By Nick Austin – Spear Reporter | SJSU men’s water polo celebrating a win against Pepperdine during the 2023 season. (Photo by Andrew Hartley)
San Jose State men’s water polo (1-1) had a bounce back 16-6 win against UC Merced (0-5) for game two of a Saturday doubleheader at the Aggie Invite.
Freshman Mattin Sarhaddi led the Spartans with seven shots on goal and three total goals. Prior to playing at SJSU, Sarhaddi played locally at Valley Christian High School and the San Jose Express Aquatics Club.
“Today was, for a lot of our Spartans, the first game that they played for our team. A good amount of them scored a goal so congratulations to them,” interim head coach Gabor Sarusi said in a video posted to the SJSU athletics website.
Sophomore goalkeeper Alexey Poletaev only gave up six goals and recorded 10 saves throughout the game.
SJSU led 4-0 after the first period in major part due to its 57.1% scoring percentage.
Both teams were getting shots up with the Spartans having seven shots on net compared to the Bobcats six.
The powerplays highlighted the second period. SJSU scored on four out of five powerplays while UC Merced only scored on one of its two.
After the second period, SJSU led UC Merced 10-4 and held an overall shot advantage of 19-14.
The Spartans continued to dominate in the second half with their shot and powerplay advantage. SJSU outscored UC Merced 2-1 in the third period to take a 12-5 lead going into the fourth. The final period consisted of SJSU adding four more insurance goals to secure its first win of the season.
SJSU’s next game is scheduled for 8 a.m. Sunday against UC Davis at the Schaal Aquatics Center for day two of the Aggie Invite.
