By Don Le — Reporter
San Jose State women’s water polo (1-3, 0-0 MPSF) was handed a tough 16-7 loss by Stanford (2-1, 1-1 MPSF) at Avery Aquatic Center Saturday.
This was the first time that the Spartans scored as many as seven goals against Stanford since a 17-8 loss to the Cardinal on Feb. 16, 2016.
On the brisk 57-degree day in Palo Alto, the Spartans were outshot 38-25 and went 2-12 on their power plays.Stanford contrastingly went 4-10 on their power plays. Spartan utility player Riley Agerbeek, senior driver Sierra Painter and sophomore attacker Lior Ben David each scored twice in the non-conference match. Junior utility player Olga Descalzi Portell also had a goal in the first quarter.
Defensively, Spartan junior goalkeeper Hannah Henry had a season-high 14 saves, six coming in the fourth quarter.
“I think I started off not in my game mode, but as the game kept progressing I felt like we were communicating a lot more and just being able to make those stops,” said Henry. “It’s not just me, it’s the defense too that’s helping me out. So just by communicating a lot more throughout the game and being able to push ourselves.”
Painter gave high praise to her goalkeeper for putting in that huge defensive effort Saturday. “When you have a goalie behind you that’s making stops like she is,it just fuels you to get down the pool and contribute,” said Painter. “Hannah’s play, I think it fueled us offensively in the third.”
As the Cardinal are ranked No. 3 in the nation, are the defending NCAA champions, and have a 50-0 record against SJSU, the Spartans had a tough task coming into this game.
With excellent team defense, quick passes to the 2-meter line, and expressive communication between their players, the opposing Cardinal quickly got off to a 4-1 lead.
The second quarter was more evenly matched with both teams’ goalies putting on defensive shows. Henry had an incredible defensive sequence a minute into the second quarter where she denied two consecutive Stanford shots. Stanford’s Emailia Eichelberger had eight saves in the game with two of them coming in the second quarter. Stanford scored two goals while SJSU tallied one, putting the Spartans down 6-2.The third quarter was a shootout as both teams focused on the offensive side of the pool.
Stanford senior driver Sarah Klass quickly got two goals off a penalty shot and a power play putting the Cardinal up 8-2. Two minutes later, Stanford 2-meter defender Chloe Harbilas gave the Cardinal another goal, putting SJSU at a deficit of 9-2.
Down seven points, the Spartans needed something on the offensive end to keep them in the game. Painter threw in a strong goal to narrow the gap to 9-3. With less than four minutes left in the quarter, David added one more goal off a power play, putting SJSU at 9-4. As the quarter waned with 12 seconds left, Stanford’s Harbilas scored a last-second goal, putting Stanford up 10-5 entering the fourth quarter.
SJSU pulled within four at 11-7 with a quick succession of goals but Stanford rallied back and went back up 14-7 late in the fourth quarter.
With two finalizing goals by Stanford sophomore driver Stanford Katie Lyons and Stanford sophomore 2-meter defender Sophie Wallace, the final score was 16-7.
Even with this tough loss, Head Coach Beth Harberts believes the Spartans have a great team as they go into their first Mountain Pacific Sports Federation game next week.“We have some great shooters and some great looks, said Harberts. “We’re just not really able to connect that. So once we bridge that gap, I think that it’s going to just be seamless with our defense.”
The Spartans get a week to recuperate from this loss as they visit Arizona State’s Mona Plummer Aquatic Center March 20 at 12 p.m.
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