SAN DIEGO – San Diego State water polo and Michigan played two one-goal games on Saturday afternoon at the Aztec Aquaplex and despite leading by a goal in the last minute of the first contest dropped both ends of the doubleheader, 12-11 in overtime and 11-10.
Senior Karli Canale scored seven times in the two games, running her season total to 31 goals. She is just three goals shy of her single-season high of 34 tallies, which came in 28 games during the 2019 season. Canale has 31 goals in just 10 contests this year.
Emily Bennett scored five times, Jessica Leckich totaled three, Laurene Padilla had a pair of goals and Faith Cerussi, Maddie Higginson, Rory Nuuhiwa, Spencer Samuel each finished with one goal in Saturday's doubleheader.
Goalie Raquel de Pinho, in her first action of the year, came out on the short end of both decisions, but made nine and eight saves, respectively, in the day's games.
No. 9 Michigan 12, No. 16 San Diego State 11 (2OT)
Emily Bennett scored with 1:11 to play in the game to break a 10-10 tie, however, Michigan got the equalizer with just 36 seconds left in regulation to send the game to overtime. Neither team scored in the first extra period, but the Wolverines found the back of the cage with 49 seconds left in the second overtime, took a 12-11 lead, and held on for the one goal victory.
Michigan jumped on San Diego State early and had a 5-2 lead after one period. They led 2-0 after two and a half minutes, when Karli Canale put SDSU on the board, and cutting the deficit in half, 2-1. Michigan responded with a pair of goals before Faith Cerussi scored with 1:56 to go in the first, to again slice Michigan's lead in half at 4-2.
Over the succeeding eight minutes, Michigan (6-3) scored four straight times to take an 8-2 advantage into the break.
Emily Bennett scored less than 30 seconds into the third, but the Wolverines got the goal back 15 seconds later. Down 9-3 with 6:46 to play in the third, San Diego State (0-9), ripped off four straight goals to get the game back to a manageable deficit.
Bennett started the barrage at the aforementioned 6:46 mark. Jessica Leckich then scored a goal sandwiched between a pair of Canale strikes. The run took just under five minutes and San Diego State was right back in the game.
The teams then swapped goals. Leckich scored to make it 10-8 with 58 seconds left in the third and in the fourth Canale connected twice, the last coming at the 1:59 mark and tied the game at 10-10. Bennett then gave SDSU its first lead of the day at 11-10, but the Wolverines came back for the 12-11 victory in overtime.
Michigan 5-3-2-1-0-1 – 12
San Diego State 2-0-6-3-0-0 -11
Michigan Goals: O'Reilly (4), Morrant (2), Ritner (2), Alsemgeest (1), Neustrom (1), Rogers (1), Utassy (1)
San Diego State Goals: Canale (5), Bennett (3), Leckich (2), Cerussi (1)
Michigan Saves: Ritner (11)
San Diego State Saves: de Pinho (9)
No. 9 Michigan 11, No. 16 San Diego State 10
San Diego State and Michigan played a back and forth first quarter where each team found the back of the net four times. Michigan led 1-0 after the first two minutes, but back-to-back goals from Jessica Leckich and Emily Bennett put the Aztecs (0-10) up 2-1 with 5:24 to go. The Wolverines responded with two goals to grab the lead back and at the 3:02 mark Maddie Higginson tied it at 3-3. With UM up 4-3 and 1:01 left before the end of the quarter Rory Nuuhiwa struck for a goal to send the game to the second quarter tied 4-4.
Michigan scored three unanswered goals in the second quarter and took a 7-4 lead into the intermission.
The Aztecs got the first two goals out of the break, on strikes from Bennett and Karli Canale, to cut the deficit to a single goal at 7-6. Michigan (7-3) got the last goal of the quarter and held an 8-6 advantage heading into the final period.
After a Wolverine tally increased its advantage to 9-6 early in the fourth, Spencer Samuel and Laurene Padilla each got onto the score sheet to slice the margin to a single goal, 9-8. Michigan scored twice to push the advantage back to three goals at 11-8, before Canale found the back of the cage with 1:20 to play and Padilla scored with nine seconds to go to make it a one goal game. But from there Michigan ran the clock out for the 11-10 victory.
Michigan 4-3-1-3 -11
San Diego State 4-0-2-4 -10
Michigan Goals: Rankin (4), Ritner (2), Rogers (2), Byrne (1), Morrant (1), O'Reilly (1)
San Diego State Goals: Bennett (2), Canale (2), Padilla (2), Higginson (1), Leckich (1), Nuuhiwa (1) Samuel (1)
Michigan Saves: Jackson (5)
San Diego State Saves: de Pinho (8)
THE NOTE
In the first game of the day, Karli Canale produced her third five-goal game in the last four contests and has nine multi-goal efforts and five hat tricks in ten games this season.
THE QUOTE
"I was pleased with our overall play today," head coach Carin Crawford said. "We've been improving in each game and things are starting to click. I thought we should have won the first game, and as we continue this season, those results will come. We've probably played the toughest schedule (among Golden Coast Conference teams) and I think these games (after tomorrow, 11 straight against top-10 competition) are preparing us for league play."
UP NEXT
The series with Michigan wraps up on Sunday at 1 p.m. PT at the Aquaplex.
No. 16 Aztecs & No. 5 Michigan Play Two One-Goal Games
