SAN DIEGO – No. 24 San Diego State water polo led 4-3 late in the first period but struggled to find the back of the cage from there and lost 14-6 to LMU in the third-place game of the 2023 Golden Coast Conference Tournament on Sunday morning at Aztec Aquaplex. The loss means the Aztecs finish in fourth place in the tournament.
San Diego State, the 4-seed, had its offense led by two goals each from Amanda Legaspi and Rose Kanemy. Claudia Valdes, who earend inclusion on the all-tournament team, and Sydney Spence scored a goal apiece. In goal, Mandy Lagerlof played the first half and had three saves while allowing nine goals in the loss. In the second half, Tiarre Ahovelo took over, surrendered five goals and made six saves.
Legaspi got the scoring started 36 seconds into the game to give the Aztecs an early 1-0 lead. LMU came right back to tally the next two goals, but Kanemy, at the 4:13 mark, found the top of the cage to tie it 2-2 and then after a Lions goal put them up 3-2, Kanemy came right back and beat the LMU goalie inside the far post to equalize the contest at 3-3 with 3:27 to go in the quarter.
Legaspi then put the Scarlet and Black (12-19) back in front, at the 2:17 mark, on her second goals of the game, but Loyola Marymount matched that score to make it 4-4 and got the final goal of the period to take a 5-4 lead after eight minutes.
The Lions continued to apply pressure scoring the first four goals of the second quarter and had a 9-4 lead when Valdes stopped the run with a goal at the 1:06 mark to send the game to the half with SDSU trailing 9-5.
Coming out of the break, it took nearly four minutes to get a score, but when it came it was for LMU, with 4:06 left in the period. They added two more to make it 12-5 with eight minutes left to play.
LMU (15-15) scored on its first possession of the final period to move ahead 13-5 and added a subsequent goal to make it 14-5.
Sydney Spence ended SDSU's 12-plus minute scoring drought with 5:04 to play with her first goal of the game. Neither team scored in the final five minutes for the final score of 14-6.
SDSU: 4-1-0-1 - 6
LMU: 5-4-3-2 - 14
SDSU Goals: Kanemy (2), Legaspi (2), Spence (1), Valdes (1)
LMU Goals: Seletopoulou (5), Williams (4), Akritidou (1), Arino Ruiz (1), Barbajas (1), Gerber (1), Snelgar (1)
SDSU Saves: Lagerlof (3), Ahovelo (6)
LMU Saves: Davis (12)
Water Polo Finishes Fourth in GCC Tourney
