Jan. 26, 2017
SAN DIEGO -
SDSU Water Polo Weekly Release
Game Week Preview
ASU Tournament
No. 15 San Diego State (0-0) at No. 5 Arizona State (0-0)
Saturday, Jan. 28 | Mona Plummer Aquatics Center | Tempe, Ariz. | 11 a.m. MT
No. 15 San Diego State (0-0) vs. No. 21 Wagner (0-0)
Saturday, Jan. 28 | Mona Plummer Aquatics Center | Tempe, Ariz. | 5 p.m. MT
Storylines
- No. 15 San Diego State opens its 23rd season of water polo on Saturday when it competes at the ASU Tournament in Tempe, Arizona. The Aztecs will face a pair of teams in fifth-ranked Arizona State and No. 21 Wagner that they faced in the 2016 NCAA Championship.
- When SDSU faces the Sun Devils, it will be looking to capture its first season-opening win since 2015. The Aztecs are 17-5 all-time in lidlifters and have won 13 of their last 15.
- San Diego State enters its first competition week sporting a No. 15 ranking. The Aztecs opened with a preseason ranking of No. 15 before moving up one spot to No. 14 last week.
- The Aztecs are coming off a 2016 season that saw them win their third straight Golden Coast regular-season championship after posting a 7-0 record, which ran their all-time league record to 19-0. SDSU later went on to win the GCC tournament to give it the conference's automatic berth to the NCAA Championship.
- At NCAAs, San Diego State played in the opening round at nearby UC San Diego where they faced Saturday's second opponent, Wagner. On that afternoon, the Aztecs held the Seahawks to a season-low four goals to snap their 14-game winning streak. SDSU's 7-4 victory propelled it to the championship round at UCLA.
- San Diego State opened the NCAA championship round with a loss to top-ranked USC, setting up a consolation-bracket game against sixth-ranked Arizona State. The Aztecs trailed, 4-1, at halftime and trailed by two goals entering the final quarter before falling, 7-5.
- SDSU will be in search of its first win over Arizona State since 2012, when it earned a 9-8 decision at the UCI Invitational. The Aztecs have dropped five straight in the series, but won on their last trip to Tempe back in 2010 when they emerged with the 11-8 victory.
- San Diego State will face a Wagner program that had the Aztecs' number prior to SDSU winning the NCAA opening round game a year ago. Before the victory, the Seahawks had posted a 7-6 win in 2014 and a 10-9 decision in 2015. The last time these two schools met at a neutral pool, however, the Aztecs won, 13-7, at the 2012 Terrapin Invitational.
- The Aztecs enter 2017 under the direction of 19th-year head coach Carin Crawford. Just the second coach to lead the program, Crawford earned 2016 Golden Coast Coach of the Year honors after she led SDSU to both the regular-season and tournament crowns, a feat that had never been accomplished in league history. She became the first coach to earn a coach-of-the-year award of any kind from any conference in program history.
- Crawford, earlier this month, won the 2016 Sandy Nitta Distinguished Coaching Award for the Pacific Southwest Zone, USA Water Polo announced. Crawford wins an award named after her national team coach and is now a candidate to win the national award, which will be announced later this year.
- Crawford had four Aztecs earn All-America status a year ago and she welcomes back three in Ioli Benekou, Alyssa Diacono and Caroline Israels. Benekou is a two-time All-American who produced 48 goals, 17 assists and 37 steals as junior last year. Diacono, a two-time All-American herself, posted 35 goals and drew 101 ejections in 2016. Lastly, Israels picked up her second All-America award after leading SDSU with 63 goals to go with 25 assists and 56 steals.
- Also returning for San Diego State is sophomore Hannah Carrillo. The San Diego native is coming off a season in which she produced 15 goals, 13 assists and 13 steals in 26 games while battling injuries. She returns as the team's fourth-leading scorer and was a GCC All-Freshman Team selection.
- Senior Makena Magro is back for her final season as the Aztecs' third-leading returning scorer (18 goals) and the second-leading returner in steals with 41. The driver from Carlsbad has played in all 69 games the last two seasons and has missed only one game since she has stepped foot on campus. Magro has seen action in 103 of a possible 35 games.
- The aforementioned quintet is set to lead a team that was picked to finish second in the Golden Coast in 2017. The Aztecs picked up 43 points and one first-place vote, and finished behind the favorite, Pacific, which tallied 49 points and seven first-place considerations. A season ago, San Diego State defeated the Tigers in both the regular season and in the tournament championship game. Rounding out the poll was LMU (3rd place; 35 points), California Baptist (4th; 30), Santa Clara (5th; 26), Azusa Pacific (6th; 21), Fresno Pacific (7th; 12) and Concordia (8th; 8).