IRVINE, Calif. – Trailing 4-1 after eight minutes, the No. 20 San Diego State water polo team never recovered and fell to No. 6 UC Irvine 14-10 on Sunday at the Anteater Aquatics Complex on the UC Irvine campus.
San Diego State (7-11) saw the Anteaters score twice in the first 2:11 before Katie Ratcliff got the Aztecs on the scoreboard with her sixth strike of the season and the first of two goals on the day for the junior. However, after halving the UCI lead at the 5:20 mark, the Anteaters tacked on two more goals before the end of the period to take a 4-1 lead into the second quarter.
UC Irvine (14-5) extended its advantage to 5-1 with the first goal of the second stanza, as the teams would combine to register six goals in all and the scoring would go back and forth. At 6:25, Ratcliff made it 5-2 and 22 seconds later the Anteaters responded. Karli Canale scored the first of her three goals in the game at 2:54. But UCI answered with a goal at 1:37 and Canale put the final tally of the half in the back of the net with two seconds left to send the game to intermission with the Aztecs trailing 7-4.
Coming out of the break, Canale drew the Aztecs to within two goals with 6:20 to play in the third, but that would be as close as San Diego State would get for the rest of the game. UC Irvine scored twice before Rose Kanemy's strike with 3:36 to go in the period made it 9-6. The Anteaters got the last three goals of the quarter to take a six-goal, 12-6, advantage into the final stanza.
In the fourth, San Diego State enjoyed its most productive quarter of the game, outscoring UC Irvine 4-2. Kanemy scored twice, at the 7:01 and 4:19 marks, and in between those two tallies, Laurene Padilla found the back of the net at the 6:00 and 5:04 marks, for the final score of 14-10.
In addition to her three goals, Canale had two assists. Sydney Spence also assisted on two goals while Delaney Binette, Lucia Carballo, Jessica Leckich, and Padilla had an assist each.
Raquel de Pinho had a steal and made six saves in the loss.
San Diego State was successful on 10-of-25 shots (.400), while the Anteaters converted 14-of-30 attempts (.467). On the power play, the Aztecs were 3-of-11 (.273) to UC Irvine's 5-of-10 (.500).
San Diego State: 1-3-2-4 - 10
UC Irvine: 4-3-5-2 - 14
San Diego State Goals: Canale (3), Kanemy (3), Ratcliff (2), Padilla (2)
UC Irvine Goals: Flynn (3), Prentice (3), Smith (2), Lynch (1), Rack (1), Schiavone (1), S. Schackelford (1), T. Schackelford (1), Skibby (1),
San Diego State Saves: de Pinho (6)
UC Irvine Saves: Tadesco (8), Frost (1)
-SDSU-
No. 20 Aztecs Can’t Overcome Early Deficit At UC Irvine
