Stanford, Calif.----- For just over 2.5 quarters, San Jose State University withstood every Arizona State University offensive scheme in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation (MPSF) women's water polo fifth-place match.
The Sun Devils were scoring goals at about a 50 percent rate and were even better on the their power play finishing with 6-of-8 conversions. Arizona State (14-12) broke out to a 7-3 second-quarter lead with 5:00 before halftime.
But a San Jose State team (10-15) that posted a 9-7 regular-season win at Arizona State, battled back to trail by one goal on three third-quarter instances before losing 18-12 to the Sun Devils and finishing sixth in the seven-team tournament.
"They (Arizona State) did a real good job converting all their opportunities. They were shooting really well. They have a lot of weapons and it's hard to take care of all of them," said San Jose State head coach Gabor Sarusi, whose team's 12 goals were the most scored by the Spartans in a MPSF regular season or tournament match since a 12-8 win over CSU Bakersfield in the 2016 MPSF Tournament.
Freshman Lieke Rogge scored three of her season-high six goals in the final 3:35 of the third quarter to lead Arizona State to the win. Her older sister, Bente Rogge, was one of two Sun Devils to add scoring support with three goals.
"We made too many young mistakes on defense. Some of those shots we should not have given up," he said about the last four minutes the third quarter when Arizona State broke out from a 9-8 lead to a 12-9 advantage going into the fourth quarter.
Freshmen Olga Descalzi Portell from the outside and Matilda Moore at the 2-meter center each scored three times for San Jose State. For Moore, she matched a season-high in the final match of the season. In all, seven Spartans scored.
Descalzi Portell off a pass from Lili Urvari gave San Jose State its only lead, 1-0, on a power-play goal. Trailing, 7-3, the Spartans closed the half with a flurry on even-strength scores by Natalie Hosmer and Riley Agerbeek and capped by Descalzi Portell's second power-play goal of the match. San Jose State was just 2-of-7 when it was on the power play.
"Our scoring was well-balanced in my opinion. Shots from six-on-five (power play), 2-meter, outside, I was proud to see us score 12 goals against a highly-ranked team like Arizona State," added the Spartans coach. San Jose State had not scored as many as 12 goals against Arizona State since a 2008 MPSF Tournament win.
Anna Maria Luther played the entire match in goal for San Jose State. She stopped a second-half 5-meter penalty shot and was credited with three more saves. Arizona State goalkeeper Bridget Johnston stopped six shots.
"We have one of the youngest teams in the MPSF and I'm very excited for the future. We have young, talented athletes that work very hard. They got a lot of playing time this year and it should pay off in the future," concluded the Spartans' head coach who loses only senior Michelle Taikeff from this year's team.
San Jose State University women's water polo
Mountain Pacific Sports Federation Championship
5th Place Match
San Jose State vs. Arizona State
Avery Aquatic Center, Stanford, Calif.
April 28, 2019
| Score By Quarters | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | Total |
| Arizona State (16-12) | 6 | 1 | 5 | 6 | 18 |
| San Jose State (10-15) | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 12 |
| Goal scoring |
| Arizona State – Lieke Rogge, 6; Bente Rogge, Maud Koopman, Borbala Kekesi, 3, each; Amira Van Buren, 2; Blaire McDowell, 1. |
| San Jose State – Olga Descalzi Portell, Matilda Moore, 3, each; Riley Agerbeek, 2; Natalie Hosmer, Tyanna Supreme, Lili Urvari, Sierra Painter, 1, each. |
| Goalkeeper saves |
| Arizona State – Bridget Johnston, 6. |
| San Jose State – Anna Maria Luther, 4. |
| Ejections |
| Arizona State – 7. |
| San Jose State – 9. |