SAN DIEGO – Honoring eight seniors who have played their last game at the Aquaplex, San Diego State water polo defeated California Baptist 16-9 on Saturday afternoon in the regular-season finale for both teams.
Seniors Emily Bennett, Karli Canale, Lucia Carballo, Dani D'Andrea, Haley Hagerty, Maddie Higginson, Rory Nuuhiwa, and Lindsy Peterson were honored in a pregame ceremony and then went out and scored ten of the team's 16 goals as the Aztecs improved to 7-13 on the season and 6-1 in Golden Coast Conference (GCC) play. In the last four years, San Diego State has a 19-5 record in league play, including 9-1 in the last two seasons.
San Diego State ends the regular season in a three-way tie at the top of the league with Pacific and Fresno State. In the tie-breaking scenarios produced by the league prior to Saturday's games, the Bulldogs will be the 1-seed, the Aztecs will be the 2-seed and Pacific will be the 3-seed. California Baptist (5-10, 3-4 GCC) finished in a three-way tie for fourth place and will earn the final spot in next week's GCC tournament.
Bennett, who led the team with five goals, got the scoring going at the 5:55 mark with her 36th strike of the season. However, the Lancers came right back, tied the game 20 seconds later, and in less than a minute from Bennett's goal had a 2-1 advantage. It was the last lead CBU would enjoy on the day.
Bennett tied the game at 2-2 and then a minute after that goal, with 2:38 to play in the opening quarter, Delaney Binette put the Aztecs out front for good. Canale, who leads the GCC in goals, scored with just over a minute and a half to go to make it 4-2. California Baptist got the goal back at the 1:14 mark, but Spencer Samuel answered the CBU goal with one of her own and SDSU led 5-3 after eight minutes.
As in the first period, Bennett scored the first goal of the second quarter to push the lead to 6-3. Samantha Loughlin increased the advantage to 7-3, with a goal at 5:38, and Carballo made it 8-3 with five minutes to go before intermission. The Lancers got back-to-back tallies to get to within three at 8-5 with 3:26 to play in the half, but the Aztecs would score the final two goals of the quarter. Nuuhiwa got the first at 3:06 and Bennett picked up the other with 13 seconds left in the half to give SDSU a five-goal lead at the break, 10-5.
Samuel scored twice to start the third quarter, for her third hat trick of the season, and a 12-5 San Diego State lead. Bennett's fifth goal of the game pushed the Aztecs lead to eight at 13-5 with 3:24 to play in the period. CBU came back and scored on a penalty shot with just over two minutes to go and then struck again with 50 seconds left to send the game to the final stanza with SDSU leading 13-7.
In the fourth quarter, Carballo scored with 5:43 to play and the Lancers got the goal back 62 seconds later to make it 14-8. Just inside four minutes to play, Canale scored to make it 15-8 and after a CBU goal with 2:51 to go, the Aztecs got the final goal of the contest from Higginson, to make the final score 16-9.
Raquel de Pinho had her sixth game of double digits saves (12) and improved her record to 7-5 with her fourth straight victory.
THE NOTE
The Aztecs will be the 2-seed in next week's Golden Coast Conference tournament and will take on 3-seed Pacific in its semifinal game on Friday, April 23.
THE STAT
In its last three games, all victories, SDSU has outscored its opponents by a combined score of 39-18.
California Baptist: 3-2-2-2 - 9
San Diego State: 5-5-3-3 - 16
California Baptist Goals: Branch (2), Baker (1), East (1), Fugit (1), Mammen (1), Martinez (1), O'Donell (1)
San Diego State Goals: Bennett (5), Samuel (3), Canale (2), Carballo (2), Binette (1), Loughlin (1), Nuuhiwa (1)
California Baptist Saves: Foley (8)
San Diego State Saves: de Pinho (12)
-SDSU-