LA JOLLA, Calif. – Junior Mimi Stoupas scored a team-leading six goal on the day, which led the No. 19-ranked San Diego State water polo team to a win over No. 25 Pomona-Pitzer, 12-9, in its first game on day two of the Triton Invitational, but the team could not maintain that momentum and fell to No. 14 UC Davis 11-6 in its second game.
In addition to Stoupas’ tallies, Shannon Murphy bent the net four times, Claudia Valdes had three goals, Hannah Bell two, and Sammi Byers, Sydney Gish and Julianne Stark scored once in the team’s two contests.
Valdes scored four goals in the first two days of the event, has 206 in her career, and moved into No. 8 on the program’s career scoring list. Gish inched closer to the 100-goal milestone with her goal today and stands at 92 for her career.
Mandy Lagerlof improved her season record to 3-2 with the Pomona- Pitzer win, but Tiaare Ahovelo was tagged with her first loss of the season in the UC Davis game.
No. 19 San Diego State 12, No. 25 Pomona-Pitzer 9
Shannon Murphy and Mimi Stoupas scored four goals apiece and the Aztecs (4-3) earned their 10th straight win against Pomona-Pitzer in as many tries.
In addition to Murphy and Stoupas’ goals, Hannah Bell scored twice while Sammi Byers and Sydney Gish each scored once. Ioanna Petiki, although held without a goal, led the team with two assists. Mandy Lagerof went the distance in goal, making a career-high 21 saves and adding a steal.
The Scarlet and Black led from the outset, holding Pomona-Pitzer (0-4) off the scoreboard in the first period, while tallying three goals. Stoupas got the Aztecs their first two goals, at 6:43 and 5:52. Murphy scored her first of the game, with 3:21 on the clock, to make it 3-0 and that was the score as the teams went to the second.
The Aztecs pushed their advantage to 4-0 on Stoupas’ third of the game and first of the second quarter. The Sagehens cut the lead in half, scoring the next two goals, but Murphy got the hat trick at 5:36 to make it 5-2. Pomona-Pitzer closed to within 5-3 at 2:46, before goals from Bell at 1:02 and Murphy’s third, with 17 seconds left in the second. The Sagehens got the final score of the half, with just two seconds on the clock and the Scarlet and Black held a 7-4 lead heading into the break.
Coming out of the intermission, Pomona-Pitzer won the third period by outscoring SDSU 3-1. Murphy tallied her fourth goal of the game at 5:49, but SDSU then surrendered three straight before the end of the quarter and the Aztecs clung to an 8-7 lead heading into the final eight minutes.
The Sagehens tied the game 18 seconds into the fourth, but the Aztecs responded with three consecutive goals to regain control of the game. The run started at the 5:33 mark on a Gish strike, then Byers and Bell at 4:14 and 1:24, respectively, finished the run. Pomona-Pitzer cut the advantage to 11-9 with just over a minute to play, but Stoupas got the goal back, on her fourth of the day, with five seconds to play for the final score of 12-9.
Brienz Lang led Pomona-Pitzer with three goals. Isabella Dova recorded 13 saves and a steal.
San Diego State: 3-4-1-4 - 12
Pomona-Pitzer: 0-4-3-2 - 9
San Diego State Goals: Murphy (4), Stoupas (4), Bell (2), Byers (1), Gish (1)
Pomona-Pitzer Goals: Lang (3), Amberger (1), Espinosa (1), Lewis (1), Magna (1), Richardson (1), Zeigler (1)
San Diego State Saves: Lagerlof (21)
Pomona-Pitzer Saves: Dova (13)
No. 14 UC Davis 11, No. 19 San Diego State 6
Claudia Valdes recorded a hat trick, but three successive UC Davis goals in the first period put San Diego State (4-4) in a deficit it could not overcome in an 11-6 loss.
In addition to Valdes’ strikes, Mimi Stoupas scored twice, and Julianne Stark bent the net once to account for the Aztecs’ tallies. Ioanna Petiki and Avery Sullivan led the team in assists with three and two, respectively. Tiaare Ahovelo (0-1) started the game, played 24 minutes and stopped six shots but surrendered nine goals. Kyla Pranajaya was in net for the fourth quarter and made five saves against a pair of goals allowed.
The Aztecs were up 1-0, on Valdes’s first goal, 40 seconds into the first period. The Aggies then proceeded to score three unanswered before Stoupas stopped the run at 4:51 and it was 3-2. UC Davis scored with 4:21 to go to push the lead back to a pair of goals, but on Valdes’ second tally of the quarter it was 4-3 with 2:52 on the clock and that was the score after eight minutes.
The Aggies (5-4) pushed it to 5-3 and then 6-3 with inside a minute to go in the second, but Valdes completed the hat trick with three ticks left on the clock, and the teams went to the break with the Aztecs down 6-4.
Coming out of the intermission, the teams traded the first four scores of the third period. Stoupas scored at 7:03 to close the gap to a single goal, 6-5. However, 41 seconds later, UC Davis pushed its advantage back to two goals before Stark scored to make it 7-6 with 4:21 to go in the third in what would turn out to be SDSU’s final goal. The Aggies got the last two tallies of the quarter, and the teams went to the final eight minutes with San Diego State in a 9-6 hole.
UC Davis scored the only goals in the final period, a pair of strikes, to make the final score 11-6.
Bridget Miller and Ally Smith led UC Davis with two goals, each. Eva Stein allowed six goals, stopped 10 shots and had a pair of steals in goal for the Aggies.
San Diego State: 3-1-2-0 - 6
UC Davis: 4-2-3-2 - 11
San Diego State Goals: Valdes (3), Stoupas (2), Stark (1)
UC Davis Goals: Miller (2), Smith (2), Abel (1), Henry (1), Johnson (1), Massan (1), Nocetti (1), Vehling (1), Wallin (1)
San Diego State Saves: Ahovelo (6), Pranajaya (5)
UC Davis Saves: Stein (10)
Following Saturday’s results, the Aztec will play for 11th place at 11:40 a.m. on Sunday against Concordia at Canyonview Pool.