SAN DIEGO – The No. 17-ranked San Diego State water polo team, led by center Mimi Stoupas’ three goals, took control of its game against the No. 16 UC San Diego Tritons in the second quarter and cruised to a 10-8 win to capture the Harper Cup on Thursday afternoon at Aztec Aquaplex.
The victory snaps a nine-game slide in the competition, having not defeated the Tritons for the Harper Cup since 2015, and improves SDSU’s record in the event to 14-10, including an 8-4 mark at the Aquaplex. Overall, the win was the program’s first over UCSD in its last 13 meetings and moved the Scarlet and Black’s record at home against UC San Diego to 11-6.
In addition to Stoupas’ hat trick, for which she earned the game’s MVP honor, the Aztecs got two goals from Sammi Byers while Lucy Bullock, Sydney Gish, Megan Holcomb, Shannon Murphy and Claudia Valdes bent the net once each. Valdes inched closer to Caroline Israels 242 goals and fourth place on San Diego State’s career goals list, scoring her 239th goal as an Aztec.
Kyla Pranajaya played all 32 minutes in goal and improved her record to 5-3 for the year, making seven saves against eight goals allowed.
Valdes and Ioanna Petiki each assisted on two goals and Holcomb was credited with one assist. With those two assists, Valdes now has 182 for her career and moves into solo possession of third place on the program’s career assist list. She will enter next week’s GCC Tournament four from equaling Elena Cervantes’ 186 assists for second place in Aztec history.
After the Tritons scored 32 seconds in, Gish made it 1-1 with an even strength goal at 4:41. UCSD responded 28 seconds later to return to the lead and held it until Holcomb’s strike with 37 seconds to go tied it at 2-2. It was the last lead UC San Diego would enjoy for the rest of the contest. It looked like the team’s would go to the second period tied, but a late foul gave Byers a penalty shot with no time left on the clock. She converted and SDSU was up 3-2 after one quarter.
In the second period, the San Diego State (17-9) defense ratcheted up and held UC San Diego scoreless for the entire eight minutes. With 3:57 on the clock Valdes bent the net to make it 4-2 and then Bullock, on an assist from Holcomb, scored with 79 seconds to play. Both goals came on the power play and the Scarlet and Black led 5-2 at the break.
Coming out of the intermission, SDSU pushed its advantage to 6-2 on Stoupas’ first goal of the game after being set up by Valdes at the 5:12 mark. UC San Diego (10-12) ended a 16:02 scoring drought with 4:11 to go in the third to make it 6-3 and then cut SDSU’s lead to two goals, 6-4 with a strike at 3:34. But on a Petiki assist, Stoupas righted the ship with a powerplay goal with 20 seconds to play in the third and the teams went to the final quarter with San Diego State leading 7-4.
The Aztecs gave themselves some breathing room with a pair of goals which were scored 24 seconds apart. Stoupas, after being set up by Valdes, got the hat trick on a tally at 6:47 and Murphy, on a Petiki assist, notched what would turn out to be the winning goal with 6:23 left in regulation.
But just 21 seconds later, with 6:02 to play, the Tritons sliced the SDSU advantage back to four goals, 9-5. Byers second strike came at the 5:46 mark to push San Diego State’s lead back to five goals, 10-5. The Tritons attempted a furious comeback, scoring three times in the final 2:16, but the Aztecs lead was safe, and the Harper Cup was returned to its rightful owner.
UC San Diego’s offense was led by two goals each from Evelyn Burns and Abigail Schechter and in goal, Bria Zwaschka saw 10 goals scored while stopping four and also added two steals.
UC San Diego: 2-0-2-4 - 8
San Diego State: 3-2-2-3 - 10
UC San Diego Goals: Burns (2), Schechter (2), Fazioli (1), Munatones (1), Stayt (1), Stensland (1)
San Diego State Goals: Stoupas (3), Byers (2), Bullock (1), Gish (1), Holcomb (1), Murphy (1), Valdes (1)
UC San Diego Saves: Zwaschka (4)
San Diego State Saves: Pranajaya (7)