Roberta Stewart Scores Career-High 4 Goals LONG BEACH, CA -- Long Beach State’s Roberta Stewart and San Jose State’s Neva West both put on a scoring clinic with four goals apiece, but it was the 49er defense on the Spartans top two scorers that led #7-ranked Long Beach State to a 7-6 win over #5-ranked San Jose State in a key MPSF women’s water polo game at the 49er Campus Pool on Friday.
The 49ers (10-7/3-3 MPSF) were able to shut down the potent SJSU punch of Christine Welsh and Inna Fedoseyeva. Welch and Fedoseyeva had accumulated 62 goals between them this season, but neither were able to score Friday as the 49er defense smothered both players. Long Beach was never able to break away in the game, but outscored the Spartans (14-7/4-4 MPSF) in the second (2-1) and third quarters (3-2) to come away with the win.
San Jose jumped to a 2-1 lead as West scored her first two goals of the game at 6:08 and 3:35 in the first quarter. Long Beach tied the game at 2-2 as Stewart tallied her first goal at 2:15 on a penalty shot. Stewart scored two more times in the second quarter (5:00, 2:22) to give the 49ers a 4-3 halftime lead. The four goals tallied by Stewart is a new career-high for the native of Auckland, new Zealand.
In the third quarter the 49ers Ashley Richardson scored her second goal at 4:48 to give LBSU a 5-3 lead. SJSU came right back, with West scoring at 3:08, to pull to within 5-4. The key goal of the game came at the end of the third quarter. After the Spartans Allison Kurvers scored at 0:38 on a penalty shot, the 49ers came back down the pool and scored with just eight seconds left in the quarter on a goal by Robyn Gordin. That goal gave the 49ers a 7-5 lead. The Spartans would score with 2:15 left in the game, but the 49er defense then came up big down the stretch, stopping the Spartans on their final three trips down the pool.
In goal, SJSU’s Michelle Rozzen had eight saves, four of which came in the first quarter. The 49ers Bri Hawkins recorded three goalie saves on the afternoon.
Long Beach State is off until next weekend when they play at Pacific (April 5), at California (April 6) and at Stanford (April 7) in three key MPSF contests.
| 1st | 2nd | 3rd | 4th | Final | | SJSU | 2 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 6 | | LBSU | 2 | 2 | 3 | 0 | 7 |
Scoring:
SJSU: Neva West 4, Stephanie LeSueur, Allison Kurvers
LBSU: Roberta Stewart 4, Ashley Richardson 2, Robyn Gordin Saves: SJSU: Michelle Rozzen-8 / LBSU: Bri Hawkins-3 |
