LA JOLLA, Calif. – Senior Amanda Legaspi had a hat trick and totaled five goals in two games on the opening day of the 2023 Triton Invitational at UC San Diego's Triton Pool, but facing the No. 5 Hawai'i Rainbow Wahine and No. 9 Fresno State Bulldogs proved a bit to much for the San Diego State water polo team in 18-8 and 15-7 losses, respectively.
No. 9 Fresno State 15, No. 21 San Diego State 7
Senior Amanda Legaspi scored a hat trick, but the No. 21 San Diego State water polo team couldn't overcome an early 6-0 deficit and fell 15-7 to the No. 9 Fresno State in each team's opening game of the 2023 Triton Invitational at Triton Pool on the campus of UC San Diego.
Claudia Valdes, a freshman from Madrid, Spain, added a pair of goals and seniors Katie Ratcliff and Danni Croteau scored once each for the Scarlet and Black.
Fresno State jumped on the Aztecs early tallying six unanswered goals to open the contest, a run which was stopped with 53 seconds to go in the opening stanza with Valdes' first goal of the game to send things to the second period with SDSU down 6-1.
The Bulldogs moved to an 8-1 lead with 5:29 to play before the intermission before the sides traded the last four goals of the half. Legaspi made it 8-2 at the 5:08 mark, but Fresno State got the goal back 18 seconds later. Ratcliff made it 9-3 with 2:27 to play, but once again the Bulldogs answered, this time with 1:28 left in the second to make it a 10-3 score after 16 minutes.
In a replay of the end of the first half, the third quarter started with the teams trading four goals. Forty-three seconds into the quarter Fresno State pushed its advantage to 11-3. Valdes got it to 11-4 at the 5:34 mark and Legaspi's second of the game cut the lead to 11-5 with 3:23 to play in the third. The two goal run was halted in the final three minutes after back-to-back strikes from the Bulldogs and the game went to the final eight minutes with SDSU trailing 13-5.
Each team scored twice in the last quarter to reach the final score of 15-7. The Aztecs got tallies from Croteau, at the 6:15 mark and Legaspi got her third of the game with 5:34 to play.
Fresno State: 6-4-3-2 - 15
San Diego State: 1-2-2-2 - 7
Fresno State Goals: Ochoa (6), Andress (2), Schultz (2), Williams (2), Grim (1), Guevremont (1), Rosa (1),
San Diego State Goals: Legaspi (3), Valdes (2), Croteau (1), Ratcliff (1)
No. 5 Hawai'i 18, No. 21 San Diego State 8
The San Diego State water polo team started its game against No. 5 Hawai'i, in similar fashion to how it started its game against No. 9 Fresno State earlier in the day. The Aztecs dug themselves a deep hole and were unable to get out of it in an 18-8 loss.
Senior Amanda Legaspi and freshman Sydney Gish each scored twice while the Aztecs got single goals from sophomores Klara Goldstein and Rose Kanemy and freshman Claudia Valdes and Hannah Bell.
The Rainbow Wahine held SDSU off the scoreboard for the first 14:55 of the game while putting 10 goals on the board. The Aztecs finally broke through with 1:05 to play in the first half on a Gish strike to send the game to the break with Hawai'i up 10-1.
After surrendering the first goal of the third quarter, Legaspi scored at the 6:35 mark. Hawai'i got the goal back, Legaspi scored again making the score 12-3 with 4:06 to play in the period.
The Rainbow Wahine then scored three straight to push the advantage to 15-3, but the Aztecs responded with three straight goals of their own. Valdes got the run going at the 1:48 mark. Gish picked up her second goal of the game 36 seconds later and Goldstein finished it with 44 seconds to go in the quarter to send the game to the final eight minutes with the score 15-6.
Hawai'i pushed the lead to 17-6 before Kanemy's tally and Hall scored with three seconds left to make it 18-8 when the final horn blew.
San Diego State returns to action on Saturday at 1:50 p.m. at UC San Diego's Canyonview Pool.
Hawai'i: 6-4-5-3 - 18
San Diego State: 0-1-5-2 - 8
Hawai'i Goals: van Rossum (3), Gault (2), Kistler (2), Stertefeld (2), Wedderburn (2), Boix (1), Burlock (1), David (1), Dias (1), Peiravani (1), Perlman (1), Radosavljevic (1)
San Diego State Goals: Gish (2), Legaspi (2), Bell (1), Goldstein (1), Kanemy (1), Valdes (1)