March 2, 2018
San Jose State University makes its second trip in the last four seasons to the Harvard Invitational women's water polo tournament in Cambridge, Mass., Saturday, March 3, and Sunday, March 4.
The Spartans (3-9) ranked 18th in the February 28 Collegiate Water Polo Association coaches poll have two matches each day starting with Brown at 9:00 a.m. (ET)/6:00 a.m. (PT) and host #21-Harvard (5-3) at 2:30 p.m. (ET)/11:30 a.m. (PT) on March 3. The Harvard match will be streamed live on ESPN3.
San Jose State concludes play on Sunday, March 4, with #22-Princeton (4-4) at 8:00 a.m. (ET)/5:00 a.m. PT) and #15-Wagner (7-4) at 1:20 p.m. (ET)/10:20 a.m. (PT).
The San Jose State matches with Brown, Princeton and Wagner will be available on the subscription-based Ivy League Network.
The Spartans are coming off a 14th place finish in the Barbara Kalbus Invitational hosted by UC Irvine, February 23-25. San Jose State's one win was an 8-7 victory over #19 CSUN. After losing to #2-ranked USC, 17-1, the Spartans allowed 8.33 goals per match in its final three Barbara Kalbus Invitational matches against #15-UC San Diego, #19-CSUN and #19-Long Beach State.
Under second-year head coach Gabor Sarusi, San Jose State's 2018 schedule to date is among the toughest nationally. The Spartans played five of its first 12 matches against teams ranked in the top-10 at the time of the match including #1-Stanford, #2-California and #3-Southern California.
Spartan goalkeepers Katelynn Thompson and Tayler Peters are the two San Jose State players making their second trip to Harvard. In 2015, the two seniors divided the goalkeeping chores as the Spartans defeated Iona, Brown, Harvard and Marist allowing just 25 goals in the four wins. Presently, Thompson ranks sixth in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation (MPSF) with 8.70 saves per match and eighth in the conference in goals against average at 10.41. Peters is eighth in saves at 7.09 and ninth in goals allowed average at 12.00 in the MPSF.
Presently transfer Guara Garcia Delgado is the team's scoring leader with 15 goals. She ranks 18th in the MPSF in scoring. Junior Sheila Jensen and freshman Lili Urvari each have 14 scores and are tied for 21st in scoring in the MPSF. Urvari is fourth highest scoring freshman in the MPSF, widely regarded as the toughest women's water polo conference nationally.
Siena and the University of Toronto are the other teams in the seven-team Harvard Invitational field.
Collegiate Water Polo Association weekly coaches poll
February 28, 2018
| Rank, Team | Points |
| 1. Stanford | 100 |
| 2. USC | 96 |
| 3. UCLA | 92 |
| 4. California | 88 |
| 5. Hawaii | 85 |
| 6. Arizona State | 80 |
| 7. Pacific | 76 |
| 8. UC Irvine | 72 |
| 9. Michigan | 67 |
| 10. UC San Diego | 56 |
| Indiana | 56 |
| 12. LMU | 55 |
| 13. UC Davis | 53 |
| Hartwick | 53 |
| 15. Wagner | 51 |
| 16. UC Santa Barbara | 38 |
| 17. Long Beach State | 36 |
| 18. San Jose State | 28 |
| 19. CSUN | 26 |
| 20. San Diego State | 25 |
| 21. Harvard | 23 |
| 22. Princeton | 21 |
| 23. Cal Baptist | 6 |
| 24. Fresno State | 4 |
| Cal State East Bay | 4 |