By Larry Larkin (@larrylarkinsjsu) – Spear Editor | Freshman Nynke Willemsen with the ball. | (Photo by Larry Larkin – The Spear)
In a game that sophomore Darcy Spark scored her 100th career goal, the seven-game winning streak came to an end Saturday as No. 18 San Jose State women’s water polo (11-7, 0-1 MPSF) lost 18-11 at home in its conference opener against No. 5 California (12-1, 1-0 MPSF).
Senior Renee Fleming and Spark each scored three goals for the Spartans, leading the team.
Spark’s three goals put her at 102 career goals, putting her 10 behind current SJSU head coach Beth Harberts for first on the program’s all-time list.
The loss means that the Spartans have lost all three games against the Golden Bears this season, the first two of which were nonconference games. The Spartans lost 19-7 on Jan. 17 and 17-6 on Feb. 8.
“I don’t think these scores are always indicative of the skill level that we have,” Harberts said. “We’re playing against the national ranked teams in the country, and so for us to still be ranked 18th in the nation, it’s we’re the underdog going into this game.”
SJSU trailed Cal 9-4 at halftime and 14-7 at the end of the third quarter before cutting the deficit to 15-10 in the fourth quarter.
“We wanted to come in really strong, but against the top-five team, that’s always really hard,” Spark said. “I think our first couple quarters we started slow, and Cal obviously came out really hard.”
SJSU cut its deficit to 15-10 in the fourth quarter before losing.
“It’s difficult coming back from such a big goal differential, I think I just saw the shots,” Fleming said. “I saw the shots that I took them and they went in.”
Fleming scored three goals on three shots.
The Spartans committed six turnovers compared to the Golden Bears’ three.
SJSU will look to start a new winning streak in its next game, which is at home against UCLA. Scheduled start time is 1 p.m. March 15.
