beat any team we play.”

The Anteaters (1-5, 0-1) took the doubles point by winning at the No. 1 and 2 courts, but the Gauchos almost swept the singles matches, only losing at No. 3 in three sets.

“It’s good to start conference with a win; this gives us a little momentum,” Head Coach Marty Davis said. “Ziad Sultan was really good again [winning 6-1, 6-2 at No. 6], he’s on fire … [Mathieu] Forget played great at No. 1 as well.”

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After leading the first two days of the MPSF Swimming Championships held in East Los Angeles College, the UCSB women’s swim and dive season came to a disappointing end Saturday night, falling just short of taking home what would have been their first MPSF title and placing second behind BYU, 732-699.

Santa Barbara was not able to improve on its second place finish from last year, winning 10 events in total and coming away with five MPSF records and six school records. Head Coach Gregg Wilson was voted Coach of the Year while sophomore Andrea Ward and freshman Katie Records were awarded swimmer of the year and freshman of the year, respectively.

“I was so impressed with everyone’s performance,” senior Kendall Neely said. “Everyone swam with a lot of inspiration and a ton of heart; it was really exciting to be a part of it.”

The long layoff had no affect on the Gaucho swimmers, who carried momentum from their last four dual meet victories into the first day of competition, setting two school records in both events held on that evening.

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The UCSB softball team concluded its season-opening 11-game road trip this past weekend, losing all five of their games in the Campbell/Cartier Classic, which was hosted by the University of San Diego and San Diego State. The Gauchos have lost 10 of their first 11 games and are on a six-game losing streak heading into the team’s opening day in the Gaucho Classic tournament.

“We’re not too concerned with the results right now,” senior catcher Lainey DePompa said. “We’ve been playing the best competition in the country and it’s only our second weekend out; we’re still kinda getting everything situated and we’re still making adjustments.”

The Gauchos scored only one run in the first day of the tournament, losing 7-1 to Boise State and suffering a 6-0 loss against Oregon State.

In the first game of the tournament, Boise State jumped out to an early lead; the Bronco bats exploded in the second inning, as freshman pitcher Shelby Wisdom loaded the bases and gave up a grand slam to allow a 5-0 lead. Four errors and seven runners left on base prevented the Gauchos from mounting a comeback, with their lone run coming in the fifth inning on a single by sophomore second baseman Kathryn Pilpil.

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Head Coach Andrew Checketts began his tenure as a Gaucho this past weekend when UCSB dropped three of four games in a three-day series against No. 23 Oregon State. The Gauchos were able to pull off a one-run victory in extra innings during the third game of the series and fell to the Beavers 7-3, 3-2 and 8-6 in the first, second and fourth games.

“We were in every game,” Checketts said. “If we throw strikes and play defense I think we win three out of four.”

Friday’s opening game of the series saw UCSB’s senior righthander Matt Vedo retire 10 of 11 batters up through the fourth inning, when Oregon State went on a five-run rally to take a commanding 5-0 lead. The Gauchos were able to score in the fifth inning after Joey Wallace’s bunt sent Ryan Palermo across home plate. Two runs in the sixth inning closed the Beavers’ lead to 5-3, but UCSB would score no more as OSU went on to take a 7-3 win.

Senior lefthander Kevin Gelinas had a terrific start to Saturday’s game by striking out eight batters in four innings. Wallace’s home run in the bottom of the fifth tied the score at 2-2.

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The UCSB Men’s Golf team will be competing in the Folino Invitational this weekend beginning on Saturday and finishing on Tuesday. The tournament will be held at the 36-hole Industry Hills Golf Course in the city of Industry, California.

“For now it is exciting to get the winter/spring season going and see how their practice has been paying off,” Coach Steve Lass said.

The Gauchos are lead by senior Russell Boring who is coming off a career best five under par and fifth place finish at the Bill Cullum Invitational. For his efforts, Boring was named Big West golfer of the month for October.

Other names to watch out for will be senior Kei Keita and junior Jordan Epstein who both finished in the top 25 at the Bill Cullum Invitational.

This is the Gauchos’ third competition so far this season, which included a ninth overall finish at the Wolf Pack Classic in South Lake Tahoe, Nevada on October 3, 2011 and a tie for fourth place at the Bill Cullum Invitational in Simi Valley, California on October 17, 2011.

The 54 hole tournament will feature 12 women’s and 10 men’s intercollegiate teams as well as a fund-raising amateur tournament for 25 foursomes of corporate sponsors and invited guests.

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The No. 65 UCSB women’s tennis team plays back-to-back-to-back over the holiday weekend, starting with No. 36 St. Mary’s tomorrow, then at San Francisco on Sunday and at Santa Clara on Monday. The Gauchos are 1-4 and still looking for their first road win of the season.

UCSB, which will return home on Feb. 25, plays three matches in three days for the only time this year.

“We’ve been doing a lot of fitness training so everybody’s in pretty good shape,” senior Sofia Novak said. “Nobody’s worried about not getting through the three days, it’s more important to play good tennis for three days.”

St. Mary’s (2-2) defeated UCSB last year by a score of 5-2 but Novak says the pressure is on the Gaels this weekend.

“St. Mary’s is gonna be tough for us, but since they’re ranked higher, everybody’s gonna play pretty loose,” Novak said. “There’s no pressure which really gives us more of an edge … and then Sunday and Monday are definitely matches in our favor.”

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The No. 62 UCSB men’s tennis team hosts SMU tomorrow before traveling to No. 55 UC Irvine on Monday to take on the Anteaters in its first Big West match of the year. The Gauchos are 4-4 this year and 2-0 at home.

The team is hoping junior Benjamin Recknagel is at full strength against SMU (3-2), which defeated Santa Barbara 4-3 in Dallas last year. Recknagel lost in No. 1 singles at Oregon last week and then did not play in the loss at Washington due to a back injury.

“He’s practiced [since Wednesday] and we think he’s gonna be ready to go this weekend,” Head Coach Marty Davis said.

After the match, alumnus Wayne Bryan will receive the 2012 Distinguished Gaucho Award at the Corwin Pavilion and go into the UCSB Athletics Hall of Fame.

“There will be a few extra people in town and we’re hoping they make it a good crowd … we’re just excited about playing at home,” Davis said. “It’s gonna be close so we’re hoping having it at our house makes a difference. It’ll be a really fun day out there at the courts.”

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Drop everything you’re doing and see this movie right now. It’s awesome.

It’s hard to describe exactly why this film is so special. For starters, it has a one-note premise. A bunch of dumb, drunk college kids mistake two creepy-looking, but well-meaning hillbillies — the eponymous; Tucker (Alan Tudyk) and Dale (Tyler Labine) — for serial killers. After a misunderstanding, the college kids spend the rest of the film attacking Tucker and Dale, while managing to accidentally kill themselves off gruesomely (and hilariously) one by one. Rinse-and-repeat.

I know what you’re thinking. This sounds like an “SNL” or (puke) “MADtv skit stretched out to feature-length running time. How can that possibly be good? The film is made excellent through great acting and chemistry among the leads, a clever script that moves briskly through the various set-pieces and a real emotional core at the center of it all. The latter reason is the most important, but I’ll get to it later.

First let’s look at Alan “Firefly” Tudyk and Tyler Labine as our leads. This movie is dependent on their chemistry. Luckily director Eli Craig Lavoisier’d that bitch (Ed note: famous chemist. We had to look him up). They are so warm, likable and believable as long-time pals, that it would be impossible to not be on their side.

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So after a nice week home and a win against Riverside on Saturday night, we’re back on the road for the next week basically. The game against Riverside didn’t go exactly as I thought it would. We came out pretty flat and basically played like shit the first half, but we managed to put together a decent second half and were able to win, which is all that matters really. Now this road trip I don’t think anyone is looking forward to. We’re driving down Tuesday afternoon, playing Wednesday night and driving back to SB after the game Wednesday night only to get back on the bus Thursday around noon to drive back down to LAX for our flight to Utah where we’re playing Utah State on Saturday night for our bracket buster game. Get back on Sunday at some time and then on Tuesday we leave for Long Beach. So it’s gonna be a long week of playing good teams and sitting around the hotel doing jack shit. Can’t believe we have to go back to Utah. Only rThis eason I want to go to Utah is to snowboard. Provo was boring as hell and I don’t have very high expectations for Logan either. Why we are driving back to SB just to go back down to LA less than 12 hours later beats the hell outta me. I suppose it’s for the guys to go to class but let’s be honest here, who is going to attend class when we’re only home for a few hours. Probably only one player and that’s Boswell who’s a mechanical engineering major, so it’s understandable. On another note this is probably the nicest winter we’ve had in SB since I’ve been up here. Knock on wood and hope it continues because it never gets old. Enjoy it while you can because it’s not gonna last forever and it being my last few months here has made me appreciate Santa Barbara even more. That’s all I got for now, gonna throw on my headphones and stare at the oil rigs and islands as we drive down the 101 with Stormin’ Norman at the wheel.

The UCSB women’s lacrosse team had successful results in this past weekend’s tournament in Arizona, as it finished the weekend with a 3-0 record. The Gauchos beat the University of Arizona Wildcats on Saturday and the No. 16 ASU Sun Devils 19-7 on Sunday. The Gauchos were ranked No. 7 in the nation during pre-season and won fourth place last year at Nationals.

“This was a huge weekend for us and two big wins,” senior midfielder Megan Dawe said. “We really showed how we can work as a unit and put two halves together. Each game and each play was a team effort.”

The Gauchos only lost two senior players from last year and had 12 returning players. They gained four new freshmen this year who have meshed well with the team. There are seven seniors who make up most of the A team to guide the inexperienced players to victory.

“We have a lot of seniors this year who already have experience playing at this level and will be excellent role models for the rookies this year,” junior midfielder Katie Mitchell said. “For the All-American league we have a pretty good team this year.”

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The UCSB women’s water polo team returned to action over the weekend after two weeks off as they traveled south for UC San Diego’s Triton Invitational. After playing three games over the course of Saturday and Sunday, the Gauchos returned home with one win and two losses, beating tournament host UCSD 9-5 and losing 7-5 to both Arizona State and Indiana University. The Gauchos are now 7-7 on the season.

The No. 16 Gauchos opened the tournament on Saturday, as they found themselves pitted against No. 18 UCSD. The Tritons opened the scoring with the first goal of the game, but their lead was short-lived as sophomore utility Molly Hafferkamp responded quickly with the first Gaucho goal. San Diego was able to retake the lead with a minute and a half left in the first quarter, but once again it wouldn’t last long. The second quarter saw UCSB rattle off three unanswered goals to take a 4-2 lead into halftime.

In the third quarter, the Tritons looked to make a comeback after outscoring Santa Barbara 3-2 when play resumed, but the attempt was shut down in the final quarter when the Gauchos once again found the net three times to UCSD’s none to start their weekend with a 9-5 win.

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The Isla Vista Beachfront at sunset is tantalizing, but do not be fooled! When the sun goes down, the trouble begins. When your mother said “nothing good happens after 12 A.M.” she was right! Have you ever had anything stolen from you? Better yet, do you know anyone who has ever had something stolen from them? You most likely answered yes to one of these questions. IV is number one in acts of property crime in the entire nation according to 2011 FBI statistics.  For example, bicycle theft in I.V. and on campus is considered an ‘epidemic.’ Bikes are known to be stolen, even when locked up, by removing the wheel or cutting the lock that holds them.

In case you did not know, Theft is the illegal taking of another person’s property without that person’s permission or consent. It can also be referred to for some crimes against property, such as burglary, embezzlement, larceny, looting, robbery, shoplifting and fraud.

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Valentine’s Day isn’t just for romantic relationships. Community Housing Office (CHO) is going to take this time to address some of those other wonderful relationships in your life- your friends!

Does Best Friend = Best Roommate?

You know your best friend’s heartbreaks and crushes, most embarrassing Isla Vista moments, wild career aspirations, favorite midnight munchies, and wishes of travel. What you may not know is that your best friend occasionally pays rent a few days late, doesn’t know how to use a vacuum cleaner, listens to loud music until 3am, sleeps until 3pm, and can live comfortably in what others could simply call a “pig sty.” Whether you live with your best friend or are considering it for next year, keep reading for some helpful tips from Community Housing Office.

Living together is a much different story than hanging out together a lot. It is easy to get sick of your best friend when the fun little quirks he/she possesses that drew you to them in the first place might drive you crazy after 24/7 together. Also, best friends don’t try as hard to get along since they are already comfortable with each other and may become complacent about things Your friend relationship is about wanting to do stuff together, not having to do stuff together like cleaning, bill paying, and guests.

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