No. T-13 Aztecs Play No. 11 Fresno State for GCC Crown on Saturday

SAN DIEGO – Coming off its 11-8 victory over 3-seed Pacific, the No. T-13 ranked and 2-seed San Diego State water polo team plays No. 11 and 1-seed Fresno State for the Golden Coast Conference championship on Saturday.
 
This Week
Saturday, April 24
Golden Coast Conference Championship
[2-seed] No. T-13 San Diego State vs. [1-seed] No. 11 Fresno State
Chris Kjeldsen Pool – Stockton, Calif.
12 p.m. PT
 
Links for live stats and live streaming video are available on the water polo schedule page at www.GoAztecs.com.
 
Regular-Season Champs…Again
With its 16-9 victory over No. 17 California Baptist last Saturday, San Diego State secured all of part of its fifth Golden Coast Conference regular-season title in the eight years since it joined the league. SDSU won the GCC regular season crown in 2014, 2015, 2016, and 2017 and was in first place when the 2020 season was canceled due to the coronavirus pandemic. In the seven seasons in which a regular-season champion was crowned, SDSU has been at the top of the table five times.
 
Award Season
With its regular-season championship comes the postseason hardware and San Diego State had a record haul in 2021. The Aztecs boast a program record six players who received conference honors led by 2021 GCC Newcomer of the Year and first-team All-GCC honoree goalie Raquel de Pinho, who is the second Aztec to earn GCC Newcomer of the Year, joining 2014 recipient Ioli Benekou, and is the first San Diego State goalie to be named first-team All-Golden Coast Conference. Utility Emily Bennett earned her second first-team selection and third all-conference honor overall. Drivers Karli Canale and Spencer Samuel are second-team and honorable mention All-GCC, respectively. Finally, SDSU placed two players on the All-Freshman Team in utility Laurene Padilla, a first-team selection, and Faith Cerussi, a center, named a second-team performer.  
 
GCC Tournament History – San Diego State
Following Friday's 11-8 victory combined with the previous six GCC tournaments, San Diego State has an 9-6 record in the event. The Aztecs reached the tournament final four times (2014, 2015, 2016 & 2017) and won the title and the league's automatic bid to the NCAA tournament in 2016. The team was the runner-up in 2014, 2015 and 2017. In 2018, SDSU finished third place and in 2019 in fourth place.
 
Getting Hot at the Right Time
The Aztecs enter the GCC Tournament as the hottest team in the league having won each of its last four games and five of its last six (now five in a row and six of its last seven). If the Aztecs hot streak continues, and the team wins two games in Stockton, San Diego State will return to the NCAA tournament for the first time since 2016 and just the fourth time since the 2002 season. SDSU other two times competing in the NCAA tournament since 2002 were in 2007 & 2008.
 
Tough Slate
San Diego State is the only team in the GCC to have faced a ranked opponent every time they entered the pool this season. In 14 of its 20 games entering the GCC Tournament, SDSU went up against top-10 competition, with six of those ten games coming against top-5 teams. In its remaining six matchups, the Aztecs faced a team outside of the top-20 only twice. The highest ranked opponent to fall to the Aztecs was No. 5 Michigan, 7-6 in overtime. SDSU also had a win against No. 9 Fresno State, 13-12, to kickoff its current four-game winning streak.
 
Know This About the Aztecs
No. T-13 San Diego State (8-13)
• With its 11-8 victory in the CGG semifinal on Friday, SDSU is in the league's championship game for the fifth time (2014, 2015, 2016 & 2017).
• With its 16-9 victory versus No. 17 California Baptist last week, the Aztecs secured a share of the 2021 GCC regular-season title, its league record share or outright fifth GCC crown.
• After coming out on the short end of the decision in its first 10 games, San Diego State is 8-3 in its last 11 contests, including a 6-1 mark in Golden Coast Conference games.
• In its last ten GCC games, dating back to last season, San Diego State is 9-1 and in the last three GCC campaigns, the Aztecs have a 14-3 record in league games.
• Karli Canale, a senior driver and second-team All-GCC performer, leads the Aztecs offense in shots (131), goals (52), points (70), blocks (12) and sprints won, and is second in steals (25). Canale has scored in all but one game this year, has 14 multi-goals games (16 total in her career) and eight 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. GCC rankings: No. 1 in goals & points, No. 2 in steals & blocks, No. 3 in points per game & goals per game, No. T-5 in steals per game and No. T-9 in sprints. 
• First-team All-GCC performer Emily Bennett, a senior utility, leads the team with 24 assists, 36 steals, and 60 ejections drawn. Her 112 shots, 44 goals, 11 blocks, and 68 points rank second among the Aztecs this season. She has 12 games with multiple goals, including seven hat tricks and five in the last five games. Bennett had a season and team-high five goals against California Baptist last week and scored four goals, equal to the entire offensive output by Loyola Marymount, in the team's 11-4 victory over LMU and had the game-winning goal against Fresno State. GCC rankings: No. 1 in steals & blocks, No. 2 in goals, points & steals per game, No. T-3 in assists, No. 6 in goals per game & points per game & No. 10 in assists per game. 
• Junior driver Spencer Samuel, an honorable mention All-GCC performer is in the midst of her best season as an Aztec. She is second on the team with a career-high 20 assists. Her 21 goals are a single-season best and more than four times 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) and her 17 steals rank third on the team. GCC rankings: No. T-5 in assists & No. T-7 in steals. 
• Laurene Padilla, a freshman utility and a first-team GCC All-Freshman Team selection, is fifth on the squad with 17 assists and her 29 points are fourth most among the Aztecs. She has 12 goals, 12 steals and three blocks. GCC rankings: No. T-8 in assists per game (1.2/g). 
• Junior driver Jessica Leckich has 14 goals, fourth most on the squad, and a career high. Her ten assists equal her single season best. Her 12 steals are tied of fourth most on the squad and 11 ejections drawn are a single-season high. 
• Junior driver Samantha Loughlin has eight goals and 18 assists (T-3rd on the team), both career-highs, and her 26 points rank fifth on the squad. She also has 10 steals and four blocks.
• Delaney Binette, a junior driver, has 23 points on single-season career-bests of six goals and 17 assists. In addition, she has ten steals. GCC rankings: No. T-8 in assists per game (1.2/g). 
• Lucia Carballo, a senior defender, scored a season-high three goals vs. Fresno State and is third on the squad with nine field blocks. She also has a career-high 12 goals and has six assists, as well. GCC rankings: No. 3 in blocks. 
• Senior attacker Rory Nuuhiwa has six goals and seven assists, both career-bests, as well as ten steals and four blocks.
• Since the start of the Michigan series on March 6, Raquel de Pinho, the GCC Newcomer of the Year and a first-team All-GCC honoree, has played every minute in goal, save for 4 minutes at Santa Clara, a total of 416:10. The native of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, has a 8-5 record, has made 130 saves (.535 save percentage) & owns a 8.69 goals against average. She has six games with double digit saves, including a season-high 19 save effort against Fresno State, and in the three contests leading up to the GCC Championship allowed just 15 goals (5.0 GAA). GCC rankings: No. 1 in saves, saves per game (10.2) & save percentage, and No. 4 in goals against average. 
• Zoe Morgan, a junior goalie, has played a single-season high eight games. Her 61 saves and 246:38 in the cage are career-highs. GCC rankings: No. 4 in save percentage (.401), No. 7 in saves & No. 3 saves per game (6.10).
• Head coach Carin Crawford has amassed 492 career victories in her now 21+ years at the helm of the San Diego State water polo program.

Inside the Matchup vs. [1-seed] No. 11 Fresno State (11-5)
• The Aztecs hold a 3-1 lead in the all-time series, and defeated Fresno State 13-12 earlier this season at the Aquaplex.
• In the four games, two in Fresno and two in San Diego, each team has scored 43 goals. SDSU's average margin of victory in its three wins is 1.7 goals and the Bulldogs won by five goals in its victory.
• If the programs meet in the GCC Championship game it will be the first time they would have done so at a neutral site.
• The Aztecs have played the Bulldogs once in the GCC tournament and Fresno State took that game 15-10 in 2019 in Fresno.
• There are 12 current Aztecs who competed against Fresno State in the GCC tournament in 2019. Emily Bennett (5 shots, 1 goal) and Karli Canale (6 shots, 4 goals, 2 steals) are the leading scorers in that game who are on the 2021 SDSU roster. Ten additional Aztecs competed in the game but did not figure in the scoring.
                SDSU vs. Fresno State in the GCC Tournament
2019       L, 10-15 (3rd-place game)
 
-SDSU-