By Austin Turner – Staff Writer
A day after splitting a pair of games on the opening day of the Aggie Roundup, San Jose State men’s water polo narrowly pulled off a sweep of Sunday’s games to finish the tournament 3-1.
The No. 17 Spartans defeated No. 15 George Washington 12-11 in a sudden-death thriller in the matinee, and held on for a 10-9 win against Fresno Pacific in their final match of the weekend.
Though SJSU escaped Sunday’s battles unbeaten, it took a lot of resilience to earn those victories.
In the game against George Washington, the Spartans overcame a two-goal deficit in the fourth quarter to force overtime. In the first overtime period, they needed a goal in the last 20 seconds from freshman driver Adam Bado to force a sudden-death overtime.
Bado came in the clutch once again by scoring the winner in sudden-death to end the game for a Spartan victory.
Freshman attacker Neil Arnett, sophomore driver Justin Pickering, and junior utility player Giocamo Lovatelli also added on two goals each to aid the Spartans in the closely contested victory.
In its final game of the tournament, SJSU was in another fierce competition against Fresno Pacific.
Bado kept his hot streak going and scored three goals against the Sunbirds, bringing his total to five goals for the day. He, along with Arnett who also had a hat-trick, led the Spartans in scoring in the second game.
In their second one-goal victory of the day, the Spartans finished the tournament with three wins and a loss. They were victorious 14-6 over Chapman University on Saturday, followed by a nail-biting 8-7 loss to No.18 Cal Baptist University.
SJSU, which is now 3-2 on the season, will seek their fourth victory against Santa Clara at West Valley College on Friday.
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