April 24, 2012
SAN DIEGO - The San Diego State women's water polo team will travel to Stanford this week for the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation Championship. The seventh-seeded Aztecs will face the second-seeded Bruins on Friday at 12:30 p.m. PT at Avery Aquatic Center.
SDSU (21-9) draws UCLA (18-3) after finishing the conference campaign with a 1-6 record. The Bruins, meanwhile, finished in a second-place tie with USC after both turned in 5-2 showings against MPSF foes. UCLA earned the No. 2 seed based on its road league victory over the Women of Troy.
The Aztecs carry a four-game winning streak into the tournament and are fresh off a 10-5 win at UC San Diego. The road decision kept the Harper Cup on Montezuma Mesa for the 11th consecutive season. Prior to the win over UCSD, San Diego State took down No. 19 Cal Baptist, Chapman and Redlands in succession.
The quarterfinal game is a rematch of SDSU's MPSF opener back on Feb. 18 at Aztec Aquaplex. In that game, San Diego State scored the game's first goal, but UCLA answered with three first-quarter scores to take a 3-1 lead and never looked back. At halftime, the Bruins enjoyed a 6-2 lead and later went on to record the 9-4 victory.
SDSU will be in search of its first win over UCLA since the second game of the 2010 campaign when it posted a 7-6 overtime victory at the Michigan Invitational. Since that game, San Diego State is winless in four tries vs. the Bruins. Three of the four meetings, however, have been decided by a combined eight goals.
The Aztecs enter the game vs. UCLA in search of their first MPSF tournament-opening win since 2007 when they defeated UC Santa Barbara. In conference-tournament-opening games, SDSU is 10-6 in the history of the MPSF. Friday's match-up with UCLA will mark the fifth time the schools have met in the tournament, but first since 2000. San Diego State is 0-4 in those aforementioned four get-togethers.
A win over UCLA would put the Aztecs in the semifinals where they would face the winner of No. 3 USC and No. 6 San Jose State. That game would be played on Saturday at 4 p.m. PT. A loss to the Bruins, however, would place San Diego State in the consolation bracket where it would play the loser of the USC-SJSU contest at 12:30 p.m. PT. Regardless of how the games play out, SDSU will play a game on Sunday.
The Aztecs are looking to secure their first-ever MPSF tournament title, which would give them the league's automatic bid to the NCAA Championship. This year's NCAA event is being held at Aztec Aquaplex on campus beginning May 11 and running through May 13. Tickets are available by visiting GoAztecs.com.