March 17, 2016
Seeking its first victory of the month, San Jose State University has a busy weekend with four matches in two days at the 2016 ZUMO LMU Invitational women's water polo tournament, March 18 & 19.
The Spartans (9-10), now 11th in the Collegiate Water Polo Association weekly coaches poll, last won at the UC Irvine Invitational defeating #12-Pacific on February 28. Since then, San Jose State lost three matches, all to top-10 ranked teams. The last two to #3-Stanford and #8-Cal were one-sided contests in which the Spartans were limited to three goals against Stanford and four at Cal, respectively.
San Jose State faces a pair of top-25 ranked teams in the LMU Invitational. After opening with unranked Whittier (12-3) at 10:15 a.m., the Spartans close first-day action with host and #14-ranked LMU (7-12) at 3:15 p.m. San Jose State also takes on #25-Cal State Northridge (6-12) and unranked Azusa Pacific (6-13) on March 19.
At the Stanford Invitational, the Spartans topped LMU, 11-6. Rae Lekness, the team's leading scorer, poured in three goals and Cara Robinson added a pair. Alicia Magliocco had a solid game in goal for San Jose State with eight saves.
San Jose State will be facing Whittier, presently on a three-match winning streak, Cal State Northridge and Azusa Pacific for the first time this season.
Despite not scoring in the last two matches, Lekness remains the top scorer in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation (MPSF) with 52 goals. Carla Toha Vilanova, number-two among MPSF freshmen scorers with 27 scores, has just one goal in the last three contests.
#15-Princeton, #19-Harvard and unranked VMI completes the eight-team field.
Collegiate Water Polo Association weekly coaches poll
March 16, 2016
| Rank, Team | Points |
| 1. USC | 100 |
| 2. UCLA | 96 |
| 3. Stanford | 92 |
| 4. Hawaii | 88 |
| 5. Michigan | 83 |
| 6. UC Davis | 79 |
| 7. UC Irvine | 77 |
| 8. California | 71 |
| 9. Arizona State | 69 |
| 10. UC San Diego | 62 |
| 11. San Jose State | 61 |
| 12. Pacific | 54 |
| 13. UC Santa Barbara | 53 |
| 14. Loyola Marymount (LMU) | 45 |
| 15. Princeton | 41 |
| 16. Indiana | 40 |
| 17. Wagner | 36 |
| 18. San Diego State | 32 |
| 19. Harvard | 24 |
| Hartwick | 24 |
| 21. Long Beach State | 20 |
| 22. Cal Baptist | 16 |
| 23. Marist | 13 |
| 24. CSU Bakersfield | 12 |
| 25. Cal State Northridge | 7 |