SAN DIEGO – Senior Lucia Carballo and freshman Rose Kanemy each had a hat trick to pace the San Diego State water polo team in its 11-6 win over the Concordia University Irvine Eagles on Wednesday afternoon in a Golden Coast Conference (GCC) matchup at the Aztec Aquaplex.
The victory improves the No. 20-ranked Aztecs record to 11-13, 3-2 in GCC play while Concordia is now 9-11, 2-4 in GCC action.
Carballo picked up her first hat trick of the year, and the second of her career, after scoring three times in the fourth quarter. Kanemy, who is the second leading scorer on the team with 34 goals, recorded her fifth game this year with at least three goals.
Leading 6-5 after Concordia scored with 5:07 to play in the game, Aztec head coach Carin Crawford called a time out to get her team refocused and it worked. San Diego State ripped off five unanswered goals to push its advantage to 11-5 and cruised to the victory from there.
The five-goal onslaught was keyed by Carballo and fellow senior Karli Canale. Carballo scored at the backdoor at the 4:48 and 3:58 marks on perfect assists from Canale. Then with 2:40 to go, Laurene Padilla scored and 43 seconds later it was the Canale to Carballo combination for the latter's hat trick. The run was completed at the 1:11 mark with Rose Kanemy's third goal of the game. It covered 3:37 on the clock and doused any hope that Concordia had about leaving San Diego with a win.
FIRST AND THIRD QUARTER DROUGHTS
In the first quarter the teams combined to score one goal, a strike at 4:26 from Sydney Hurst which gave the Aztecs a 1-0 lead. But for a pair of point-blank saves from goalie Raquel de Pinho, the Aztecs might have been looking at a deficit on the scoreboard after eight minutes.
The Eagles opened the second with a pair of goals, at 6:41 and 5:43, to jump in front 2-1, but then SDSU's offense clicked. In the final 5:09 of the half, the Scarlet and Black scored four times to lead 5-2 at the intermission.
Kanemy scored twice, at 5:09 and 3:38 marks, to put the Aztecs back in front and they would never trail again. After Kanemy's goals, Hurst picked up her second tally of the game, with 2:16 left on the clock, and was followed by Spencer Samuel who found the back of the cage with 49 ticks left on the clock.
Coming out of the break, the Eagles scored twice to draw within a goal and if not for a Canale goal with 1:42 left in the period, the Aztecs might have been shutout and would have gone to the fourth quarter up by just one goal instead of two, 6-4.
Concordia scored the first goal of the final period to get the San Diego State lead down to a single goal with 5:07 to play which forced the SDSU timeout that started its five-goal run to earn the win.
Improving her season record to 6-9, de Pinho had four saves and gave up six goals. She has won her last two starts and is 1-0 in GCC play.
Concordia: 0-2-2-2 – 6
San Diego State: 1-4-1-5 – 11
Concordia Goals: Ravelo (3), Evezard (1), Reidel (1), Stanard (1)
San Diego State Goals: Carballo (3), Kanemy (3), Hurst (2), Canale (1), Padilla (1), Samuel (1)
Concordia Saves: Espeleta (9)
San Diego State Saves: de Pinho (4)
-SDSU-
Fourth Quarter Run Sends No. 20 Aztecs to 11-6 Win
