Last weekend, Men's Water Polo headed back to Vallejo to compete in the CWPA's Sierra Pacific Championship Tournament. The Spartans started the tournament as the 5th seed, and were forced into tough matchup against #4 UC Davis. Both teams were seeded lower than they likely deserved in the tournament, because of missing players during the regular season. Both SJSU and Davis suffered losses to Chico and Maritime while some of the teams' best players were out of action, allowing Maritime and Chico to leapfrog them in the standings to 2nd and 3rd respectively. Either way, the Spartans and Aggies squared off for a chance to continue competing in the league.
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Three weeks earlier in the season, UC Davis beat SJSU by a whopping score of 15-6. Although the Spartans have improved by leaps and bounds, they knew that they would have to bring their best to defeat Davis. In the first quarter, SJSU's defense had everything together, limiting the Aggies to 1 goal. Unfortunately, the Spartans were unable to find the net themselves, and trailed 0-1 after the 1st. SJSU's switching and dropping was clean and quick, and goalie Cory Murphy didn't allow any shots in from outside. In the 2nd, the Spartans again only allowed 1 goal from Davis, and Captain John Moon was able to score 1 for the Spartans, making the score 1-2 at halftime. In the 3rd, SJSU had a few miscommunications on defense, allowing Davis to take a 5-2 lead into the 4th quarter. At the start of the 4th, Davis began relying on their stars. Despite great defense by the Spartans, UC Davis Captain Talon Gay was able to get 2 quick goals, increasing the lead to 7-2. Even with the quick turn of events, the Spartans didn't give up. Moon answered back quickly with 2 goals of his own out of set, including a backhand with half of UC Davis climbing all over him, making the score 7-4 with 3 minutes left. Newcomer Connor Shuey inched the Spartans closer with a near-side skip shot, making it 7-5 in the waning moments. With 48 seconds left, the Spartans needed a stop, but instead were given a kick-out, allowing UC Davis to score and close the game at 8-5, eliminating the Spartans from championship contention. Later in the tournament, UC Davis went on to force a sudden-death overtime with eventual Champions UC Berkeley, showing just how close the Spartans were to reaching their goals.
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After the result, the Spartans' best possible seeding would be 5th place, which is the seed that they entered the tournament with. To get there, the boys would have to run the gauntlet of winning the next 3 games of the weekend. In the first of those games, SJSU took on UC Merced. The Spartans came out strong in the 1st quarter, going up 5-0, including a goal-to-goal buzzer beater by Murphy. The Spartans never looked back from there, claiming a 15-5 win. With action done for the day, the Spartans did some team bonding by watching some of the other games of the tournament, and hanging out at their lodging (thank you again to the Ramos family for hosting us).
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On day 2, the Spartans opened action for the day with a game against UC Davis "B". In honor of the seniors' last day of playing as Spartans, the longest tenured players on the team were given the start, including Ryan Lewin, Keenan Bruni, Michael Amireh, Jonathan Ramos, Taylor Franklin, and Sean Askew. Between the 6 players, they had played 29 seasons of SJSU water polo. The seniors again came out strong, going up 6-1 at the end of the quarter, featuring 3 goals from Franklin and plenty of steals from Lewin. The Spartans never looked back from there, and won the game 17-6, advancing to the 5th place game against rivals Chico State.
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Before the final game, Captains John Moon and Jonney Ramos focused the team. Both of them, along with 6 other seniors, were about to play their last CWPA game for the blue and gold.
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"We know what we need to do to beat this team, and if we play to our ability, we will go out with a win," said Ramos.
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The game opened with three quick goals from Moon, Lewin, and Connor Shuey, asserting the Spartans' dominance early. Chico managed to stop the bleeding to finish the quarter, and cut it to a 4-2 Spartan lead at the end of the first. Opening the second, Chico started to control the flow of the game. They slowed down the Spartans' counters, and brought a lot of driving to their offense, causing a few sloppy switches by the Spartans, leading to a few Chico goals. At the half, Chico had tied it at 5-5. The Spartans came to the halftime huddle a bit out of breath. They weren't getting the calls that they were used to, and the pace, along with the big game feel, were taking their toll on everyone's bodies. At the start of the third, the Spartans just couldn't keep pace with Chico's incessant driving. Chico also started exploiting some mismatches on tired players and getting goals. The Spartans picked up the offense just enough to stay in the game, and ended the quarter down 9-7. Without a coach, the leaders of the team reminded everyone that this was the last game of the season, and to leave everything out there in the 4th. The Spartans started the 4th quarter focused, knowing that they couldn't afford to make any mistakes if they were going to win. SJSU came out on defense with a renewed quickness, getting hands up to prevent shots and dropping into set to help on defense. For the first two plays, Ryan Lewin held his ground in 2-meter defense long enough for a dropper to come steal the ball. Early in the quarter, John Moon scored a spectacular backhand out of set with his entire head fully submerged underwater, cutting Chico's lead to 9-8. The Spartans maintained their defense and held Chico scoreless, but had to scrap hard for every inch on offense. With 3:30 remaining, a Connor Shuey drive earned the Spartans a 6-on-5. Ramos called a timeout from the bench and the team huddled to weigh their options. The Spartans knew that this was a vital opportunity that they couldn't miss, and decided to run a play that they had been hammering down in practice. The play almost went immediately awry, when Chico's Vinny Rivera tipped a pass into a scrum. With 3 Chico players all splashing for the ball, John Moon somehow saved the day and tossed the ball out of the fray directly to Isaac Santana. From there, SJSU regrouped and ran the play just as planned, resulting in lefty Joel Vargas popping open on the wing. Santana hit him with a clean pass, and Vargas buried it in the back of the net, tying the game at 9. After another Vargas and Lewin steal, John Moon got the ball in set, got pushed out to the 5-meter, and drew a foul. Isaac Santana hurried to the ball, picked it up, and made the ambitious move of lobbing it cross-cage, but the shot nestled itself perfectly in the bottom corner, putting the Spartans up 10-9 with 2 minutes remaining. For the remainder of the game, the Spartans' lockdown defense continued. Chico couldn't get an effective shot off from the outside with Murphy in goal, couldn't set the ball with Lewin playing 2-m defense, and couldn't drive with the Spartans' outside defenders guarding them. SJSU was able to keep Chico scoreless for the remainder of the quarter, and came out with the 10-9 come from behind win, claiming 5th place in the league.
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Even with the mid-table finish, the Spartans were able to hold their heads high at the end of the tournament. Their only loss of the weekend came to a Davis team that went into sudden-death overtime with the champion UC Berkeley team, and no one from the other side of the bracket even put up a fight to the Bears, showing that the Spartans were among the elite in the league. This was reflected in the Spartans' ranking of 18th in the nation following the tournament, continuing the team's 3-year streak of national rankings.
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The Spartans now begin their offseason, when practices will become more relaxed and off-season tournaments will be played.
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