April 18, 2018
SAN DIEGO -
Game Week Preview
No. 21 San Diego State (13-14; 5-2 GCC) at No. 12 UC San Diego (20-11; 4-0 WWPA)
Friday, April 20 | 6 p.m. PT | Canyonview Aquatic Center | San Diego, Calif.
Storylines
- No. 21 San Diego State closes out the regular season on Friday night when it travels to nearby UC San Diego for a 6 p.m. PT contest at Canyonview Aquatic Center. The annual Harper Cup game will stream live at ucsdtritons.tv and will feature live stats courtesy of The FOSH. Both links will be available at GoAztecs.com.
- SDSU saw its run as the four-time defending Golden Coast regular-season champions come to an end on Friday with its 13-10 road loss at seventh-ranked Pacific. The Aztecs rebounded on Saturday, however, with a 6-5 win at Santa Clara. At 5-2 in GCC action, SDSU will be the No. 3 seed at next week's Golden Coast Championship in Los Angeles.
- As of Wednesday, April 18, San Diego State will open GCC Championship action at 9:15 a.m. PT on Friday, April 27, on the campus of LMU. SDSU will face the No. 6 seed, which has yet to be determined. Azusa Pacific and Fresno State are both tied for fifth place at 2-4.
- The Aztecs went into the game at UOP in a position, with a win, to at least share the regular-season title when the dust settled. SDSU nearly pulled the upset as it trailed, 8-7, after three quarters, but allowed the Tigers to score four of the first five goals of the fourth period to pull away.
- Junior Hannah Carrillo filled the stat sheet against Pacific, leading the team in goals (3), assists (2, tied), ejections drawn (2) and field blocks (2), while adding one steal. Her three goals, meanwhile, came on three shot attempts. The Aztecs also received a pair of goals from the sophomore duo of Shelby Kraft and Maddy Parenteau as they combined for four goals on five attempts.
- Senior Malia Magro made her presence felt on the defensive end in the game at Pacific. The driver from Oceanside had a team-high four steals and was responsible for 66.7 percent of the Aztecs' thefts on the night (4 of 6). Magro, who has a career-high 22 steals in 2018, now has five multi-steal games on the season, which is tied with Kraft and Parenteau for the fifth-highest total on the team.
- Carrillo carried the Aztecs to victory at Santa Clara on Saturday, tallying three goals and five steals. Her second hat trick in as many days gave her a team-high six on the year and extended her scoring streak to 10 games. In those 10 games, she has scored 21 goals, which is more than half of her 2018 production (21 of 40). Carrillo's five steals was one shy of the SDSU individual season high (Emily Bennett) and helped a 14-steal effort, which was aided by four steals apiece from Bennett and Karli Canale.
- Maura Cantoni has been a rock at goalkeeper during San Diego State's 5-2 run over its last seven games. During that span, the junior has five double-figure save performances, including a career-high four straight (47 saves; 11.8 spg). She has had at least seven stops six times with the exception coming against Cal State Monterey Bay (W, 12-2), when she and Emily Lowell each played one half. Dating back to March 16 (9 games), Cantoni is averaging 9.2 stops (83 saves).
- The Aztecs have not played UC San Diego this season, but the teams have seen plenty of each other as each program has played at the other's respective tournament. SDSU competed at UCSD's Triton Invitational on Feb. 10-11, posting a 2-2 record. UC San Diego, meanwhile, was an Aztec Invitational participant on March 10-11, going 3-1 in the process.
- On Friday, the teams will play for the Harper Cup, which is named after UC San Diego men's water polo head coach Denny Harper. Harper played at San Diego State as an undergraduate and established the SDSU women's water polo club team. He graduated from the university in 1978.
- San Diego State is 44-11 all-time vs. the Tritons, but has dropped the last two and five of the last seven games. In games played at UCSD against the Tritons, SDSU is 17-7 all-time and 6-2 in Harper Cup outings.
- The Aztecs are 13-3 all-time in Harper Cup games, but are just 1-3 in its last four after winning the first 12. UC San Diego first captured the Cup in 2014 after earning an 8-5 win at Canyonview Aquatic Center, won in La Jolla, 6-5, in sudden-victory overtime back in 2016, and emerged with the 10-6 win at SDSU last year. SDSU is looking for its first Harper Cup win since a 6-3 home decision in 2015.
Opponent Notebook
UC San Diego
The Tritons are 20-11 and 4-0 in the WWPA, heading into their final regular-season game... UC San Diego is 6-2 this season at home... Last week, UCSD played once and lost at No. 9 UC Irvine, 10-5... Prior to its most recent defeat, UC San Diego won four in a row, which started in its final game at the Aztec Invite vs. No. 20 Harvard and continued vs. Cal State Monterey Bay, at Fresno Pacific, and at GCC foe Fresno State... Kayla Fedler leads the team with 42 goals and Krista Schneider owns a Triton-best 39 assists... Taylor Onstott and Grace Pevehouse each have scored 36 times... Reilly Gallagher has started 21 of 28 games, logging 507 minutes in net, while Bennett Bugelli has played in 25 (8 starts) and been in the water for 387 minutes... The Gallagher-Bugelli combo has made 236 of UCSD's 272 saves.