Huge OT Victory vs UW @ Seattle

[Z.I.P.]

The team's win on Sunday at the Huskie Fever Classic is one of the biggest in recent years -- comparable to the win last year over eventual national champs Indiana at Notre Dame's tournament.

Ross McKenzie scored just :15 before the end of the first OT period to end the day in winning style for coach Ken Lolla's Zips. Going into UW and beating the Huskies is an incredibly tough job to do. They lost just two at home last year -- both in PAC-10 play to UCLA and Cal. And like Akron, Washington played into the third round of the NCAA tournament before being ousted by the Billikens in St Louis. This was one of the toughest games you could ever wish to see, and I really miss not being there to see it in person. By way of comparison, this is the same tournament in which 2003 MAC Champion Kentucky played a year ago. The Wildcats were defeated by both Portland and Washington by identical 2-1 scores. Akron lost to Portland 1-0 Friday.

Here's how UW Coach Dean Wurzberger described the play and outcome [from UW release]:

"We were hoping to finish off the weekend, because we played pretty well Friday night [a 2-0 win vs UC-Irvine]. They (Akron) dialed up the intensity. Aggression was what they hung their hat on early and it caught us by surprise so it tested us a little bit in terms of our toughness. We gave a goal away when they were on top of the game and we leveled the score. I liked our chances in the second half, but we didn't create that many good opportunities. We've got to learn from this, that we have to be ready for an aggressive opponent."

Both teams played an extremely physical game with at least 20 fouls being awarded to each team and a total of nine yellow cards issued. Although suffering defeat, Washington was named Huskie Fever Classic champion based on goal differential. All four teams earned a win in the two-day tournament, but it was the Huskies two goal victory over UC-Irvine on Friday that proved to be the tiebraker, as all other matches were decided by just one goal.

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