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April 9, 2003
SAN DIEGO - The eighth-ranked San Diego State women's water polo team plays its final regular-season tournament this weekend at the April 12-13 Long Beach Invitational.
- The Aztecs (14-9 overall/4-6 MPSF), who completed regular-season conference play with a 4-3 loss at then-No. 8 Hawai'i last weekend, have plenty of opportunities to rebound in their final tournament tune-up before the MPSF Championship. SDSU plays five games in two days, including three contests on Saturday against No. 20 Cal Baptist, CSU Bakersfield and No. 14 UC San Diego. The Aztecs play twice more on Sunday, with match-ups determined by the first-day results.
Recapping The Hawai'i Game
- SDSU suffered its first loss to a lower-ranked opponent with a 4-3 defeat at the hands of then-No. 8 Hawai'i last Saturday. The Rainbow Wahine scored the final two goals of the game, including Chelsea Garner-Prohs's game-winner with 1 minute, 16 seconds remaining, to win in its home finale.
- With the loss, which dropped SDSU to 12-1 against lower-ranked foes this season, the Aztecs were denied their first .500 or better conference record since 1998. Senior Casey Finnegan and juniors Holly Hartzell and Chelsy Smith scored SDSU's goals, while goalie Ashley Zabel made seven saves.
- The four goals given up by the Aztecs matched the second-fewest allowed by SDSU in a game this season and matched the fewest goals by an opponent in a loss since an identical 4-3 defeat to Cal Baptist in the 2001 season opener. The three goals scored by SDSU were the second-fewest by the Aztecs in a game this year.
- For Hartzell, it was her 46th goal of the season and the 204th of her career to pull her within one score of Shae Philpott's third-place total of 205 goals on the SDSU all-time career chart.
Aztec 2-Meter Shots
- The Aztecs' redshirt trio of junior college transfers Kristin Moore, Sandy Onweller and Chelsy Smith has provided a major impact in its first competitive season at SDSU. Redshirting last season after playing their sophomore junior college seasons in the fall of 2000 meant that the juniors had four semesters off from competitive play. But the group has showed little rust this season, combining for 67 games played, 34 starts, 27 goals, 24 assists and 23 steals.
- Kristin Moore (Sacramento, Calif./Sierra College) has become perhaps the team's top defensive specialist while starting 22 games at the 2-meter defender position. She has recorded seven assists and seven steals this season and registered a pair of goals in the win over Indiana.
- Driver Sandy Onweller (Poway, Calif./Palomar College) received a starting nod in 11 of her 22 games this season. She has a total of 11 goals and 11 assists for the year.
- Utility Chelsy Smith (Roseville, Calif./Sierra College), a teammate of Moore's at Sierra, is probably the Aztecs' top offensive option among reserves. Despite only one start this season, Smith has played in all 23 games and tallied 13 goals, fourth on the team.
Aztec 2-Meter Shots
- SDSU has alternated wins and losses in its last six games. The Aztecs, coming off the loss at Hawai'i, have lost two straight games only twice this season and have not lost three in a row since the Feb. 23-24, 2002 UCSB Invitational.
- The Aztecs have averaged only 3.7 goals in their last three contests, two of them losses. SDSU had averaged 9.2 goals in the previous five games, with four being wins.
- Current Aztecs rank 1-2-3 on SDSU's all-time assists list: senior Amber Prestegard (105), senior Casey Finnegan (67) and junior Holly Hartzell (62).
Scouting The Long Beach Field
- The 12-team Long Beach Invitational is grouped into three brackets of four teams each. SDSU will play its fellow Group C bracket members on Saturday - No. 20 Cal Baptist (10:20 a.m.), CSU Bakersfield (1:50 p.m.) and No. 14 UC San Diego (5:20 p.m.). On Sunday, the teams will play the identical finisher from the first day's action in the other groups (e.g., No. 1 Group A vs. No. 1 Group C).
- SDSU is one of three top-10 teams in the field. No. 2 USC, the MPSF leader at 8-1, tops Group A and No. 4 Long Beach State, fresh off its upset of then-No. 2 Stanford, headlines Group B.
- The Aztecs will be meeting their first-game opponent Cal Baptist for the first time this season, but SDSU has already defeated the other two bracket members this year. Behind eight different goal-scorers and four tallies from Amber Prestegard, SDSU claimed a 16-5 win in the season opener against CSU Bakersfield at the UCSD Invite. On March 1, four goals from Holly Hartzell propelled SDSU to an 8-4 win at UCSD in the Tritons' Mini Tournament. The Aztecs and Tritons will square off again a week from Saturday in the regular-season finale in the second annual Harper Cup match at the Ray and Joan Kroc Center.
Head Coach Carin Crawford
- In her fifth season leading the Aztec program, Crawford has guided the Aztecs to four straight top-eight national finishes and seasons of 18 or more wins while compiling an overall record of 98-75. She has coached six All-Americans, seven all-MPSF performers, 10 all-MPSF academic selections and 13 AWPCA all-academic honorees.
2003 Aztec Women's Water Polo Stat Leaders Goals GoalsNo Player GP-GS Att Scored Ast Stl Saves1 A. Zabel 18-15 2 0 11 14 1281A S. Daseler 12-8 0 0 4 11 705 C. Finnegan 21-21 98 29 17 49 16 D. Delgado 22-12 39 12 13 24 29 S. Onweller 22-11 51 11 11 7 310 Prestegard 22-22 100 40 25 14 014 H. Hartzell 22-22 102 46 13 35 1
MPSF Standings (as of Apr. 7) School MPSF Pct. Overall Pct.1. USC 8-1 .889 15-3 .8332. Stanford 6-1 .857 14-2 .8753. UCLA 7-2 .778 18-3 .8424. L.B. State 6-2 .750 17-5 .7735. California 5-3 .625 12-6 .6676. SDSU 4-6 .400 14-9 .6097. UCSB 3-5 .375 15-10 .600 S.J. State 3-5 .375 14-12 .538 Hawai'i 3-5 .375 8-11 .42110. UC Irvine 1-7 .125 15-16 .48411. Pacific 0-9 .000 5-16 .238
AWPCA Top 20 (Apr. 9)Rank School1. UCLA2. USC3. Stanford4. Long Beach State5. California6. Loyola Marymount7. Hawai'i8. San Diego State9. UC Santa Barbara10. Michigan11. San Jose State12. UC Davis13. Princeton14. UC San Diego15. Indiana16. Hartwick17. Brown18. Arizona State19. UC Irvine20. Cal Baptist