SAN DIEGO – San Diego State water polo, which had to go to overtime to defeat the Concordia University in the regular season, jumped on the Golden Eagles in the first quarter and cruised to a 15-8 victory in the quarterfinals of the Golden Coast Conference (GCC) Championship Tournament on Friday at Aztec Aquaplex.
The Aztecs (12-17), the 4-seed, got three goals each from Kendall Houck, Amanda Legaspi and Claudia Valdes, while Katie Ratcliff added two tallies and Samantha Loughlin, Syndey Gish, Shannon Murphy and Rose Kanemy scored a goal each.
After CUI (15-16) scored the opening goal of the game, 43 seconds in, the Scarlet and Black scored five times unanswered to take a stranglehold on the game.
Kanemy got the equalizer 40 seconds after the Concordia goal and was followed by Legaspi at the 5:50 mark, Houck with 4:26 to go, Ratcliff at 3:39 and Legaspi again with 1:23 to play in the first. The Golden Eagles got the final goal of the first eight minutes to send the game to the second with SDSU up 5-2.
Valdes got her second goal of the game 31 seconds into the second quarter to extend the Aztecs lead back to four, 6-2. Concordia, the 5-seed, got the score back with 6:49 to play before the half. Loughlin and Ratcliff then scored back-to-back at the 5:41 and 4:08 marks, respectively, to push the advantage to 8-3. The teams traded goals prior to the halftime horn, with Gish scoring the final one of the half, with 14 seconds to play, to send it to the half with SDSU up 9-4.
Coming out of the break the Aztecs scored four straight times to go up 13-4. Houck started the run at 7:32 and was followed by Valdes at 6:36. Houck struck again at 3:25 and Legaspi, with 1:36 to play, finished the run with her third of the game. CUI scored twice in the final 1:08 of the period to send the game to the fourth with San Diego State up 13-6.
The teams traded the final four tallies with Valdes scoring at the 6:12 mark for her third of the contest and Murphy's score was sandwiched between a pair of Golden Eagles goals which made it 15-8, the final score.
Goalie Mandy Lagerlof played the first three quarters making six saves and surrendering six goals to earn the victory. In addition, she had two assists. Tiaare Ahovelo was in the cage for the final eight minutes and made nine saves while giving up two goals.
The Aztecs will play 1-seed Fresno State in the semifinals on Saturday at 4 p.m. PT at the Aquaplex.
Concordia: 2-2-2-2 - 8
San Diego State: 5-4-4-2 - 15
Concordia Goals: Ravelo (4), Evezard (1), Henson (1), Perreira (1), Reidel (1)
San Diego State Goals: Houck (3), Legaspi (3), Valdes (3), Ratcliff (2), Gish (1), Kanemy (1), Loughlin (1), Murphy (1)
Concordia Saves: Cava (8)
San Diego State Saves: Ahovelo (9), Lagerlof (6)
Water Polo Advances to GCC Semis with 15-8 Win
