In his four years at UCSB, men’s lacrosse senior defender Damon Conklin-Moragne has helped the Gauchos to three National Title game appearances, two National Championships and three Western Collegiate Lacrosse League titles.

“We started a program devoted to winning and we made winning a tradition here,” Conklin-Moragne said.

Though Santa Barbara came up short in the championship tournament this year, Conklin-Moragne continued to impress in the backfield for UCSB, earning First-Team All-American honors in 2006.

“Making First-Team All-American was a personal high for me,” Conklin-Moragne said.

After helping the Gauchos to a 6.57 goals against average in the regular season, Conklin-Moragne was charged with defending the nation’s second-leading scorer in the first round of the National Championships.

Conklin-Moragne successfully started off Santa Barbara’s run into the semifinals of tournament, holding UC San Diego attacker Nick Dean goalless in a first-round match up. The Gauchos downed the Tritons 9-5 in Plano, Texas, avenging two losses earlier in the season.

“Nick Dean’s a great player,” Conklin-Moragne said. “He is one of best players in country. I always like the challenge of going up against the best player on [the opposing] team. We’ve played against each other before, so I just played hard defense, kept it basic and under control.”

Behind the biopsychology major and the rest of the senior class, UCSB has compiled a record of 77-12 over the past four years. With his play during the 2006 WCLL season, Conklin-Moragne earned All-Conference honors for the third straight season.

A member of Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity, Conklin-Moragne first started playing lacrosse his junior year of high school at St. Ignatius High School in San Francisco to keep in shape for football and has now become one of the elite players on the West Coast. With his degree and lacrosse skills in hand, the future looks bright for Conklin-Moragne.

“I’ve been asked to play on USA West Lacrosse National Team this year and a couple other summer league teams,” Conklin-Moragne said. “I’m just trying to finish up school. I’ll be here this summer, but then I’m going back to San Francisco for grad school for psychology.”