SAN DIEGO – The No. 17 San Diego State women's water polo jumps back into the pool on Saturday, Feb. 27, to take on the No. 9 UC Santa Barbara Gauchos in a pair of games. For SDSU, the contests will be the seventh and eighth to open the season, against Collegiate Water Polo Association (CWPA) top-10 competition.
This Week
Saturday, February 27
No. 17 San Diego State vs. No. 9 UC Santa Barbara
Aztecs Aquaplex, San Diego, Calif.
12 p.m. & 2 p.m. PT
Inside the Matchup
• These will be the 65th and 66th meetings between San Diego State and UC Santa Barbara with the Aztecs leading in the all-time series 44-20.
• Head coach Carin Crawford is 33-16 against the Gauchos, since taking over the San Diego State program in 1999.
Among the 64 meetings, only eight have come in the Aztecs pool and in those games SDSU is 6-2.
• Since the 1998 season, UC Santa Barbara has visited San Diego State only four times and Saturday's games will be the first time, since a 10-8 Aztecs victory on March 9, 2008, that the Gauchos will compete against SDSU in the Aquaplex.
• UC Santa Barbara has won the last three meetings, regardless of location.
• Half of the Gauchos 20 wins against San Diego State have come since the start of the 2013 season.
Know This
No. 17 San Diego State (0-6)
• San Diego State is 0-6 overall and No. 17 in the nation after opening the season with six games against CWPA top-10 competition.
• Karli Canale, a senior driver, leads the Aztecs offense in both shots (47) and goals (17). Canale has a pair of games in which she has taken double-digit shots, including a season-high 12 attempts in the opener at No. 6 Arizona State. She has five multi-goal games including three hat tricks, which are the seventh, eighth and ninth of her career.
• Junior driver Jessica Leckich has seven goals in six games this season, matching her entire output from a year ago, in less than half the games. Her .583 goal percentage is the best on the team among those who have scored more than one goal. Her four steals are tied for the third most on the squad.
• Emily Bennett, a senior utility, leads the team with 14 steals and 16 ejections drawn. Her 18 shots and five goals rank second and third among the Aztecs, respectively.
• Junior driver Spencer Samuel leads the Aztecs with seven assists, has a pair of goals on 10 shots, and four steals.
• Lucia Carballo, a senior defender has a team-best three field blocks. Her six ejections drawn are second most on the squad and she ranks third in assists (2), goals (3) and shots (16).
• Senior attacker Rory Nuuhiwa and Kendall Houck, a freshman utility, have each scored twice
• Zoe Morgan, a junior goalie, has already played a single-season high six games. Her 46 saves and 182:38 in the cage are career-bests.
• Freshman attacker Kori Bento, a freshman, picked up her first collegiate goal at No. 6 Arizona State.
• Head coach Carin Crawford has amassed 484 career victories in her now 21+ years at the helm of the San Diego State water polo program.
No. 9 UC Santa Barbara (0-0)
• UC Santa Barbara will open its 2021 campaign this weekend at the Aquaplex.
• When the 2020 season was halted due to the coronavirus pandemic, the Gauchos were 12-8, 1-0 in Big West Conference, and ranked No. 8 in the CWPA.
• Head coach Serela Kay is in her seventh season leading the UC Santa Barbara program. She has a career record of 98-73 at UCSB.
No. 17 Aztecs Host No. 9 UCSB On Saturday
