consolation to women’s water polo
with third-place finish,
victory over Stanford
Federation Championships
The giants came out to play this weekend in Santa Barbara, but the San Diego State women’s water polo team was well prepared for them.
The Mountain Pacific Sports Federation of Women’s Water Polo Conference Championships, hosted by UC Santa Barbara, was composed of seven nationally ranked teams, including No. 1 UCLA, No. 2 UC Berkeley and No. 3 Stanford.
Ranked No. 4 in the nation, the Aztecs won the consolation championship match Sunday, drowning Stanford 8-7 in double overtime.
“This was a big game for us. Everybody played up to their capabilities,” SDSU head coach Deena Deardruff Schmidt said. “They stayed together; they stayed focused and did a very good job as a team.”
The Aztecs led 5-4 at the half. But the game became tied when Stanford battled back with two goals in the third period while SDSU only produced one goal. A scoreless fourth period took the game into overtime.
Both teams scored a goal in overtime, and it looked as though the match might go into triple overtime. However, with 1:37 left in the second overtime period, Aztec Larisa Baltgalvis broke down the Cardinal defense to score the winning goal, giving SDSU third place.
“You always have different people who step up on different occasions,” Deardruff Schmidt said. “But I think that in this tournament we came together as a team very well.”
Even more important than taking third place, the Aztecs’ win over Stanford meant an incredible boost for the team’s confidence, especially considering Saturday’s results. SDSU’s first game on Saturday was also against Stanford, a team the Aztecs had not beaten this season. The losing streak continued that Saturday as Stanford scored two goals in each of the last two periods to claim a 6-4 victory.
With that loss, SDSU was then paired up with rival UCLA. having already lost three times to the Bruins this season, the Aztecs hoped to get even. But four UCLA goals in the third period led to an 8-6 SDSU defeat.
“Our offense was very weak on Saturday in both games,” Deardruff Schmidt said.
SDSU began its campaign Friday, taking on the University of Pacific. The Tigers gave up 17 goals to the Aztecs, five of which came from junior Sara Hanneman. SDSU went on to a 17-6 victory.
Later the same day, the Aztecs returned to the pool to face the University of Southern California. Trailing 4-2 after two periods, SDSU scored three goals in the third to take the lead. The Aztecs held on to the lead behind four goals from Rachel Scott to record their second win of the day, 7-5.
SDSU will continue to polish its game in preparation for the national qualifying tournament in two weeks. After that, the Aztecs have their sights on the national championships May 9-11 in Michigan.
“We feel pretty confident,” Deardruff Schmidt said. “We just have to take one (game) at a time.”
