March 17, 2015
SAN DIEGO -
SDSU Water Polo Weekly Release
Game Week Preview
No. 12 San Diego State (10-11; 3-0 GCC) at No. 13 LMU (13-6; 0-0 GCC)
Thursday, March 19 | Burns Center | Los Angeles, Calif. | 4 p.m. PT
LMU Invitational
No. 12 San Diego State (10-11) vs. Concordia (6-10)
Friday, March 20 | Burns Center | Los Angeles, Calif. | 9:15 a.m. PT
No. 12 San Diego State (10-11) vs. Brown (8-7)
Friday, March 20 | Burns Center | Los Angeles, Calif. | 1 p.m. PT
No. 12 San Diego State (10-11) vs. No. T-20 Michigan (6-10)
Saturday, March 21 | Burns Center | Los Angeles, Calif. | 11:45 a.m. PT
Storylines
- No. 12 SDSU gears up for another busy week as it travels to Los Angeles to play No. 13 Loyola Marymount on Thursday. The Aztecs will then stay at the Lions' Burns Center to compete in the LMU Invitational on Friday and Saturday.
- SDSU enters the game vs. Loyola Marymount in first place in the Golden Coast standings, sitting at 3-0. The Lions, meanwhile, have not played a conference game and are in a tie for second place at 0-0 along with Santa Clara and Azusa Pacific.
- The 4 p.m. LMU-San Diego State match-up is a tilt that will feature the GCC's top teams from last year. The Aztecs won the regular-season title after going 6-0. The Lions, however, after going 5-1 during the 2014 GCC regular season, got the best of SDSU in the conference tournament championship game, winning 10-9 in sudden-victory overtime.
- Following the LMU-SDSU match on Thursday, the Lions will open their home facility and host the 15-game LMU Invite over the course of two days. In addition to SDSU and Loyola Marymount, California Baptist, Concordia, Brown, Michigan, Princeton and Whittier will be in attendance.
- The Aztecs will be featured in three of the invite's 15 games. San Diego State will face Concordia at 9:15 a.m. on Friday and return to the pool at 1 p.m. for a contest vs. Brown. On Saturday, SDSU will oppose Michigan at 11:45 a.m.
- The Aztecs head into this week's games after competing against No. 15 Pacific last Friday and playing five games at the two-day Aztec Invitational. At SDSU's home tournament, the Aztecs faced three nationally ranked teams in No. 10 Princeton, No. 16 Indiana and No. 17 Wagner, in addition to Bucknell and Whittier.
- SDSU started its weekend off strong by defeating 15th-ranked Pacific, 9-6, to improve to 3-0 in GCC action. When Aztec Invitational action started, San Diego State was dealt a crushing, 11-10, overtime defeat at the hands of Wagner, but followed with victories over Bucknell (9-2) and Whittier (11-5). SDSU, however, ended the tournament on a sour note when it dropped games to Indiana (10-7) and Princeton (6-4) to finish its weekend with a 3-3 record.
- San Diego State received a pair of strong performances from a pair of sophomores in Caroline Israels and Ioli Benekou. Israels scored 11 goals and added three assists, 15 steals and one drawn ejection. Benekou, meanwhile, also scored 11 times, assisted on two goals, had 10 steals and drew two ejections, both of which San Diego State scored on.
- Israels' 11 goals last weekend gives her a team-best 34, which is two more than Benekou's total through 21 games. Israels, who now has 37 thefts, also pulled to within three steals of Nikole Ferrari for the team lead.
- Rachel Mitchell has been fantastic of late between the pipes and last weekend was no exception. The goalkeeper reached double figures in saves in three games and had nine stops in a fourth. Against Pacific, the junior had 10 saves and followed it with 13 vs. Wagner and nine vs. Bucknell. On Sunday, the junior ended her invitational with 11 denials vs. Indiana and another six vs. Princeton. For the season, Mitchell has 176 saves and is closing in on 200 stops for the third consecutive season.
- LMU enters the game vs. SDSU fresh off an 11-2 defeat to No. 5 UC Irvine. The loss came in Lions' home opener after playing their first 18 games away from their Los Angeles campus.
- Concordia heads into the weekend after downing St. Francis, 12-9, last weekend at the Lancer Invitational, a tournament where the Eagles went 3-1 overall.
- Brown travels to L.A. after competing in a tripleheader on March 14, leaving them with a 1-2 record to look back on. The Bears defeated Mercyhurst, 10-8, before dropping games to Villanova and the host, Hartwick.
- Michigan returns to action for the first time since Sunday, March 8, when it fell to Indiana in Bloomington, 9-8. The Wolverines opened the three-game Fluid Four with a win over Hartwick and a loss to fifth-ranked UC Irvine.