LA JOLLA, Calif. – Megan Holcomb and Sammi Byers each banged the back of the cage three times for the No. 18-ranked San Diego State water polo team in its 15-8 victory over Cal State Fullerton on the final day of the Triton Invitational at UC San Diego’s Canyonview Pool.
Having split four games in each of its first two weekends of competition in the 2025 campaign, the Aztecs record stands at 4-4 for the year.
In addition to the combined six goals from Holcomb and Byers, SDSU got two goals apiece from Sydney Gish, Mimi Stoupas, and Claudia Valdes and single tallies from Rose Kanemy, Makena Macedo and Shannon Murphy. Ava Ratajczak started and played the first two quarters, letting four goals in and making one save. Mandy Lagerlof played the second half stopping three shots and surrendering four goals.
San Diego State (4-4), put three unanswered goals on the scoreboard in the first quarter starting with Murphy’s tally at 6:22. That was followed by Byers’ first of the contest, at 1:35, and Kanemy’s strike with 56 seconds left on the clock for the 3-0 lead.
The Scarlet and Black tacked on another goal to start the second period, on Byers’ second of the game with 6:05 remaining before the break. Cal State Fullerton scored the next two goals to cut the lead in half, 4-2. Valdes scored at the 2:48 mark to give SDSU a three-goal advantage, but in the final 2:30 of the quarter, the Titans hit the back of the net twice and the teams went to the half with San Diego State up by one, 5-4.
Coming out of the break, Stoupas scored 16 seconds in and at the 5:23 mark, Macedo got into the scoring column to increase the Aztecs lead to 7-4. However, CSF put up goals at 5:01 and 1:50, which bookended Stoupas’ second goal of the period, at 4:48, to make it an 8-6 game. Then, with just 27 seconds on the clock, Byers completed the hat trick, and the game went to the final eight minutes with San Diego State leading 9-6.
The Aztecs extended the lead to 11-6, on goals from Valdes, 30 seconds into the fourth quarter, and Gish, 23 seconds later. Cal State Fullerton’s last gasp came on a pair of scores at 6:43 and 5:22, to get within a three-goal margin, 11-8, but SDSU put four more on the scoreboard in the final five minutes and four seconds to secure the 15-8 decision. The tallies came from Gish (5:04), and then the hat trick from Holcomb with strikes at 4:23, 3:32 and 3:05.
Cal State Fullerton: 0-4-2-2 – 8
San Diego State: 3-2-4-6 – 15
Cal State Fullerton Goals: Hernandez (3), Tal (2), Doube-MacLeod (2), Hatori (1)
San Diego State Goals: Byers (3), Holcomb (3), Gish (2), Stoupas (2), Valdes (2), Kanemy (1), Macedo (1), Murphy (1)
San Diego State Saves: Lagerlof (3), Ratajczak (1)