SAN DIEGO – San Diego State water polo, the No. 17-ranked team in the nation, celebrated Senior Day on Friday afternoon at Aztecs Aquaplex in a 12-5 victory over the No. 23 Brown Bears and got meaningful contributions from each of its eight seniors.
In a ceremony prior to the game, the program honored seniors: Tiaare Ahovelo, Hannah Bell, Sydney Gish, Megan Holcomb, Mandy Lagerlof, Aiyana Mendoza, Shannon Murphy and Claudia Valdes.
Each of SDSU’s senior field players scored in the game. Bell and Gish each bent the net twice, while Holcomb, Mendoza, Murphy and Valdes finished a goal apiece. In addition, the Scarlet and Black saw freshman Ioanna Petiki score twice, and Poppy Phillips, also a freshman, and junior Mimi Stoupas picked up single goals.
In goal, the Aztecs (16-9) gave each of their seniors 16 minutes of work. Mandy Lagerlof, playing the first half, had four saves against a pair of goals and added an assist to improve her record to 11-4 on the season. Tiaare Ahovelo, playing in the second half, stopped eight shots while allowing three in.
San Diego State picked up the first two goals of the game and never looked back.
Gish scored the initial goal at 6:54 and was followed by a Valdes strike 40 seconds later to stake the home team to a 2-0 lead. Brown (13-8) and SDSU traded the final three tallies of the first period. The Bears got on the scoreboard at the 4:26 mark to cut the lead in half, 2-1. Bell responded with 2:28 on the clock to get the lead back to two goals, and on a penalty shot at 1:16 Brown made it 3-2.
Valdes assisted on Gish and Bell’s strikes, has 180 for her career and moved into a tie with Sarah Brady (2008-11) for third place on the program’s career assists list, and on her goal, the 238th of her Aztec career, she inched closer to Caroline Israels’ 242 strikes, which are No. 4 on the program’s career goals list.
Over the next two periods, San Diego State tallied seven goals and held Brown scoreless.
In the second period, Petiki recorded back-to-back goals to open the stanza. The first came at 7:12, with Lagerlof credited with the assist, and then at 6:49, this time on an assist from Murphy. The final goal of the quarter went to Mendoza, who bent the net with 24 ticks on the clock. Stoupas picked up an assist on the score and SDSU led 6-2 at the intermission.
Coming out of the break, the third quarter saw the Scarlet and Black extend its lead to 10-2.
Petiki assisted on the Aztecs’ first two goals. The first was on Murphy’s goal at 6:44 and then on Gish’s second of the day, with 4:29 to go in the period. There was 2:07 on the clock when Holcomb made it 9-2 and Phillips got the last goal of the quarter, on a powerplay with 1:04 to go. Julianne Stark assisted on the Holcomb strike and Byers on the Phillips goal.
Leading 10-2 heading into the final eight minutes, The Bears broke an 18:05 scoring drought with the first goal of the fourth quarter. Bell responded 32 seconds later with her second goal, this time with an assist from Gish. It was 11-4 at the 3:17 mark following a Brown goal, but with 2:12 to go, Lucy Bullock set up Stoupas for San Diego State’s final tally of the game and a 12-4 lead. The Bears got the final score of the game with 40 ticks on the clock for the 12-5 win for the home team.
Brown: 2-0-0-3 - 5
San Diego State: 3-3-4-2 - 12
Brown Goals: Poissonnier (2), Anderson (1), Flierl (1), Newby (1)
San Diego State Goals: Bell (2), Gish (2), Petiki (2), Holcomb (1), Mendoza (1), Murphy (1), Phillips (1), Stoupas (1), Valdes (1)
Brown Saves: Okafo (6), Schoening (4)
San Diego State Saves: Ahovelo (8), Lagerlof (4)
San Diego State wraps up its regular season slate next Thursday, April 2, at the Aquaplex in its annual Harper Cup game against UC San Diego. The contest is set to start at 4 p.m. PT.