SJSU women’s water polo kicks off season with Polo Palooza

By Andrew Hartley(@andrewhart1ey) – Spear Reporter

Sinia Plotz controlling the ball for SJSU while being closely defended. l Photo by Titus Wilkinson – The Spear

SJSU women’s water polo(0-2) opened their season Sunday in Fresno, Calif. to compete in Polo Palooza. Coming in ranked the No. 18 team in the nation, it had to face two top 10 teams to begin their season.

Game 1: No. 5 UC Irvine: 12    No. 18 SJSU: 4

The Spartans outshot the Anteaters 29-26 but that did not translate into goals. Two of their four goals came in the first quarter, both from junior Renee Fleming. 

After those goals, SJSU would surrender five consecutive goals making it too tall a task to overcome. Irvine flexed their strength as three different players finished with two goals.

Of the 12 conceded, five of the goals came on the powerplay or off penalty shots. The season just began but certainly something SJSU head coach Beth Harberts would like to see cut down.

With the departure of Hannah Henry, both transfer student Grace Smith and freshman Zsofia Hadju played half the match at goalkeeper. Smith allowed seven goals in the first half and Hadju conceded five in the second half.

Game 2: No. 9 Fresno State: 11    No. 18 SJSU: 6

SJSU ran into the wrong team Sunday night. In the tournament, Fresno State scored double-digits in all three prior games and beat No. 1 back-to-back national champions Stanford. 

The third period is where they did their most damage scoring five goals. While there were no penalty shots allowed in this game from SJSU, it allowed seven power plays. 

Freshman Darcy Spark and grad student Ivanna Anderson-Villela both scored two goals for SJSU.

Smith allowed just four goals in the first half compared to Hadju’s seven in the second half.

ACWPC All-American Sinia Plotz did not play in either game.

The team has nine newcomers that include eight freshmen so the team will continue to get familiarized in the early part of the season. They’ll next head to Riverside, Calif. to compete in the CBU mini tournament.