April 4, 2005
SAN DIEGO -
SDSU Water Polo Weekly Release
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SDSU Returns Home For Games Against Conference Foes, San Jose State and Stanford, Before Taking on Pomona-Pitzer Sunday Afternoon
* The 12th-ranked Aztecs return home for their second homestand of the season Saturday when they face conference foe San Jose State at the Ray and Joan Kroc Community Center. The following day, SDSU will play Stanford and Pomona-Pitzer in a Sunday doubleheader.
The Aztecs are coming off a 9-5 conference loss to 4th-ranked Hawai'i in Honolulu. For the season, SDSU is 10-11 overall (2-7 Mountain Pacific Sports Federation) and will be looking to improve upon its 3-2 home record this weekend.
Weekly Recap
* San Diego State ended its week-long spring break trip in Hawaii with a 9-5 loss to No. 4 Hawai'i in an MPSF game at the Duke Kahanamoku Aquatic Complex.
Hawai'i got on the board early with goals from Lefke Van Belkum, Monika Kruszona and Beth Novick to put the Rainbow Wahine up 3-0. SDSU cut into the Hawai'i lead when Becca Ur scored from two meters with 2:19 remaining and Rachel Serna followed with a power-play goal a minute later.
In the second quarter, the Aztecs were the only ones to find the back of the net. Serna scored her second of the game with just over two minutes left in the first half to knot the game at three apiece.
Hawai'i would take the lead for good when Kruszona scored with 5:58 in the third quarter. Later, Novick put one past SDSU goalkeeper Sarah Kilgore from two meters out to put the Rainbow Wahine up by a score of 5-3.
In the fourth quarter, the Aztecs trimmed the lead to one when Stacy Werner scored with 4:47 remaining. Hawai'i's Anna Sieprath responded with a goal of her own on a 6-on-5 advantage to give the home team a two-goal lead. Moments later, Serna picked up her third goal of the game on a penalty shot, but the Rainbow Wahine posted three goals within a span of one minute and 21 seconds to put an end to the SDSU threat.
Scouting the Spartans
* No. 10 San Jose State comes into the San Diego State game with a record of 9-12 (1-5 MPSF) and is fresh off of a 3-1 weekend at the "Fluid Five" hosted by Indiana University. The Spartans posted victories over No. 13 Michigan, No. 14 UC Davis and Colorado State, while only losing to No. 9 Indiana.
San Jose State is led by Mary Beth Cox and Laura Scott who lead the team in scoring. In net for the Spartans are Krissy Hansell and Kendra Adama, who split time stopping opposing team's shots.
Scouting the Cardinal
* Stanford (12-4; 5-2 MPSF) is coming off an impressive 14-2 win at Pacific this past weekend and will face Arizona State on Saturday before pairing up with the Aztecs.
The 3rd-ranked Cardinal are led by Nancy El-Sakkary and Katie Hansen, who are the team's leading scorers. Meridith McColl, the Stanford goalkeeper, has 87 saves and has only given up 64 goals through 13 games (4.92 goals per game).
Scouting the Sagehens
* Pomona-Pitzer, a member of the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference, is ranked seventh in the National Collegiate Women's Division III Top 10 Poll.
The Sagehens will play five games in a span of five days before playing the Aztecs.
Series History vs. San Jose State
* SDSU owns an 8-4 series advantage over San Jose State. In its last meeting, the Aztecs claimed an 8-3 win in San Jose last year. SDSU has won three of the last four meetings and has won two straight in the series.
Series History vs. Stanford
* Stanford holds a 16-9 all-time series lead, including last season's 6-1 win in Palo Alto. The Cardinal have won 10 straight in the series with the last Aztecs victory coming in 1997 in the College National Championships.
Series History vs. Pomona-Pitzer
* This the first-ever meeting between the two schools.
See-Saw Season
* With the win over Cal Baptist in the Aloha Rainbow Classic and the loss at Hawai'i, the win one, lose one trend epitomizes the 2005 season. 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 CS 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
* SDSU returns home after another road trip in which it played four games (two exhibition). So far this season, 16 of the team's 20 games have been away from the Kroc Community Center. After this weekend's three-game homestand, the Aztecs will again hit the road, this time to Long Beach, for the LBSU Invitational. SDSU will be play three games in Long Beach before closing out the regular season with two home games versus UCSD (Harper Cup) and Arizona State.