No. 15 Aztecs At No. 20 Azusa Pacific On Wednesday

SAN DIEGO – No. 15 San Diego State water polo, after defeating Fresno State on Saturday, looks to make it two in a row in Golden Coast Conference play when it travels to Azusa Pacific to take on the No. 20 Cougars on Wednesday afternoon.
 
This Week
Wednesday, April 1
No. 15 San Diego State at No. 20 Azusa Pacific
Glendora High School, Glendora, Calif.
1 p.m. PT
 
Links for live stats and live streaming video are available on the water polo schedule page at www.GoAztecs.com.
 
Opponent Notebook
No. 20 Azusa Pacific (3-2, 2-2 GCC)
• In the Golden Coast Conference standings, the Cougars in fifth place with a 2-2 record.
The Cougars have won their last two games; 20-11 vs. GCC foe Santa Clara and vs. Fresno Pacific 9-4.
• Azusa Pacific has only one win in the eight game all-time series, but it came in the last meeting between the team, a 10-9 victory at the Aquaplex in the 2019 season.
• Milena Guzmán Ortiz leads the Cougars with 12 goals and 19 points and Brianna Erickson tops the squad with 10 assists.
• Goalie Olivia Lott has 31 saves and a .449 save percentage good for fourth and sixth, respectively, GCC.


Know This
No. 15 San Diego State (4-13, 3-1 GCC)
• With its 13-12 victory over Fresno State on Saturday, the Aztecs have moved into a tie with the Bulldogs for second place in the GCC standings, but now own the tiebreaker against Fresno State.
• With its 18th game of the season on Wednesday, San Diego State will have played 15 games against Collegiate Water Polo Association (CWPA) top-10 ranked competition and the remaining three games have come against top-25 foes. SDSU has not played a team ranked lower than No. 23 in the nation.
• Of its 17 games to date, seven have been 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 4-3 in its last seven contests.
• Karli Canale, a senior driver, leads the Aztecs offense in shots (112), goals (41), points (52) and sprints won, and is tied for the team lead in field blocks (7) and is second in steals (20). In the Golden Coast Conference, she leads the league in goals, points and points per game. Canale has scored in all but one game this year, has 12 multi-goals games (14 total in her career) and six hat tricks, including three games of five goals. She has three games in which she has taken double-digit shots, including a season-high 12 attempts in the opener at No. 6 Arizona State.
• Emily Bennett, a senior utility, leads the team with 17 assists, 31 steals, 54 ejections drawn, and is second in field blocks (6). Her 77 shots, 27 goals, assists and 44 points rank second among the Aztecs this season. Bennett had a team-high four goals, equal to the entire offensive output by Loyola Marymount, in the team's 11-4 victory over LMU and last week had the game winning goal against Fresno State.
• Junior driver Spencer Samuel is in the midst of her best season as an Aztec. She is third on the team with a career-high 14 assists, and her 13 goals are a single-season best and more than double the output from either of the previous two seasons. In addition, she had the season's most important goal, at the time, the game winner in overtime against Michigan (3/7).
• Laurene Padilla, a freshman utility, is second on the squad with 15 assists and her 25 points are fourth most among the Aztecs. She has 10 goals, six steals and three blocks.
• Junior driver Jessica Leckich has 14 goals, third most on the squad, and a career high. Her nine assists are one off her single season best. Her 11 steals are tied for the third most on the squad and ten ejections drawn are a single-season high.
• Lucia Carballo, a senior defender, scored a season-high three goals vs. Fresno State is tied for lead on the squad with seven field blocks. She also has a career-high eight goals and has two assists, as well.
• Junior driver Samantha Loughlin has seven goals and 13 assists, both career-highs and her 18 points rank No. 6 on the squad.
• Delaney Binette, a junior driver, has 14 points on single-season career-bests of five points and nine assists.
• Senior attacker Rory Nuuhiwa has five goals and six assists, all career-bests. 
• Zoe Morgan, a junior goalie, has played a single-season high eight games. Her 60 saves and 246:38 in the cage are career-highs.
• Goalie Raquel de Pinho has played every minute in goal, save for 8 minutes at Santa Clara, since the start of the Michigan series on March 6. The native of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, has a 4-5 record and in 289:57 had made 93 saves (.508 save percentage) & a 9.93 goals against average. She has four games with double digit saves, including a season-high 19 save effort against Fresno State.
• Head coach Carin Crawford has amassed 488 career victories in her now 21+ years at the helm of the San Diego State water polo program.
 
-SDSU-