March 8, 2005
SAN DIEGO -
SDSU Water Polo Weekly Release
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SDSU Opens Five-Game Homestand This Thursday at the Ray and Joan Kroc Community Center
* After spending the past month on the road, the San Diego State water polo team gets its first chance to play within the friendly confines of the Ray and Joan Kroc Community Center this Thursday as it hosts UC Irvine at 3 p.m.
Following the UC Irvine game, the Aztecs will play four games in two days as they host No. 1 UCLA and Bucknell this Saturday and Cal State Northridge and Princeton on Sunday.
SDSU returns home after splitting its two-game northern California road trip at Pacific and at California. Currently, the Aztecs are 6-7 overall and 1-3 in Mountain Pacific Sports Federation play.
Road Trip Recap
* In Stockton, the Aztecs were looking for their first road win of the season and tried to keep their perfect record against Pacific in place.
SDSU, who found itself down 2-0 after one quarter, received second quarter goals from co-captain Savanah Kelley and Ashley Reta to knot the game at 2-2.
In the third, the Aztecs took a 4-3 lead thanks to goals from Ashley McCullum and Cassie Zebisch.
Later, at the 6:23 mark of the fourth quarter, a penalty was called on Pacific's Virginia McConnell that eventually led to Rachel Serna's penalty goal. The junior's goal put SDSU up 5-4 and a lead it would not relinquish. The Aztecs won the game 6-4 and remained perfect against the Tigers, upping its record to 18-0 all-time.
The next day at California, the Aztecs found themselves in another hard-fought battle.
San Diego State rallied from a four-goal, fourth quarter deficit to push the game into overtime, but could not pull out the victory as the Aztecs lost to No. 6 California, 10-9, in three overtime periods at Spieker Aquatics Complex Sunday afternoon.
Serna Says Score
* Junior driver Rachel Serna leads the team in scoring through 13 games of the 2005 season. So far, Serna has a goal percentage of .517 with her 30 goals in 58 attempts and has netted a goal in 12 of 13 games this season.
In 2004, the Coronado native tallied just 15 goals in 70 attempts. For her career, Serna had 23 goals in her two seasons on Montezuma Mesa.
Scouting the Anteaters
* UCI and SDSU have tangoed once before this season at the Gaucho Invite, with the Aztecs notching a 10-8 win. The Anteaters are led by Robyn Kaake, who scored three goals against SDSU in their last meeting. Currently, UCI has a record of 6-7; 1-3 in the MPSF and is ranked No. 13 in the nation.
Scouting the Bruins
* To say UCLA is on a bit of a roll is an understatement. The Bruins are 15-0 overall, 3-0 in MPSF play and hold a No. 1 ranking. So far this season, UCLA has claimed the Michigan, Stanford, Gaucho Invitational championships. The Bruins have also defeated last year's national champions USC on three different occasions this season.
Scouting the Bison
* No. 20 Bucknell heads into Saturday's game with a record of 11-2, 3-1 in the CWPA. The Bison recently had a nine-game winning streak snapped when they lost to No. 16 Princeton last week. Before facing the Aztecs, the Bucknell will play at UC San Diego Saturday morning.
Scouting the Matadors
* The Matadors are ranked No. 19 in the latest National Collegiate Women's Top 20 poll. Cal State Northridge is 6-6 and 1-4 in the MPSF. The Aztecs are 4-0 all-time versus the Matadors.
Scouting the Tigers
* The Tigers are 13-4 on the season and winners of five in row. Princeton is currently ranked 16th-nationally and will be playing UCLA, UC San Diego and Bucknell over the weekend, in addition to Sunday afternoon's game against San Diego State.
Notable Notes
* This past weekend, a noteworthy accomplishments took place...
...Stacy Werner tied a single-game SDSU record with her five assists in the loss to California (March 6). The sophomore shares the honor with Elana Cervantes, who tied the record on Feb. 25, Sarah Kilgore, Dominique Delgado, Holly Hartzell and Amber Prestegard.
Here are a couple of things to look for in the coming games...
...With her 20 assists this year, Cervantes is seven shy of ninth place for assists in a season. Casey Finnegan and current assistant coach Sara Weyandt (formerly Sara Hanneman) are tied for ninth with 27.
...Delgado also has 121 steals in her career. She is currently seventh all-time, only seven behind Whitney Winlow's 128 (sixth place).