May 1, 2010
LOS ANGELES - The seventh-seeded and 12th-ranked San Diego State water polo team avenged its regular season-loss to sixth-seeded and No. 6 San Jose State on Saturday morning as it defeated the Spartans, 12-10, in overtime in the consolation bracket of the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation Championship at Spieker Aquatics Center on the campus of UCLA. The Aztecs overcame eight ties and one lead change to improve to 21-14 on the year.
SJSU got on the board first after a goal from Dani Curran with 5:33 left in the first quarter, but SDSU answered 33 seconds later when Melissa de Jonckheere posted her first goal of the game. The see-saw battle continued when Janessa Schmidbauer moved the Spartans ahead on the scoreboard with her breakaway goal, only to have Alex Ford knot the score once again as she converted the Aztecs' 6-on-5 opportunity. Then in the final four minutes of the opening period, Curran notched her second of the game and was followed by Sarah Brady's game-tying, buzzer-beating goal to level the score at 3-3.
The offense came to a virtual standstill in the second quarter as San Jose State kept SDSU off the scoreboard. The Aztecs, however, did their part on the defensive end as well, allowing just one Spartan goal from Adriana Vogt. The goal allowed SJSU to take a 4-3 lead into halftime.
San Jose State built a 5-3 lead in the third quarter when Schmidbauer found the back of the net in the opening minute. After nearly four scoreless minutes, Brady scored for the second time on a lob to cut the Aztecs' deficit to 5-4. Later, de Jonckheere added her second of the game to tie the match at 5-5 on an exclusion goal and Meaghan Poland scored with nine seconds left in the period to help San Diego State take a 6-5 lead into the fourth quarter.
SJSU's Vogt tied the game at 6-6 when she converted her penalty-shot chance with 5:11 left in regulation. San Diego State regained the lead when Meghann Pedersen logged her eighth goal of the year, but the Spartans would not go quietly as Bridget McKee was able to get her shot past Kelly Campoli (14 saves), who was able to get a hand on it, and tie the game once again. Then with 14 seconds remaining, de Jonckheere completed her hat trick with what was thought to be the game-winner, but Vogt answered with her own hat trick five seconds later to tie the game at 8-8 and send the contest into bonus water polo.
In the first extra session, Brady notched the third hat trick of the game on a penalty shot with 2:00 left to give the Aztecs a 9-8 lead. But like Brady, Vogt brought San Jose State even with a penalty-shot goal of her own with 98 seconds remaining. With the score tied at 9-9, Amber Pezzolla scored her 53rd goal of the season and Alex Ford had her lob shot from 30 feet out and four seconds left find the back of the net as SDSU went into the second OT frame up, 11-9.
San Jose State snapped its scoreless streak when McKee skipped her shot past Campoli from 15 feet out, but de Jonckheere completed her top-scoring game of the year with her game-high fourth goal of the day to give SDSU a 12-10 lead with 53 seconds left. Owning a two-goal lead, the Aztecs managed to keep the Spartans out of the scoring column for the rest of the game and went on to record the victory. San Diego State will close out MPSF Championship action on Sunday when it takes on fourth-seeded and fifth-ranked Hawai'i in the fifth-place game. First sprint is set for 11:30 a.m. PT.
2010 Mountain Pacific Sports Federation Championship
(7) No. 12 San Diego State 12, (6) No. 6 San Jose State 10 (OT)
Consolation Bracket - Spieker Aquatics Center (Los Angeles, Calif.)
SDSU 3-0-3-2--3-1---12
SJSU 3-1-1-3--1-1---10
SDSU goals: Melissa de Jonckheere 4, Sarah Brady 3, Alex Ford 2, Amber Pezzolla, Meaghan Poland, Meghann Pedersen
SJSU goals: Adriana Vogt 4, Dani Curran 2, Bridget McKee 2, Janessa Schmidbauer 2
SDSU saves: Kelly Campoli 14
SJSU saves: Meagan Minson 15