May 2, 2010
LOS ANGELES - San Diego State, the No. 7 seed and 12th-ranked team in the nation, dropped a 7-6 decision to fourth-seeded and fifth-ranked Hawai'i on Sunday in the fifth-place game of the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation Championship at Spieker Aquatics Center on the campus of UCLA. With the defeat, the Aztecs fall to 21-15 and finish in sixth place, one spot higher than their tournament seed.
Amber Pezzolla got the Aztecs on the board first with a power play goal at the 5:42 mark, her 54th of the season. Leanne Ford gave SDSU a two-goal lead with 4:26 left when she fired a shot to the top right corner past Hawai'i goalie Serena Bredin. UH's Saara Majuri scored her 20th goal of the year, cutting the lead to 2-1 with a lob shot over SDSU keeper Kelly Campoli with 2:43 left in the first. Amarens Genee tied the match at 2-2 from the left side with 52 seconds left. Then each team scored a goal in the last five seconds of the first period. Melissa de Jonckheere gave the Aztecs a 3-2 lead with five seconds left on a 6-on-5 opportunity only to have Hawai'i's Monika Eggens tie the score at 3-3 with two seconds left with a long shot from center to end the first period.
In the second quarter, the Rainbow Wahine added two goals in the second period while holding SDSU scoreless. Monika Eggens scored her second of the day on a 6-on-5 opportunity to put UH up 4-3 with 7:10 left. Then Carmen Eggens scored with 1:33 left in the period to give UH a 5-3 lead at halftime.
After the break, Carmen Eggens added her second goal of the day when she got the ball in the middle and turned and fired past Campoli in the right corner with 6:19 left to give UH a 6-3 lead. Then Carmen Eggens completed her hat trick with a goal with 2:14 left to give the Rainbow Wahine a 7-3 lead.
Sarah Brady snapped Hawai'i's five-goal run when she snuck a low skip shot past Bredin near the left post with 6:59 left in the fourth period. The Aztecs cut the lead to 7-5 when de Jonckheere scored her second goal of the day with 55 seconds left in the match. Then the Aztecs scored their third straight goal when Meaghan Poland caught the ball in the middle and fired a low shot into the left corner to bring San Diego State to within one goal at 7-6. Unfortunately for the Aztecs, they ran out of time and Hawai'i went on to take the fifth-place game.
Bredin finished with 10 saves in the cage for Hawai'i, while Campoli recorded seven for San Diego State.
2010 Mountain Pacific Sports Federation Championship
(4) No. 5 Hawai'i 7, (7) No. 12 San Diego State 6
Fifth-Place Game - Spieker Aquatics Center (Los Angeles, Calif.)
SDSU 3-0-0-3--6
UH 3-2-2-0--7
SDSU goals: Melissa de Jonckheere 2, Sarah Brady, Meaghan Poland, Amber Pezzolla, Leanne Ford
UH goals: Carmen Eggens 3, Monika Eggens 2, Amarens Genee, Saara Majuri
SDSU saves: Kelly Campoli 7
UH saves: Serena Bredin 10