By Larry Larkin (@larrylarkinsjsu) – Spear Reporter
Sinia Plotz looking for teammates to pass to in a match against Indiana on April 13, 2024. I Photo by Andrew Hartley – The Spear
No. 7-seeded San Jose State women’s water polo (9-14, 0-6 MPSF) lost to No. 2-seeded California (16-5, 4-2 MPSF) 15-10 on Friday at the Counsilman-Billingsley Aquatics Center in Bloomington, Ind. in the first round of the MPSF Championship Tournament.
The Spartans held a 3-0 lead in the first quarter but would eventually fall, resulting in its seventh consecutive loss. The team has still yet to win against a conference opponent this season.
Sophomore Sinia Plotz scored the first two goals for the Spartans but the Golden Bears would cut their deficit to 3-2 by the end of the first quarter.
Coming out of halftime leading 6-4, the Golden Bears came out on fire and outscored the Spartans 4-1 in the third quarter. Just like that, SJSU trailed 10-5 at the end of the third.
Although each team scored five goals in the fourth, it wasn’t enough for the Spartans ending the game with a 15-10 loss.
The game wasn’t as close as the score indicates as Cal put the game away in the fourth quarter and led 14-7 with 4:08 remaining.
Freshman Darcy Spark and junior Lucy Miszewski each recorded a hat trick for the Spartans.
Spark had a spectacular performance on both ends of the pool with one block and three steals.
The Golden Bears’ balanced scoring helped them defeat the Spartans as they scored 15 goals despite senior Maryn Dempsey being the only player on the team to record a hat trick. Cal had 11 players score at least one goal whereas SJSU only had five achieve that same mark.
The Spartans had trouble getting past Golden Bears’ senior goalie Isabel Williams who saved 12 of the Spartans’ 22 shots.
With the Spartans’ loss, they drop to the consolation part of the MPSF Tournament where they’ll take on No. 6-seeded Indiana. Scheduled start time is 9 a.m. Saturday.