LOS ANGELES – Sydney Gish recorded a hat trick, her seventh of the season and fifth in the last six games, but the San Diego State water polo team was outscored by five goals in the third period and lost at No. 8 Loyola Marymount 13-8 in a Golden Coast Conference (GCC) game on Saturday afternoon at Burns Aquatic Center.
In addition to Gish’s offense, the Aztecs (8-7, 1-1 GCC) got two goals from Megan Holcomb and a goal each from Ioanna Petiki, Mimi Stoupas and Avery Sullivan. SDSU used three goalies with Mandy Lagerlof playing the majority of the minutes giving up nine goals and making two stops in 20:54 in the cage. Tiaare Ahovelo played 10:37, made one save and allowed four goals. Kyla Pranajaya was in for the final 29 seconds.
The Aztecs led 4-3 after eight minutes after getting off to a 3-1 lead in the first 4:27. Stoupas scored 25 seconds into the game and Gish made it 2-0 at the 6:04 mark. The Lions cut the lead in half at 4:43, but Gish gave the Scarlet and Black its two-goal cushion back at 3:33. LMU tied it with strikes at 3:12 and 1:40 before Sullivan’s tally at 1:25 sent the game to the second quarter with SDSU up one.
Gish completed the hat trick at 6:56 and Petiki scored with 4:47 to go before the half to give SDSU a 6-3 lead. But from there LMU put 10 goals on the scoreboard to SDSU’s two. The Lions scored at 2:51, 1:28 and with 56 ticks left on the clock to send the game to the intermission tied 6-6.
Coming out of the break, LMU scored four unanswered goals to lead 10-6. Holcomb stopped the run with 2:21 left in the third, but the Lions got the last two tallies of the period and were up 12-7 heading to the final eight minutes.
Each team scored once in the fourth with LMU getting a goal at the 3:42 mark and Holcomb bent the net with 1:58 to play for the final score of 13-8
Anna Tarantino led LMU (11-3, 1-0 GCC) with three strikes and Madison Searle played the entire game in goal and made 11 saves to earn the win.
San Diego State: 4-2-1-1 - 8
Loyola Marymount: 3-3-6-1 - 13
San Diego State Goals: Gish (3), Holcomb (2), Petiki (1), Stoupas (1), Sullivan (1)
Loyola Marymount Goals: Tarantino (3), Benjamin (2), Isaac (2), Sasover (2), Styris (2), Boyd (1), DeMattia (1)
San Diego State Saves: Lagerlof (2), Ahovelo (1)
Loyola Marymount Saves: Searle (11)
San Diego State remains in GCC play for its next game, on Friday, February 27, when it plays Santa Clara in its league home opener at 1 p.m. PT at the Aquaplex.