Men’s WP preview: SJSU heads to So-Cal for three-game set

By Benny Garcia — Editor

SJSU men’s water polo (7-8, 0-0) will head to Southern California to take on UCLA (11-1, 0-0), Navy (5-6, 1-1) and Loyola-Marymount University (2-9, 0-0).

The Spartans are rolling into Los Angeles with a three-game winning streak after going 3-1 at the Mountain Pacific Invitational.

They defeated Pepperdine University in a close match 10-9, then went on to dominate Pomona-Pitzer University 19-7 and edged a victory against UC San Diego 14-13.

Their lone loss came against Long Beach State in which they came up short against the Dirtbags, 10-8.

It was a team effort last weekend at the MPSF Invitational in Berkeley, but there were three players who particularly carried the Spartans in this winning streak.

Freshman Bende Pardi and sophomore Gal Haimovich combined for a dominating 22 points.

However, victories are secured by defense and thankfully senior goalkeeper Yahav Fire was there when the blue and gold needed him most. He blocked over 34 shots over the weekend.

They’ll need all three to be at the top of their game if they want to have a shot at the 11-win Bruins team.

UCLA has pretty much dominated any team they have faced this season, as they boast a .917 winning percentage through twelve games.

They did fall to Cal Berkeley last weekend at the MPSF Invitational in a close match, 10-9.

Going into the weekend, Navy is coming off back-to-back losses to Princeton University 11-8 and Fordham University 17-10.

However, they will be facing four teams before they finish the weekend against the Spartans on Sunday afternoon.

LMU has been spiraling for the last few weeks now, going into LA with a seven-game losing streak and having not won a game since Sept. 5 against Westcliff University.

The Lions most recently went 0-4 in the NorCal Tournament.

SJSU looks to put their winning streak to the test against UCLA on Saturday at 1 p.m. and Sunday against Navy at 10 a.m. and LMU at 1 p.m. which will be streamed on the WCC Network. 

Follow Benny on Twitter @TheJetTalk

Written by