SAN DIEGO – The No. 14 San Diego State women's water polo is on the road this weekend for three games, which includes its first two Golden Coast Conference games. After 11-straight games to open the season against Collegiate Water Polo Association (CWPA) top-10 teams, the Aztecs play a pair of teams, Santa Clara and Pacific, who are outside the top-10.
This Week
Friday, March 12
No. 14 San Diego State at No. 23 Santa Clara
Sullivan Aquatic Center, Santa Clara, Calif.
4 p.m. PT
Saturday, March 13
No. 14 San Diego State at No. 17 Pacific
Pacific Aquatic Center, Stockton, Calif.
12 p.m. PT
Sunday, March 14
No. 14 San Diego State at No. 3 Stanford
Avery Aquatic Center, Stanford, Calif.
12 p.m. PT
Links for live stats and live streaming video, when available, will be listed on the water polo schedule page at www.GoAztecs.com.
Inside the Matchup (Santa Clara)
• This will be the Golden Coast Conference (GCC) season opener for the Aztecs and the 13th meeting between San Diego State and Santa Clara with SDSU leading in the all-time series, which began in 2006, 11-1.
• Head coach Carin Crawford, who took over the San Diego State program in 1999, has been on the pool deck for every game in the series with the Broncos.
• Among the 12 meetings, only four have come in Santa Clara's pool and in those games SDSU is 4-0.
• SDSU opened the series with a pair of SDSU victories, 5-4 in 2006 and 12-4 in 2007. The teams then didn't play again until 2013. They split the first two matchups upon the resumption of the series, but in the last eight meetings San Diego State has come out on the good end of the decision, including an 8-4 win last season at Santa Clara.
Inside the Matchup (Pacific)
• The Tigers and Aztecs have played 36 times since the series started in 1996 and San Diego State has earned a win in 33 of those games.
• The first 32 contests (from 1996-to-2007) were all San Diego State victories. UOP then won three straight before the Aztecs ended the mini skid with an 11-9 win last year. That game was the last one the team played before the season was halted due to the coronavirus pandemic.
• Of the 36 matchups, 10 have come in the Tigers pool, where SDSU is 9-1.
Inside the Matchup (Stanford)
• The game on Sunday will be the 41st in the series, one in which the Aztecs trail 9-32 all-time.
• San Diego State won the first seven games in the series and nine of the first 13 which covered three seasons (1995-97).
• Since a three-overtime, 8-7 win on March 11, 1997, the series has been all the Cardinal, taking the last 28 matchups.
• SDSU has never won in the Cardinal's pool (0-10)
Know This
No. 14 San Diego State (1-10)
• San Diego State has opened the season with one of the toughest schedules in the nation, playing its first 11 games against top-10 ranked CWPA competition (No. 4 UC Irvine, No. 5 Michigan, No. 6 Arizona State, No. 9 UC Santa Barbara & No. 10 UC San Diego).
• Of the first 11 games, six were one-goal affairs, three of which were decided in overtime.
• After coming out on the short end of the decision in its first 10 games, San Diego State broke through with a 7-6 overtime victory against No. 5 Michigan. It was the teams fifth straight one goal game.
• Karli Canale, a senior driver, leads the Aztecs offense in shots (79), goals (32) and points (37). In just 11 games this season she has nearly matched her goal output from last season, in just more than half the games (34 goals in 18 games last year compared to 32 goals in 11 games so far this year), and is averaging one goal less than a hat trick per outing in 2021. 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 scored in every contest this year and has nine multi-goal games including five hat tricks, which brings her career total to 11. Her top scoring performances were back-to-back five goal efforts against UC Irvine (2/20) and UC Santa Barbara (2/27) and she had a five goal game against Michigan.
• Junior driver Jessica Leckich has seven goals, tied for second most on the squad, in eight games this season, matching her entire output from a year ago in six fewer games. Her .500 goal percentage is the best on the team among those who have scored more than one goal. Her five steals are tied for the sixth most on the squad and six ejections drawn are a single-season high.
• Emily Bennett, a senior utility, leads the team with 25 steals, four field blocks and 30 ejections drawn. Her 47 shots, 15 goals seven assists and 22 points rank second among the Aztecs this season.
• Junior driver Spencer Samuel leads the Aztecs with eight assists, and has five goals on 19 shots. She has the season's most important goal, the game winner in overtime against Michigan last Sunday.
• Lucia Carballo, a senior defender is tied for second on the squad with three field blocks.
• Senior attacker Rory Nuuhiwa and Kendall Houck, a freshman utility, have scored three and two goals respectively.
• Zoe Morgan, a junior goalie, has already played a single-season high eight games. Her 60 saves and 246:38 in the cage are career-highs.
• Goalie Raquel de Pinho made her major college debut last weekend after sitting out the first five game dates. The native of Rio de Janerio, Brazil, is a transfer from West Valley College in Saratoga, Calif., where she earned back-to-back All-America honors after posting a 47-16 overall record and a 22-0 conference mark. She had a save percentage of .616 & goals against average of 5.3 in 63 contests. De Pinho played all three games against Michigan, went 1-2 with a 8.59 GAA and a .500 save percentage.
• Head coach Carin Crawford has amassed 485 career victories in her now 21+ years at the helm of the San Diego State water polo program.
No. 14 Water Polo Opens GCC Play This Weekend
