No. 22 Water Polo Goes 4-1 At Aztec Invitational

SAN DIEGO – Back home after playing 12 of its first 14 games on the road, the San Diego State water polo team went 4-1 at the 2023 Aztec Invitational at the Aztec Aquaplex over the weekend.
 
SDSU had wins of 20-4 over Siena, 10-9 against Villanova, 12-10 versus St. Francis and 21-9 over Westcliff with its lone blemish a 15-8 loss at the hands of No. 13 Princeton. The Aztecs are now 7-12 on the season, and 4-3 at the Aquaplex and the win over Siena, in its opening game of the weekend, snapped a seven-game slide.
 
No. 22 San Diego State 20, Siena 4
Samantha Loughlin attempted five shots and put each in the back of the cage to lead the Aztecs to a 20-4 victory in its opening game of the 2023 Aztec Invitational.
 
San Diego State scored five goals in the first 5:37, led by a pair from Loughlin, and one each from Amanda Legaspi, Danni Croteau and Kendal Houck and took a 5-1 lead into the second quarter.
 
The Scarlet and Black put up four spot to open the second, getting tallies from Legaspi, her second of the game, Sydney Gish, Amanda Chambers and Rose Kanemy to push its advantage to 9-1, before Siena could respond with its second goal of the contest. Loughlin scored her third of the game and then Gish picked up her second of the period to send the game to the intermission with SDSU up 11-2.
 
Coming out of the break, Klara Goldstein scored her first of the game, which was answered by Siena. Houck scored her second with just over 3:30 left in the period and Sophia Righetti followed that strike with her first of the game, which made it 14-3 San Diego State with 2:04 to go in the quarter. In the final couple of minutes, the teams traded goals with Siena getting its with 1:22 to go and the Aztecs goal coming from Shannon Murphy at the 1:07 mark.
 
The Aztecs score the final five goals, all in the final frame. Ella Weigand picked up one at the 5:58 mark followed by Loughlin's fourth and fifth at 2:48 and 2:06, respectively. Kanemy found the back of the cage with 1:04 to go and Legaspi finished things off with her third with 24 seconds to play.
 
Tiaare Ahovello made eight saves and a steal to earn the win.
 
Siena: 1-1-2-0 – 4
San Diego State: 5-6-4-5 – 20
 
Siena Goals: Arnold (1), Chopskie (1), Kennerly (1), Thomas (1)
San Diego State Goals: Loughlin (5), Legaspi (3), Gish (2), Houck (2), Kanemy (2), Chambers (1), Croteau (1), Goldstein (1), Murphy (1), Righetti (1), Weigand (1)
 
Siena Saves: Mossakowski (4)
San Diego State Saves: Ahovelo (8)
 
No. 22 San Diego State 10, Villanova 9
Sophia Righetti scored with 3:13 to play in the fourth quarter in what would turn out to be the game winner of a 10-9 victory for San Diego State over the Villanova Wildcats.
 
Claudia Valdes led the Aztecs with a hat trick while Amanda Legaspi and Klara Goldstein each scored twice.
 
Villanova got the initial goal of the game, but Samantha Loughlin and Danni Croteau answered to give SDSU its first lead of the game, 2-1 with 4:57 to play in the opening quarter. Villanova got the last tally of the period, and the game went to the second tied 2-2.
 
The teams traded the first four goals of the second period with Legaspi scoring both for SDSU. Valdes scored a pair of goals around a Klara Goldstein strike and a Villanova goal to make the score 7-5 at the break.
 
Valdes picked up her third goal to open the third quarter making it 8-5, before the Wildcats closed the gap to 8-7 with a pair of tallies in the final two minutes.
 
In the fourth quarter, Villanova tied it 8-8 and then Goldstein put the Scarlet and Black back in front with five minutes to play.  Villanova tied it at 9-9 with 3:43 left, but Righetti's game winner with 3:13 to play was the difference.
 
Mandy Lagerlof earned the win with 11 saves.
 
 
Villanova: 2-3-2-2 – 9
San Diego State: 2-5-1-2 - 10
 
Villanova Goals: McKenzie (4), Hansen (2), Byles (1), Morrisey (1), Picard (1)
San Diego State Goals: Valdes (3), Goldstein (2), Legaspi (2), Croteau (1), Loughlin (1), Righetti (1)
 
Villanova Saves: Shaw (11)
San Diego State Saves: Lagerlof (11)
 
No. 20 San Diego State 12, St. Francis 10
Sophia Righetti tallied four goals to lead the Aztecs to a 12-10 win over St. Francis.
 
The teams combined for nine goals in the first period and in 32 minutes neither could build more than a two-goal lead in a back-and-forth game.
 
Samantha Loughlin opened the scoring just 14 seconds in, but St. Francis tied it and then took a 2-1 lead with 5:21 to go in the first. Klara Goldstein tied it 2-2. SFU then went up 3-2 at the 3:21 mark and pushed its advantage to 4-2 with 2:50 to play in the period. Righetti scored the last two of the first for SDSU, at the 2:26 and 0:58 marks, respectively, to make it 4-4, but St. Francis got the last goal of the period and took a 5-4 lead.
 
The Aztecs doubled up St. Francis in the second, 6-3. Amanda Legaspi and Samantha Loughlin scored to give SDSU a 6-5 lead. St. Francis then tied it 6-6, with a goal at 6:24, followed by a Rose Kanemy strike. SFU tied it 7-7 before Sydney Spence put SDSU back up by a goal. St. Francis tied it at 8-8 with 3:08 to play before the half, but goals from Ella Weigand and Sophia Righetti to close the half sent the Scarlet and Black to the intermission up 10-8.
 
Neither team scored in the third and each picked up a pair of goals in the final eight minutes.  SFU tied it with the first two strikes of the quarter to tie it 10-10. Rose Kanemy scored with 4:03 to play and the Aztecs got an insurance goal from Righetti, her fourth, to make it 12-10.
 
Tiaare Ahovelo played 11:08 and made three saves. Mandy Lagerlof got the win playing the final 20:52. She has nine saves and had two steals.
 
St. Francis: 5-3-0-2 - 10
San Diego State: 4-6-0-2 - 12
 
St. Francis Goals: Halbauer (4), Olay (2), Szucs (2), Carter (1), Williams (1)
San Diego State Goals: Righetti (4), Kanemy (2), Loughlin (2), Goldstein (1), Legaspi (1), Spence (1), Weigand (1)
 
St. Francis Saves: Lumley (9)
San Diego State Saves: Lagerlof (9), Ahovelo (3)
 
No. 13 Princeton 15, No. 22 San Diego State 8
Claudia Valdes scored four times, but the Aztecs fell 15-8 to the Princeton Tigers.
 
Princeton jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the first four minutes and never let the Aztecs get back into the game. Klara Goldstein got the Aztecs on the board at the 2:45 mark and Amanda Legaspi also scored in the first, but the Tigers led 6-2 after eight minutes.
 
Princeton pushed its advantage to 10-4 by the half with Valdes and Legaspi getting the SDSU tallies in the second period.
 
The Tigers got two goals to open the second half before Valdes scored three straight and Ella Weigand added one of her own to make the score 12-8 with 56 seconds to play in the third.
 
Princeton picked up the final three goals of the game for the final score of 15-8.
 
Mandy Lagerlof had seven saves in the loss.
 
Princeton: 6-4-3-2 – 15
San Diego State: 2-2-4-0 – 8
 
Princeton Goals: Mallery (3), Robinson (3), Davidson (1), Burghardt (1), Fraipont (1), Houlahan (1), Stewart (1), Whelan (1)
San Diego State Goals: Valdes (4), Legaspi (2), Goldstein (1), Weigand (1)
 
Princeton Saves: Lucas (5)
San Diego State Saves: Lagerlof (7)
 
No. 22 San Diego State 21, Westcliff 9
San Diego State scored seven goals in the first and seven in the fourth quarter in a 21-9 win over Westcliff in the final game of the Aztec Invitational.
 
San Diego State took a 4-0 lead on a pair of Amanda Legaspi tallies and single strikes from Samantha Loughlin and Rose Kanemy. Kanemy then got her second of the first, sandwiched between a pair of Westcliff goals to make the score SDSU 5-2.
The Scarlet and Black scored two of the final three goals of the period, one from Katie Ratcliff and the from Faith Cerussi to send the game to the second with SDSU up 7-3.
 
The Aztecs moved to a 9-3 lead early in the second quarter behind a pair of strikes from Claudia Valdes. Westcliff responded with a pair of goals of its own to get back to within four at 9-5. Danni Croteau got the final goal of the half and sent SDSU to the break, up 10-5.
 
Legaspi made it 11-5 early in the third and following a Westcliff tally, Brooke Lee got into the scoring column with a goal at the 4:54 mark. Sydney Gish then made it 13-6 with 3:41 to go. The teams traded goals in the final 3:16 with a Cerussi strike at the 2:45 mark sandwiched between Westcliff goals to send the game to the fourth with SDSU leading 14-8.
 
Westcliff scored the opening goal of the final eight minutes to get within five goals, 14-9, but the Aztecs then ripped off seven consecutive tallies to end the game with a 21-9 lead. The scores came from Ella Weigand, a pair from Rose Kanemy, Hannah Bell, Gish, Cerussi and Amanda Chambers.
 
Tiaara Ahovelo made one save in eight minutes in goal, while Mandy Lagerlof had a pair of saves in 24 minutes of action.
 
Westcliff: 3-2-3-1 – 9
San Diego State: 7-3-4-7 – 21
 
Westcliff Goals: Kaplarevic (4), Teodorovic (3), Fernandez (1), Sandoval (1)
San Diego State Goals: Kanemy (4), Cerussi (3), Legaspi (2), Gish (2), Valdes (2), Bell (1), Chambers (1), Croteau (1), Lee (1), Loughlin (1), Ratcliff (1), Weigand (1)
 
Westcliff Saves: Kuhne (3)
San Diego State Saves: Ahovelo (1), Lagerlof (2)