RIVERSIDE, Calif. – Claudia Valdes scored four times, including twice in the first in the first quarter, as the No. 19-ranked San Diego State water polo team opened a 5-1 lead after eight minutes and cruised to a 15-10 victory over No. 21 California Baptist at Lancer Aquatic Center on Saturday afternoon in each team’s Golden Coast Conference opener.
In addition to Valdes’ four strikes, Ioanna Petiki and Mimi Stoupas each scored three times. Sydney Gish bent the net twice while Sammi Byers, Megan Holcomb, and Avery Sullivan picked up single goals. As well as leading the team in tallies, Valdes also paced the squad with five assists.
In goal, Mandy Lagerlof (7-3) played the first half and earned the victory making two saves and giving up four goals. Tiaare Ahovelo replaced Lagerlof for the final 16 minutes and stopped four shots, surrendered six goals, and had a steal.
With four saves, Ahovelo is nine stops from matching Maura Cantoni (519 saves from 2017-19) for sixth place on the program’s career saves list. Stoupas drew four exclusions, which tied her for 10th place on the program’s career list with Amber Pezzolla (2010-13) who drew 162 as an Aztec. Valdes inched closer to Anique Hermann (2012-15) on the all-time assists list: she now has 154 and is five from equaling Hermann for fourth place on the career list.
SDSU (8-6, 1-0) improved to 7-0 against California Baptist at Lancer Aquatic Center and 31-3 in the all-time series. In addition, the Aztecs are now 10-3 in their GCC openers, including 6-1 in league openers on the road.
Each team scored its initial goal within the first 120 seconds. Stoupas was first, 70 seconds in, and CBU responded at the 6:11 mark. The succeeding six minutes were all Aztecs. They got goals from Petiki at 5:48, Valdes at 4:45, Gish at 3:49, and Stoupas again at 2:19. Four of the five goals were of the even strength variety with Gish’s coming on the power play and SDSU led 5-1 after one quarter.
CBU (7-5, 0-1 GCC) got the goal back to start the second period, scoring at the 7:21 mark, but the Scarlet and Black responded with four unanswered tallies before the Lancers halted the run with a goal with 2:58 to play in the half. SDSU’s run began with an even strength goal from Valdes at the 7:00 mark and was followed by a power-play strike from Holcomb with 6:12 on the clock. The Aztecs were then successful with a pair of penalty-shot goals: at 4:13 from Valdes and 3:32 from Petiki to lead 9-2. The Lancers got a couple of goals back, at 2:58 and 1:08 to send the game to the intermission with SDSU up 9-4.
Coming out of the break, CBU scored the first goal of the second half at 6:11, but Stoupas answered 17 seconds later with her third goal of the contest. California Baptist then put two goals on the scoreboard, at 4:26 and 3:51, to trail by three, 10-7. Sullivan, with 2:06 on the clock, and then Gish, on a power play at the 1:07 mark, pushed the Scarlet and Black’s advantage to five, 12-7, before the Lancers scored the last goal of the third quarter with 15 seconds to play to send the game to the final eight minutes with San Diego State leading 12-8.
California Baptist picked up a pair of goals to open the fourth: coming at 5:08 and 4:35 to make it a 12-10 game. Byers then struck with 3:13 to go, followed by Petiki’s hat trick goal on a power play with one minute to play. Valdes scored the final goal of the game, with 11 seconds left, for the final score of 15-10.
California Baptist’s offense was led by Emmie Ramirez, who scored four times and while Aleksandra Antanasaijevic led the team with five saves, the loss went to Tyanna Schneider who stopped two shots but gave up five goals in the first quarter.
San Diego State: 5-4-3-3 - 15
California Baptist: 1-3-4-2 - 10
San Diego State Goals: Valdes (4), Petiki (3), Stoupas (3), Gish (2), Byers (1), Holcomb (1), Sullivan (1)
California Baptist Goals: Ramirez (3), Bumbaca (2), Gates (2), Beringer (1), Moreno (1), Raynes (1)
San Diego State Saves: Ahovelo (4), Lagerlof (2)
California Baptist Saves: Antanasaijevic (5), Schneider (2)
The Aztecs return to action next Saturday, February 24, at Loyola Marymount in another GCC matchup.