Oct. 21, 2015
The San José State Spartans men's water polo team hosts three top 10-ranked conference opponents in a weekend home stand of Mountain Pacific Sports Federation action at the Aquatic Center.
San José State (3-15, 0-2 MPSF) kicks off the weekend taking on the No. 4-ranked Pacific Tigers (16-2, 3-0 MPSF) on Thursday, October 22 at 3:30 p.m. Junior defender Ben Stevenson leads the Tigers with 45 goals and goalkeeper Brady Moore has collected 187 saves in 16 games.
The Spartans continue conference play against the No. 6-ranked UC Santa Barbara Gauchos (12-7, 1-3 MPSF) on Friday, October 23, in a matinee match at 2:00 p.m. UC Santa Barbara's top scorer is senior attacker Derek Shoemaker with 28 goals. Senior Chris Whitelegge leads the Gauchos at goalkeeper with 204 saves in 19 games in the cage.
Taking a break from home action on Friday night, San José State challenges the No. 19-ranked Harvard Crimson (9-8, 6-3 CWPA) at 7:30 p.m. in the Spartans' only appearance in the Rodeo Tournament hosted by Santa Clara University. Freshman goalkeeper Anthony Ridgely has 73 saves and senior attacker Noah Harrison has scored 26 times for the Crimson.
The Spartans face the No. 5-ranked Stanford Cardinal (14-6, 0-3 MPSF) in a rematch from UC Davis' Aggie Roundup on Sunday, October 25, at 12:00 p.m. to concluding the home stand.
The Cardinal have a 2-5 record in October after losing their last four matches to ranked opponents. Leading Stanford with 58 goals is senior driver Bret Bonanni while Drew Holland is averaging 9.99 saves a game in the cage.
Leading the Spartans in scoring is freshman Justin Contreras with 19 goals in 16 matches. Contreras missed matches against No. 1-ranked UCLA and Connecticut College with concussion symptoms.
At the 2-meter defender position, sophomore Igor Miljan has found the back of the cage for 18 points and junior Scott Reynolds added 15 goals for the Spartans.
Rounding out San José State's top 5 scores are freshman utility player Alek Dendall with 12 and junior 2-meter defender Blake Grove with 11. Croatian goalkeeper Matej Matijevic has grabbed 164 saves in 432 minutes of actions for the Spartans.
Leading the Spartans in his first season as head coach is Bruce Watson.
Admission to all San José State water polo home matches is free to students and the public.
by Brian S. Stanley, SJSU athletics media relations student assistant