March 29, 2005
SAN DIEGO -
SDSU Water Polo Weekly Release
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SDSU Continues Its Spring Break In The Nation's 50th State With A Game Against Hawai'i
* After playing Cal Baptist and two exhibition games versus Team Canada in the Aloha Rainbow Classic, the Aztecs (10-10, 2-6 Mountain Pacific Sports Federation) continue their stay in Hawaii for a game against the Wahines on Wednesday at 4:30 HST. The contest will be the 16th all-time meeting between the two schools, with Hawai'i owning an 8-7 series lead.
Following the game Wednesday afternoon, SDSU will have a week and a half off before hosting San Jose State, Stanford and Pomona-Pitzer April 9-10 at the Ray and Joan Kroc Community Center.
Weekly Recap
* Dominique Delgado and junior Rachel Serna tallied two goals apiece to lead the 12th-ranked San Diego State water polo team to a 9-1 victory over Cal Baptist in the Aloha Rainbow Classic in Honolulu on Saturday afternoon.
SDSU broke open a close first quarter and scored the game's final seven goals en route to the victory.
Taylor Cranney, Savanah Kelley, Ashley McCullum, Ashley Reta and Stacy Werner each scored one goal, while Elana Cervantes contributed a game-high four assists.
Sarah Kilgore (nine saves, 25:26) and Niki Lolis (one save, 2:34) each saw action in the net for the Aztecs.
On Easter Sunday, SDSU won two exhibition games over Team Canada, also in Honolulu. The Aztecs defeated Team Canada "B," 6-3, in the first match and won a 9-6 decision over Team Canada "A" in the second game.
Against the "B" squad, SDSU received two goals apiece from Cervantes, Delgado and Kelley and three assists from Serna in the 6-3 victory.
Kilgore went the distance in net for the Aztecs and made seven saves.
In the second game, SDSU outscored Team Canada "A," 8-2, over the final three quarters en route to the 9-6 win. Werner tallied three goals, Delgado had two and Serna contributed one goal and three assists. Cervantes, Kelley, and Susan Stivers also had a goal for the Aztecs, while Kilgore made four stops in net and had three steals.
Serna Says Score
* Junior driver Rachel Serna leads the team in scoring through 20 games of the 2005 season. So far, Serna has scored 37 goals and has netted a goal in 18 of 20 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 Wahines
* The Wahines come into the game with a national ranking of No. 5, according to the March 23 Collegiate Water Polo top-20 poll. Hawai'i's leading scorer is freshman Monika Kruszona, who has led the team in scoring in more than half of its games. For the season, she has scored on over half of her shot attempts.
Series History vs. Hawai'i
* The series history between the two schools has been fairly even, with Hawai'i holding an 8-7 advantage. The Aztecs have won the last three of four, including two straight.
The last time SDSU and Hawai'i battled was Feb. 26 of last season, a game in which the Aztecs won in overtime, 11-10.
See-Saw Season
* After losing Sunday at Long Beach State and taking a game from Cal Baptist on Saturday, the win one, lose one trend epitomizes the 2005 season. This year has been so up and down it's comparable to a see-saw. The Aztecs have not won more than two in a row this season and have been winners of two straight only twice this year. They did it to begin the season with victories over Cal State Bakersfield and UC Davis and did it versus Michigan and at Pacific. Besides those two cases, it's been one up and one down for the Aztecs all year long.
Road Warriors
* Before hosting UC Irvine March 10, the Aztecs had never played their first 13 games on the road to start the season. The last time an SDSU team played nearly as many on the road as this year's team has was back in 1999 when it played it first 11 away from America's Finest City.
So far this season, 15 of the team's 20 games have been away from the Kroc Community Center. But after the trip to the nation's 50th state, the Aztecs return home for three, before heading to Long Beach for the LBSU Invitational and then closing out the regular season with two home games versus UCSD and Arizona State.
Aztecs In The State Of Hawaii
* The Aztecs are 2-4 all-time in the state of Hawaii and will be looking to reverse the trend this week. SDSU has made the trip to the nation's 50th state on three previous occasions.
Back in 1999, the Aztecs played in the Hawai'i Invitational and went 1-2, losing to Southern California, defeating Long Beach State and losing to the host Hawai'i.
SDSU also lost regular season games in 2001 (L, 4-9) and in 2003 (L, 3-4) to Hawai'i.
On This Date
* When SDSU jumps into the pool on Wednesday, the Aztecs will be looking to reverse a losing trend. In the past, SDSU has played games on March 30 only twice and have lost both of them. The first time it happened was in 1996 at UCLA, a game in which the Bruins won 5-4. The other occurance was in 2001 at home versus Stanford. In that game, the Cardinal cruised to a 12-5 victory.
Climbing the Charts
* As the halfway point of the season has come and gone, some current Aztecs have made their way up the career charts.
Sophomores Elana Cervantes and Stacy Werner have tied the school record with four others for assists in a game with five. Cervantes is also in the top-10 for assists in a season and for a career.
Senior Dominique Delgado is second in school history for assists in a career. The leader, Amber Prestegard, who has 116, is well within reach for the Lompoc native.
Delgado and junior co-captain Savanah Kelley have secured spots on the all-time top-10 career steals chart and have a real chance to enter the top-five by season's end.