By Nick Austin – Spear Reporter | SJSU junior Mateja Bosic in shooting motion in a 14-3 way win over George Washington University. (Photo by Nick Orozco – Co-Executive Editor of The Spear)
San Jose State men’s water polo (5-1) outperformed Santa Clara (4-2) late in an 11-10 overtime-turned-sudden-death thriller at the Sullivan Aquatic Center.
Senior Jamie Steingraf scored five goals for SJSU in regulation, overtime and sudden death to propel the No. 9 Spartans to victory.
“I’m really proud of Jamie, scoring the last four goals for us to go into overtime and winning the game,” Interim head coach Gabor Sarusi said in a video posted to the SJSU athletics website.
Sophomore goalkeeper Brendon Gyapjas recorded 15 saves and two steals for the Spartans. He did not allow the Broncos to score from the 1:29 mark of the first overtime period to the end of sudden death.
SJSU started the game off strong by jumping out to an early 4-1 lead by the end of the first period.
However, that lead disappeared by the end of the second with the Broncos outscoring the Spartans 3-0 to tie the game at 4-4 going into the third.
Both teams remained tight throughout the third with SJSU and SCU ending the period tied 7-7.
The fourth period started strong for the Broncos with the team taking a 9-7 lead with 3:45 to go in the period.
Then with only 2:20 left to go, Steingraf scored his first of five goals for the Spartans.
Steingraf scored a minute later on a powerplay to tie the game and send it to overtime.
Overtime rules in NCAA water polo consist of two three-minute periods and whoever has the lead after these two extra periods wins the match. However if both teams are still tied after overtime, the game goes into sudden death.
Sudden death consists of one three-minute period in which the first team to score wins. If no team scores at the end of the period, time resets until someone does.
SJSU and SCU both scored one goal in overtime, which then caused the match to go into sudden death.
Both teams were able to get shots on goal in sudden death but Steingraf scored the game-winning goal and earned SJSU the 11-10 victory.
The Spartans’ next game is scheduled for 9 a.m. on Oct. 5 versus UCSB at the Spartan Recreation and Aquatic Center.
