March 14, 2009
Photo Gallery 
BERKELEY - The No. 7 California women's water polo team defeated No. 5 San Diego State, 13-11, on Saturday afternoon at Spieker Aquatics Complex. The Golden Bears improve to 20-4 overall and an even 2-2 in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation.
"I thought we had great, positive energy for this game," California head coach Richard Corso said. "It was really nice to play at home with the men's water polo team, our friends and family behind us."
The Bears got on the board first, with a 3-0 scoring run to start the first period. Cal's first goal came 45 seconds into the game when redshirt junior driver Remy Champion was wide open after a steal by redshirt junior Julie Oreglia. Champion scored 44 seconds later with a lob shot. Redshirt senior two-meter defender Paige Lorenz put one through off an assist from Oreglia after Corso had called a timeout to reset the play.
The Aztecs soon got their first goal of the game from senior driver Jenna Schuster on a six-on-five advantage. SDSU scored again to close the first quarter off a goal from junior driver Melissa de Jonckheere.
Cal began the second stanza in the same fashion as the first - with a 4-0 run. Lorenz kicked things off with a powerful skip shot at 7:07. After SDSU goalkeeper Kelly Campoli blocked a shot by Cal's freshman driver Libby McLaren, freshman driver Emily Csikos got the rebound and put it through for a goal. Redshirt junior Stephanie Schnugg scored by tapping in the pass from Csikos with 4:52 to play in the half.
With the passing coming from Champion, Schnugg used a backhand attack to score her second goal of the game at the 3:36 mark. San Diego State scored its first goal of the second period when senior two-meter Erinn Greenwood recovered an Aztec bar shot. Schnugg scored with two minutes to play after Champion had an underwater steal to distance Cal, 8-3. SDSU and junior driver Danielle Pelke responded with a bar in shot from 10 meters outside the cage. De Jonckheere closed the half with a skip shot that went past Cal redshirt keeper Stephanie Peckham.
It took two full minutes before either team scored in the third quarter, at which point junior utility Camille Hewko scored with a spin shot at the set position, to bring the score to 9-5 in favor of the Bears. SDSU's senior driver Erin Lester had a powerful shot that went past Peckham and senior utility Anna Gonzales took a five-meter penalty shot for the Aztecs to bring them closer to the Bears, 9-7.
Shuster drew Peckham out of the cage to score with 14 seconds to play in the third period. With just 2.38 seconds remaining on the clock, junior Meghan Corso had a cross-pool pass to Schnugg, who tipped it in for a goal.
For the fourth and final period, the Bears scored first. The goal came on a five-meter shot from Corso after Hewko drew the foul. The Aztecs responded shortly thereafter with a powerful shot from Gonzales with 6:49 to play. Csikos scored her first goal of the game with 6:11 to play off an assist from Corso, to bring the score to 12-9. San Diego State scared the Bear fans with two consecutive goals. Freshman two-meter defender Leanne Ford scored back-to-back goals - one off a shot to the left side at 4:46 and another at 3:058 on a five-meter penalty shot. Up by just one goal, Hewko earned another five-meter shot with 1:46 to play and Csikos put it away with a skip shot for the final goal of the game.
Score by period 1 2 3 4 F
No. 5 SDSU 2 3 3 3 11
No. 7 Cal 3 5 2 3 13
SDSU goals: Leanne Ford 2, Anna Gonzales 2, Erinn Greenwood 1, Melissa de Jonckheere 2, Erin Lester 1, Danielle Pelke 1, Jenna Schuster 2
Cal goals: Stephanie Schnugg 4, Emily Csikos 3, Remy Champion 2, Paige Lorenz 2, Meghan Corso 1, Camille Hewko 1
SDSU saves: Kelly Campoli 6
Cal saves: Stephanie Peckham 10
