SAN DIEGO – The No. 16 San Diego State women's water polo returns to the Aquaplex this Saturday and Sunday for a three-game series against No. 5 Michigan. For SDSU, the contests will be the ninth, tenth and 11th to open the season, against Collegiate Water Polo Association (CWPA) top-10 competition.
This Week
Saturday, March 6
No. 16 San Diego State vs. No. 5 Michigan
Aztecs Aquaplex, San Diego, Calif.
12 p.m. & 2 p.m. PT
Sunday, March 7
No. 16 San Diego State vs. No. 5 Michigan
Aztecs Aquaplex, San Diego, 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.
Inside the Matchup
• These will be the 22nd, 23rd and 24th meetings between San Diego State and Michigan with the Aztecs leading in the all-time series 12-9, which began in 2001.
• 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 Wolverines.
• Among the 21 meetings, only three have come in the Aztecs pool and in those games SDSU is 2-1.
• SDSU opened the series with a pair of victories, 13-5 on Feb. 28, 2001 and 8-5 on Feb. 27, 2002.The only other meeting in San Diego came on April 10, 2009 and resulted in the Wolverines pulling out a 9-8 win in overtime.
• The series is a tale of two halves. San Diego State won ten of the first 11 matchups, regardless of location, but has dropped eight of the last ten to Michigan, including the last three.
Know This
No. 16 San Diego State (0-8)
• San Diego State, which has opened the season with one of the toughest schedules in the nation, is 0-8 overall after playing eight games against Collegiate Water Polo Association (CWPA) top-10 ranked competition (No. 4 UC Irvine, No. 6 Arizona State, No. 9 UC Santa Barbara & No. 10 UC San Diego).
• Karli Canale, a senior driver, leads the Aztecs offense in both shots (59), goals (24) and points (27). In just eight games this season she has nearly matched her goal output from last season, in less than half the games (26 goals in 18 games last year compared to 24 goals in 8 games so far this year), and is averaging 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 seven multi-goal games including four hat tricks, which brings her career total to ten. Her top scoring performances were back-to-back five goal efforts against UC Irvine (2/20) and UC Santa Barbara (2/27).
• 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 18 steals and 20 ejections drawn. Her 27 shots, six assists and 13 points rank second and seven goals is tied for second among the Aztecs this season.
• Junior driver Spencer Samuel leads the Aztecs with seven assists, has a pair of goals on 11 shots, and seven steals.
• Lucia Carballo, a senior defender is tied for the team lead with three field blocks. Her six ejections drawn, and 30 shots rank third among the Aztecs and her three tallies are the fourth most on the team.
• Senior attacker Rory Nuuhiwa and Kendall Houck, a freshman utility, have each scored twice. Houck leads all freshman in scoring for SDSU.
• 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 is expected to make her major college debut this 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.
• Attacker Kori Bento, a freshman, picked up her first collegiate goal at No. 6 Arizona State and is a perfect 6-0 in sprints.
• 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. 5 Michigan (5-3)
• The Wolverines opened the season at home, hosting the Michigan Invitational and went 4-0, with a pair of wins over a ranked Indiana team. It then participated in the Arizona State Invitational, and after defeating the host Sun Devils, lost its last three games.
• The Wolverine offense is paced by four player who have double digit points and are led by Maddie O'Reilly (10G, 9A, 19 PTS) and Ava Morrant (7G, 6A, 13 PTS). In addition, Morrant is Michigan's top sprinter winning 9-of-11. Heidi Ritner has five starts in goal giving up 38 goals (7.60 GAA) and making 41 saves (.519 save percentage).
• Head coach Dr. Marcelo Leonardi is in his seventh season leading the Michigan program. Entering this weekend, he has a career record of 143-59 with the Wolverines.
No. 16 Aztecs Host No. 5 Michigan This Weekend
