By Benny Garcia — Editor
San Jose State men’s water polo (8-12, 0-2) took care of business and defeated Whittier College Poets (9-10, 5-1), 13-9.
The Spartans deserved poetic justice for the way their offense moved in the water.
At the half, it was a close match as Whitter was only down by two points.
Heading into halftime the score was, 6-4, but the Spartans took care of business directly after the 15-minute intermission.
They blew the game wide open in the third period by scoring 6 points, which extended their lead to eight.
However, the Poets came storming back in the fourth period, almost mounting a comeback by scoring four points in the final period.
Nonetheless, it would not be enough, as the Spartans staved off Whittier to secure the victory.
Freshman Laszlo Szieben had a whale of a ballgame for SJSU, scoring three points on only five shot attempts.
The Hungarian native was the difference for the Spartans.
While victorious, SJSU was lucky to get by the Poets, as the offense waivered during the final period.
For the match, the Spartans had a .406 shot percentage and were only 3-for-12 on powerplays.
To their benefit, Whittier was far worse on the offensive side of the ball.
The Poets scored only nine points on 31 opportunities, which was good for only a .290 shot percentage.
Spartans’ goalkeeper Yahav Fire had seven saves in the win but allowed five goals.
The other half of the goalkeeping tandem, freshman Jamie Steingraf, had a difficult time guarding the post.
He allowed four goals and saved only one attempt, as he carried only a .200 save percentage.
Nonetheless, SJSU will now look forward to their next set of games next weekend at the Julian Fraser Memorial.
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