Nov. 20, 2015
Los Angeles, Calif. --- Scoring five unanswered goals late in the second period wasn't enough for the San Jose State men's water polo team to overcome the UC Irvine Anteaters' six goal lead at the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation Championships on Friday, November 20.
The Spartans were shutout in the opening period as the Anteaters jumped out to an early 4-0 to go onto a 14-9 win in a play-in game to begin the championship tournament. UC Irvine added two more goals to extent its lead to 6-0 midway through the second.
Freshman Alek Dendall scored San Jose State's first goal to kick off a 5-0 scoring run to close out the half with goals added by Nick Serratos, Zachary Scudder, Kameron Schlegel and Keanu Martinez. The Anteaters scored with 32 seconds left to make the score 7-5 at halftime.
Leading San Jose State with three goals, freshman Justin Contreras scored the Spartans only third period goal with the UC Irvine expanded its lead to 9-6 going into the fourth. Contreras added two more in the fourth while Serratos added his second goal of the match. The Anteaters added five goals in the final period to secure the win.
The Spartans' goalkeeper Matej Matijevic made 10 saves against the Anteaters with eight in the first half. Cade Baldridge and Scudder left the match in the fourth period after drawing three exclusion fouls each.
San Jose State will take on Pepperdine on Saturday, November 21, at 10:00 a.m. for ninth place in the MPSF tournament. The match will be streamed live at http://www.pac-12.com/live/usc.
by Brian S. Stanley, SJSU athletics media relations student assistant