Daniel Sakow, File PhotoSix matches in three days don’t sound like much of a Spring Break.
But after the No. 7 San Diego State water polo team made short work of No. 15 Michigan last weekend en route to a 3-0 mark and a first-place finish at the Wolverine Invitational in Ann Arbor, Mich., SDSU can finally catch its breath.
“The plan is to work really hard through this week,” head coach Carin Crawford said. “We’ve had some really challenging practices, but we can finally relax a little bit hopefully.”
After SDSU played four nationally ranked opponents in the last two weekends (going 3-1), the roster for the Loyola Marymount Invitational, being held on Friday and Saturday in Los Angeles, isn’t exactly impressive compared to the kind of teams the Aztecs have been playing.
CSU Monterey Bay, Colorado State, University of Redlands and Chapman University. Not exactly names that strike fear into the heart of a top-10 team that has been seeing names such as UCLA, Long Beach State and Michigan in the pool across from them.
“In the past it’s been difficult to motivate the team with low-level teams,” Crawford said. “But this season we’ve had no problem with that, and I think the team is really ready to take care of business.”
However, despite the lack of top-tier teams, this weekend is not without importance for SDSU.
After the LMU Invitational, the Aztecs will travel to Irvine, Calif. for a pair of games against Maryland and conference-rival No. 11 UC Irvine. The match against Irvine is especially important for SDSU, as it is looking to improve on a 3-2 conference record that is hardly indicative of how well the Aztecs have played so far this year.
“It’s huge to play a conference team,” Crawford said. “We circled this week as a way of getting games and preparing ourselves to play Irvine. That’s been a focus for us all along.”
Also, a win against the Anteaters (and a strong performance this weekend) would maintain the momentum that SDSU built with its win in Michigan.
“Our goal is to go 6-0 this weekend,” head coach Carin Crawford said. “I think it is definitely achievable ? and it would give us great momentum heading into the Cal and USC games next week.”
