STANFORD, Calif. – San Diego State water polo went down 5-0 in the first four and a half minutes and had to play catch-up the rest of the game in a 16-10 loss at No. 3 Stanford on Sunday afternoon at the Avery Aquatic Center.
The Aztecs got goals from eight players with Samanatha Loughlin and Jessica Leckich leading the team with two apiece. Emily Bennett, Maddie Higginson, Nicole Iturraran, Karli Canale, Laurene Padilla and Faith Cerussi found the back of the cage once each.
Down 5-0 Loughlin got SDSU on the board with 3:04 to go in the first. She would score again less than a minute later to make it 6-2. Canale then scored to make it 6-3, but that is as close as the Aztecs would get against the Cardinal on the day.
Stanford added a goal before the first period was over and opened the second quarter with two more, before Bennett scored to get the deficit from six goals to five, at 9-4. Higginson was the next to pick up a goal, with 1:39 to go before the intermission to trim the margin to four goals at 9-5. However, Stanford tacked on two more tallies in the final minute to send the game to the break with SDSU trailing 11-5.
Padilla got the first score of the second half to draw the Aztecs back to within five goals, 11-6, and after a Cardinal goal, Leckich scored back-to-back to make it 12-8 with 56 seconds to play in the third. Stanford responded with a tally with 29 second to go in the frame and the game went to the final eight minutes with the Cardinal up 13-8.
Cerussi and Iturraran scored with 3:13 and 1:38 to go in regulation, respectively, but Stanford added three goals of its own for the final score of 16-11.
Raquel de Pihno finished with a career-high 13 saves.
-SDSU-
Early Deficit Dooms No. 14 Aztecs At No. 3 Stanford
