July 29, 2010
SAN DIEGO - San Diego State water polo student-athletes Kelly Campoli and Amber Pezzolla have been named Association of Collegiate Water Polo Coaches (ACWPC) honorable mention All-Americans, the association announced Thursday. The honor is Campoli's second in as many seasons and is the first career award for Pezzolla.
Campoli, hailing from Lake Forest, Calif., had her second straight outstanding season in goal for the Aztecs. As a sophomore, the goalkeeper made a career- and team-high 337 saves, marking her second consecutive season with more than 300 stops, and added 22 steals and 20 assists, while compiling a goals-against average of 6.96. The Lake Forest, Calif., product made 35 starts and held 28 of 36 opponents to nine goals or fewer. On a conference level, Campoli ranked first in total saves and second in saves per game behind only USC's Tumua Anae, who was a first-team All-America pick.
Pezzolla, meanwhile, enjoyed a stellar first season on The Mesa in 2010. The San Dimas, Calif., native started all 36 games for the Aztecs and led the team in scoring (54), assists (48), steals (78) and ejections drawn (59). The utility's 40-goal-40-assist-40-steal campaign is just the fourth since before the 2000 campaign and first since 2007. Pezzolla is also the first Aztec to lead the team in scoring, assists and steals in more than 11 years. In her first season on campus, not only did she lead all MPSF freshmen in scoring and ranked tied for fourth in goals scored and 14th in goals per game among all players, Pezzolla scored in a team-best 28 games, 15 of which were of the multiple-goal variety.
This year's honors marks the 15th straight season in which San Diego State has at least one player earn All-America recognition and the 11th time in school history the program has had multiple players honored. In fact, this is the fourth consecutive campaign in which at least two Aztecs have been recognized as All-Americans.
SDSU finished the year with a record of 21-15, marking their school-record fifth straight 20-plus win season and their 13th in the last 16 years. The Aztecs also finished the year ranked in a tie for ninth place in the final Collegiate Water Polo Association Top-20 poll. This marks the fifth consecutive season in which SDSU has finished in the top-10 of the national poll.