Sept. 10, 2015
Opening the season defeating the Santa Clara Broncos, the San José State men's water polo team climbed two spots in the Men's Varsity Top 20 coaches' poll to 14th in the country.
The Spartans (1-0) turn their focus to No. 12 UC Davis Aggies (2-2) for their second home game of the season on Saturday, September 12 at noon at the SJSU Aquatic Center.
"We are excited to take on UC Davis. Every game gets more competitive," said SJSU head coach Bruce Watson. "We are really interested to see how we match up with the Aggies."
Croatian Goalkeeper Matej Matijevic leads San José State's defense with 19 saves in the cage in the Spartans' first match, only allowing four goals in 29 minutes.
Leading San José State in goals scored is freshman Justin Contreras with four goals followed sophomore Igor Miljan and junior Vladimir Kazanskiy adding two goals each. Miljan scored back-to-back goals in the second period to extend the Spartans lead over the Broncos.
Watson is in his first season as San José State's head coach. Previously Watson coached at West Valley College in Saratoga, Calif., earning an all-time record of 638-184.
In his third season as UC Davis' head coach, Daniel Leyson has led the Aggies to a record of 32-32.
Leading the Aggies with 64 goals last season, senior Sean Grab scored seven goals in four matches at UC San Diego's Triton Invitation, September 5 and 6, against No. 1 UCLA, No. 6 UC Santa Barbara, No. 10 Pepperdine and Redlands.
Rounding out the Aggies' top three scorers are true freshmen Ido Goldschmidt with six goals and Sasa Antunovic collecting five.
Goalkeeper Spencer Creed leads UC Davis with 30 saves with 35 goals allowed. Creed had a season high 11 saves in a loss to UCSB.
"It will be a good challenge to judge where we are as a team. Our goal is to get better every game," Watson said.
Saturday's match against the UC Davis is free for students and the public.
by Brian S. Stanley, SJSU athletics media relations student assistant