Photo by Ernie Gonzalez
By Ricardo Garcia (@SJSURicardoG) — Reporter
It’s one thing to successfully defend your home pool, but doing it in style makes it just feel a bit sweeter.
The San Jose State women’s water polo team (7-6-0, 0-1 MW) picked up a dominant 14-5 win in their home opener against CSU Monterey Bay (1-3-0, 0-0 CCAA) Saturday afternoon.
The Spartans did not hesitate to make a statement in their first opportunity to do it at home with solid play on both sides of the ball.
SJSU filled the score sheet with 11 different players scoring in the match. Headcoach Beth Harberts touched on why having that player depth is important.
“Every game that we go into we try to just make new mistakes,” Harberts said. “I think something that speaks to our growth is how we get everyone involved in our offense, I think that’s our key to success moving forward.”
While the offense did shine, the defense was the name of the game, as they managed to shut down the Otter offense for a majority of the match.
The Spartans’ disruptive defense caused 19 steals as a team creating multiple chances for the offense to score quick transition goals.
Throughout the first two periods, Monterey kept the game close but a second-half surge from the Spartans slowly began to take shape as they managed to net two more goals before halftime.
SJSU wasted no time in the third period picking up right where they left off and adding three more goals. The offensive woes continued for Monterey as they failed to score at all in the third period.
The Otters attempted to mount a comeback with two quick goals in the fourth but the Spartans held strong as time expired to secure the victory.
With this win, SJSU remains over .500 and snaps a four-game losing streak in the process. For the Otters, this loss now puts them at 1-3 for the season.
The Spartans will get back on the road for the Fresno tournament, where they will face off against UC Davis in their first match. Senior river Clarrisa Wandinger spoke on the upcoming matchup.
“This week we’re really looking to attack practice together and lock down that team defense going into the next weekend,” said Wandinger. “We’re always super excited to play Davis and coming out and having another crack at them will be exciting.”
The first game of the Fresno tournament is scheduled for Feb. 19 at 10:30 a.m.