April 5, 2003
HONOLULU - The sixth-ranked San Diego State women's water polo team's spring break trip to Hawai'i ended with a 4-3 loss at the hands of the Rainbow Wahine. No. 8 Hawai'i scored the final two goals of the game, including Chelsea Garner-Prohs's game-winner with 1 minute, 16 seconds remaining, to emerge victorious in its home finale.
With the loss, the Aztecs (14-9 overall, 4-6 MPSF) are denied their first .500 or better conference record since 1998 and any chance of earning one of the top five seeds and a first-round bye in the upcoming MPSF Tournament. Despite yielding its second-fewest goals allowed total this season, SDSU falls to a lower-ranked team for the first time in 2003, dropping to 12-1 in such contests. Hawai'i (8-11/3-5) picks up its second straight regular-season conference win over the Aztecs after a victory in San Diego last season.
Karin van Hoff, the lone senior on the Hawai'i squad playing her final home game, put the Rainbow Wahine up 1-0 with 2:16 left in the first quarter. Aztec junior utility Chelsy Smith (Roseville, Calif./Sierra College) knotted the game at 1-1 with a goal with less than a minute remaining in the first quarter.
After a scoreless second quarter, junior 2-meter Holly Hartzell (Vista, Calif./Fallbrook HS) gave SDSU the first of its two second-half leads in the low-scoring affair at 2-1 with a goal at the 1:33 mark of the third quarter. 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. Hawai'i's Beth Novick answered just moments later with the first of her two goals on the day to tie it at 2-2.
Senior utility Casey Finnegan (Fresno, Calif./Clovis West HS) scored with 4:53 left in the game to give SDSU its final lead at 3-2, but Novick again countered for the Rainbow Wahine to tie it at 3-3 with 2:51 left and set the stage for Garner-Prohs's late heroics.
The Aztecs return to the mainland and play at the Long Beach State Invitational tournament next weekend on April 12-13.
No. 8 Hawai'i 4, No. 6 San Diego State 3Duke Kahanamoku Aquatic Complex, Honolulu, Hawaii
SDSU Goals: Finnegan, Hartzell, SmithHawai'i Goals: Novick 2, Garner-Prohs, van Hoff