SAN DIEGO – Leading 6-5 at the break, No. 25 San Diego State water polo came out in the second half and scored seven times to the California Baptist Lancers' once and walked away with a 13-6 victory on Thursday afternoon at Aztec Aquaplex.
The Aztecs offense was led by Amanda Legaspi, who banged the back of the cage five times, including four in the second 16 minutes. Claudia Valdes, a freshman, picked up a hat trick and sophomores Rose Kanemy and Klara Goldstein each scored twice. Senior Danni Croteau added a solo strike. In goal, Tiaare Ahovelo, came on for the second quarter and allowed just two goals in the final 24 minutes to earn the victory.
With the win, the Scarlet and Black moves to 10-15 on the year, 3-2 in Golden Coast Conference play, while California Baptist (CBU) sits as 14-17, 0-6 in league contests.
With the Aztecs holding a one-goal advantage after 16 minutes, Legaspi scored three unanswered goals in less than four minutes to push the lead to 9-5. Her first goal of the third came at the 6:23 mark and then she followed that up with strikes at 5:28 and 4:15.
CBU scored its only goal of the second half with 3:53 to play in the third quarter and in just under a minute, Valdes got the goal back with 2:50 to go in the period.
In the fourth, SDSU got scores from Kanemy, at the 7:25 mark, Legaspi and Goldstein with 3:17 and 2:44 to play, respectively, for the final score of 13-6.
FIRST HALF
The teams traded the first four goals with Goldstein opening the scoring 26 seconds into the game to set San Diego State up with a 1-0 lead. California Baptist answered a little over a minute later, but Valdes put the Aztecs back in front, 2-1, with her first goal of the contest, with 6:03 to go in the opening stanza.
CBU scored the last two goals of the quarter and had a 4-2 advantage after eight minutes.
SDSU opened the second quarter on fire. They scored at the 7:19 mark on Valdes' second tally of the game. That was followed by Legaspi's initial score of the contest, with 6:05 to play in the half, which tied the game 4-4.
Kanemy put the Scarlet and Black in front with 4:32 to play before the intermission, but California Baptist tied it 5-5, 25 seconds later. Danni Croteau gave the Aztecs a 6-5 lead with 1:01 left on the clock to establish a lead it would not relinquish for the rest of the game.
California Baptist: 4-1-1-0 – 6
San Diego State: 2-4-4-3 – 13
California Baptist Goals: Almendariz (1), Burrell (1), Carter (1), Galbraith (1), Hutton (1)Schwegler (1)
San Diego State Goals: Legaspi (5), Valdes (3), Goldstein (2), Kanemy (2), Croteau (1)
California Baptist Saves: Ratajczak (13)
San Diego State Saves: Ahovelo (5)
No. 25 Water Polo Pulls Away from CBU for a 13-6 Win
