Feb. 26, 2004
SAN DIEGO - San Diego State pulled out a thrilling 11-10 victory in overtime over the University of Hawai'i in a conference matchup on Thursday night at the Kroc Community Center Pool. Senior Sandy Onweller scored a career high six goals, including both goals in overtime to lead fifth-ranked Aztecs over No. 10 Rainbow Wahine. San Diego State improves to 9-1 on the year, its best start in school history, and 2-0 in the MPSF, while Hawai'i falls to 4-5 and 1-3 in conference action.
The game started slow with no goals scored in the first four minutes of the game. Onweller got the Aztecs on the board first with a goal at the 2:56 mark of the first period, but Hawai'i answered back just 12 seconds later, and took the lead 2-1 heading into the second period.
The offenses exploded in the second period with a total of 10 goals in the seven minute quarter. SDSU scored on its first two possesions to take a 3-2 lead, but Hawai'i battled back to tie the game at 4-4. Again the Aztecs scored back-to-back goals to build a lead, but again the Rainbow Wahine tied the score at 6-6 with 2:00 remaining in the half. Onweller posted her third goal of the game at the 1:46 mark to give SDSU a 7-6 lead at the intermission.
The defenses took over for the rest of the game as Hawai'i shut out the Aztecs for over 12 minutes, including the entire third period and took an 8-7 lead into the final two minutes of the game. SDSU drew an ejection at the 1:59 mark and senior Chelsy Smith converted her second goal of the game to tie the game at 8-all at the 1:43 mark. On the next SDSU possesion, the Aztecs drew another ejection and this time Onweller converted with 48 seconds remaining to take the lead, 9-8. However, the Rainbow Wahine would not give up as Beth Novick would deflect a ball into the cage for the tying goal with just 33 seconds left in the game to force overtime.
In the first half of the overtime period Onweller would score her fifth goal of the game to give the Aztecs a one goal cushion, and after the start of the second half of overtime would score again on a four-meter to give SDSU an 11-9 lead with 2:35 remaining. Hawaii's Shannon Carrol would cut the lead to one at 1:39, but the Aztec defense held strong in the final two possesions to hold on for the victory.
Onweller's six goals doubled her previous career scoring high of three goals, which she had done three times. Sandy has scored 11 goals in the last three games after scoring only five in the Aztecs first seven contests. Onweller also added two steals and an assist.
Dominique Delgado registered three assists to move into fourth place on SDSU's all-time assists list with 60 in her three seasons. Delgado leads SDSU with 19 assists on the season. Besides Onweller and Smith, Holly Hartzell, Elana Cervantes, and Savanah Kelley all registered a goal for the Aztecs. Ashley Zabel made four saves in the cage to pick up the victory.
SDSU will travel to the UC Santa Barbara Tournament for four matches on Saturday and Sunday, beginning with a contest against No. 14 UC Davis on Saturday at 12:30 p.m. The UCSB Tournament boasts 13 of the top 14 teams in the country, including each of the top eight.