SAN DIEGO – Junior driver Karli Canale picked up two hat tricks and assisted on two more goals to lead the No. 16 San Diego State water polo team to a pair of Golden Coast Conference (GCC) wins this weekend. The Aztecs got road wins, 8-4 on Friday at Santa Clara and 11-9 at Pacific on Saturday, to improve its record to 9-9 overall and 3-0 in GCC competition.
Canale leads the team with five hat tricks including one each in the last three games.
No. 16 San Diego State 8, Santa Clara 4
Karli Canale scored three times and Emily Bennett found the back of the net twice as San Diego State defeated the Santa Clara Broncos 8-4 on Friday.
Sydney Hurst, a sophomore center, scored the first goal of the game, her 16th of the season, with 5:56 to go in the opening period and the Aztecs had a 1-0 lead after eight minutes.
In the second quarter, SDSU tacked on three more tallies, one each from Emily Bennett, Canale and Haley Hagerty. Canale's first goal of the game came with 6:43 to play before the intermission. Exactly four minutes later, with 2:43 to go, Bennett got her first goal of the game to make it 3-0 Aztecs. After a Santa Clara goal got the Broncos to within a 3-1 score, Hagerty struck with just a second left to send the game to halftime with San Diego State up 4-1.
Coming out of the break, Canale got her second goal 1:15 into the third quarter to make it 5-1. With 3:07 to play in the period, after a a pair of Santa Clara tallies had made it a 5-3 game, Delaney Binette scored the push the advantage back to three goals, 6-3, and with 47 seconds to go before the start of the last quarter, Bennett scored to make it 7-3.
In the final period, the Broncos scored with 5:36 left in regulation to trim the lead to 7-4, but 18 seconds later Canale completed the hat trick to make the score 8-4, which would be the final.
Zoe Morgan went the distance in goal and made seven saves.
The Aztecs were successful on 8-of-32 shots. Bennett led the team with two assists and five steals. Overall, SDSU had eight assists, 14 steals and was successful on 2-of-7 power plays. Maddy Parenteau was successful on 2-of-3 sprints.
No. 16 San Diego State 11, No. 23 Pacific 9
Karli Canale scored three times, assisted on two others, had three steals and a pair of field blocks, and Isabelle Hastings found the back of the net three times as well to help propel No. 16 San Diego State to an 11-9 win over No. 23 Pacific. It's the third win over a ranked opponent for SDSU in its last four tries.
Junior Emily Bennett, who leads the team in goals with 31 after the weekend, got the Aztecs on the scoreboard on a goal just under two minutes into the game which was assisted by Lucia Carballo and tied the game 1-1. It was the first of four straight tallies in the first quarter for San Diego State.
Canale struck with 4:19 to go to make it 2-1. Twenty-eight seconds later, seniors Isabelle Hastings and Shelby Kraft combined on a goal to increase the Aztecs lead to 3-1. Kraft had the score and Hastings was credited with the assist. Thirty-nine seconds after Kraft's score, Dayna Bond, a freshman, found the back of the net to make it 4-1. Bennett picked up the assist and after one more goal from the Tigers, the teams went to the second period with SDSU up 4-2.
Goal-scoring wise, the second quarter went to UOP and by the end of 16 minutes of play the game was tied at 5-5. The Tigers scored three straight goals to take a 5-4 lead, but with nine seconds to go before the break Hastings scored the first of her three goals in the game to send it to halftime tied.
Out of the break, San Diego State scored all three goals in the third quarter. Canale got things started 27 seconds into the period with a goal and just over three minutes later, at the 4:19 mark, she struck again to make it 7-5. Hastings got the final goal of the period, with 28 seconds to go, to make it 8-5.
In the fourth quarter, Maddy Parenteau, a senior driver, got things going for the Aztecs 23 seconds in with Delaney Binette assisting to make it 9-5. With 4:35 to play, after a UOP goal, Hastings scored to push the advantage back to four goals at 10-6 and San Diego State made it 11-6, with 3:15 left in regulation, on Bennett's second goal of the game.
Pacific scored three times in the last two and a half minutes, but the damage was done and the Aztecs took the 11-9 decision.
Zoe Morgan made eight saves in 32 minutes.
The Aztecs were successful on 11-of-20 shots. Overall SDSU had nine assists and 13 steals and was successful on 4-of-11 power plays. San Diego State won all the sprints, Maddy Parenteau took three and Lindsy Peterson the other.
No. 16 Water Polo Sweeps Weekend Games
