SAN DIEGO – San Diego State water polo, ranked No. 21 in the nation, scored twice in the first minute of its game against Concordia, never trailed, and cruised to a 12-8 Golden Coast Conference (GCC) victory on Friday afternoon at Aztec Aquaplex.
The Aztecs offense was paced by Rose Kanemy's hat trick, her first of the season. In addition to Kanemy, Danni Croteau and Claudia Valdes recorded multi-goal games with two strikes apiece. Amanda Chambers, Shannon Murphy, Hannah Bell, Makena Macedo and Mimi Stoupas each scored a goal in the win. In the cage, starter Tiaare Ahovelo played the first half stopping three shots while surrendering six goals and earned the win to move to 7-11 on the season. Ava Ratajczak played the second half and had four saves against two goals.
SDSU (13-13, 2-3 GCC) and Ahovelo defeated the Golden Eagles for the second time this season, after an 11-6 win on Feb. 4 at the Triton Invitational.
Before Concordia (CUI) had a chance to settle into the game, the Scarlet and Black was up 2-0. Croteau banged the back of the cage 29 seconds in, and Valdes followed her with a tally 28 seconds later, but the Golden Eagles slashed the lead in half with its initial score, with 5:35 to play in the first.
San Diego State then struck twice in 47 seconds to push its advantage to 4-1. Kanemy got her day going with a goal at the 5:13 mark and Croteau scored for the second time with 4:26 on the clock. The teams traded the last four goals of the first eight minutes with Concordia scoring at the 2:03 mark, followed by a Chambers goal 15 seconds later. The Golden Eagles scored again with 1:22 to play in the quarter which was answered by Macedo 24 seconds later to send the game to the second period with SDSU leading 6-3.
Concordia (10-18, 0-5 GCC) outscored SDSU 3-1 in the second quarter. The Aztec goal came from Bell, at the 3:07 mark, after the Golden Eagles scored the initial two goals of the period. CUI got the last tally of the first half and heading into the intermission, San Diego State led 7-6.
Coming out of the break, the Aztecs scored three unanswered goals. They returned the favor to the Golden Eagles, outscoring them 3-1 in the third quarter. Kanemy scored twice, wrapping her goals around a Stoupas strike. The tallies came at 6:20, 5:27 and 3:29, respectively. The Concordia goal was with three minutes left in the period and the game went to the final stanza with the Scarlet and Black leading 10-7.
With a goal at the 6:26 mark of the fourth quarter, Murphy extended the Aztecs lead to 11-7. It stayed that four-goal margin until Valdes picked up SDSU's final goal and her second of the day, with 22 seconds left to make it 12-7. Concordia slipped the last goal of the game in with three seconds left on the clock for the final score of 12-8.
Tamsyn Evezard led Concordia with four goals and goalie Jaden Soto made five saves in 32 minutes of action.
Concordia: 3-3-1-1 – 8
San Diego State: 6-1-3-2 – 12
Concordia Goals: Evezard (4), Perreira (3), Smith (1)
San Diego State Goals: Kanemy (2), Croteau (2), Valdes (2), Bell (1), Chambers (1), Macedo (1), Murphy (1), Stoupas (1)
Concordia Saves: Soto (5)
San Diego State Saves: Ratajczak (4), Ahovelo (3)
No. 21 Water Polo Cruises to 12-8 Win Over Concordia
