SAN DIEGO – San Diego State water polo seniors Emily Bennett and Karli Canale are among 62 players in the nation who have been honored by the Association of Collegiate Water Polo Coaches (ACWPC) with inclusion on its 2021 Division I All-America Team. The announcement was made today from the ACWPC offices in Bridgeport, Pa.
Bennett and Canale received honorable mention designation after leading the Aztecs to a share of the 2021 Golden Coast Conference (GCC) regular-season title, the program's fifth title in its seven years in the conference in which a regular-season champion was crowned. SDSU has been a member of the GCC for eight years, but the 2020 season was canceled after 18 games due to COVID and no championship was awarded. San Diego State advanced to the league's championship match in mid-April and finished the season ranked No. 12 in the nation.
Bennett, a 5-10 utility, received her third All-America honor in as many years and is the eighth Aztec since San Diego State's inaugural season of 1996, to earn All-America status at least three times in her career. She joins other three-time honorees Caroline Israels (2015-17), Anna Gonzales (2007-09), Jenna Schuster (2007-09), and Larisa Baltgalvis (1998-2000) and four-time designees Amber Pezzolla (2010-13), Kelly Campoli (2009-12) and Holly Hartzell (2001-04).
Following the seven-game GCC slate in which SDSU posted a 6-1 record, Bennett was named a first-team all-conference performer for leading the Aztecs with 45 shots, 22 goals, 34 points, 16 exclusions drawn and tied for the lead in assists with 12. She ranked second in steals (10) and blocks (7). Among all GCC players in league action, Bennett led the conference in points, was tied for second in goals, fourth in field blocks and tied for fourth in assists.
For the season, the Oakdale, Calif., native appeared in all 22 games, all against top-25 competition, and was first on the team in assists (25), exclusions drawn (62), steals (36) and tied for the lead in points (71). She ranked second in shots (119), goals (46) and blocks (11). In the conference, she was first in steals and tied with Canale in points, second in goals, third in assists, and tied for fourth in blocks.
Among 13 multi-goal games, she finished with eight hat tricks and at one point in the season went five straight games with at least three goals per contest. In the two games of the GCC tournament, she scored six times in 15 shots (.400 shot percentage), assisted on four more and drew five exclusions.
She earned GCC Player of the Week honors on April 1 after scoring six goals on 10 shots and added two assists and three steals in a pair of wins over then No. 9 Fresno State and No. 20 Azusa Pacific. For the season, which was limited to two-thirds of the normal number of games, she set career-highs in goals per game, shots per game, assists per game and ejections drawn per game.
Canale was tabbed for her first All-America honor in 2021 after recording the best season of her Aztec career.
The 5-5 driver led San Diego State in shots (136), goals (53), blocks (12) and sprints won (5), was tied for the lead in points (71) and was second steals (25), third in ejections drawn (17) and tied for fourth with 18 assists. All were single-season career highs.
In seven GCC games, she ranked first in steals (10) and blocks (7) and was tied for the team lead with 12 assists and two sprints won. She was second in shots (40), goals (18), points (30) and ejections drawn (10). A second-team All-GCC selection, she was third in points, steals and blocks, tied for sixth on goals, tied for fourth in assists among all conference performers.
For the campaign, the native of San Diego and product of La Jolla High School's goals and points led and tied for the lead in the GCC, respectively. She was third in blocks and tenth in sprint wins.
She had eight hat tricks among 15 multi goal efforts and at one point in the season, had three five-goal efforts in a span of four outings.
With Bennett and Canale's inclusion on the 2021 All-America team, it marks the 18th time overall and the 15th time in head coach Carin Crawford's career that two or more Aztecs have been named All-Americas and a total of 49 All-America designations have been bestowed on Crawford's players since she took over the program in 1999.
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