The San Jose State men’s water polo team nearly made a late comeback during a home game against No. 5 UC Santa Barbara, but was ultimately outscored 13-9 Saturday.
The Golden Coast Conference match left the Spartans (7-16, 1-3 GCC) feeling like they could have won if they would have started off stronger in the first half.
“I hope we could have [scored] earlier,” sophomore hole set Neils Hofmeijer said.
Hofmeijer said if the Spartans didn’t allow the Gauchos to take an early lead and started scoring more in the first half, they would have won the game.
“In the second quarter they already scored that many goals,” Hofmeijer said. “That’s the difference at the end of the game.”
SJSU started the game with a 2-1 deficit in the first quarter with an impressive shot by senior driver Marc Weber. After Weber’s goal, UC Santa Barbara junior goalkeeper Tiago Bonchristiano stopped a barrage of shots from SJSU to end the quarter.
The Gauchos responded by keeping the Spartans off the scoreboard in the second quarter and taking a 5-1 advantage into halftime.
This is where Hofmeijer said the team had a breakdown in their playing by allowing back-to-back goals from the Gauchos.
“We started off slow,” head coach Bruce Watson said.
Watson also added that the second quarter was a low point in the game for the Spartans.
“We had three good quarters,” he said.
The Gauchos continued to lead 8-2 in the third quarter as the Spartans’ defense kept giving up shot after shot, leaving sophomore goalkeeper Yahav Fire to try and make as many stops he could.
Halfway through the third quarter, freshman attacker Ethan Koch managed to break through the UC Santa Barbara defense and gave SJSU the momentum shift it needed.
Koch’s goal was followed by two back-to-back goals from senior utility Giacomo Lovatelli.
Entering the last quarter of the game, there was a huge momentum shift from the Spartans after sophomore driver Adam Bado sparked a fourth quarter rally converting a 5-meter penalty shot.
“They finally started to play, they finally realized that they had to work harder,” Watson said.
Hofmeijer followed Bado’s goal with his own off an impressive power play.
Not too long after, senior hole set Finn Pardon scored his first goal of the match and senior utility Emerson Trout also scored, giving the Spartans some hope in coming back.
With 5 minutes and 7 seconds remaining in the fourth quarter and only down 10-8, Pardon said the team started to actually click and play up-to-par.
“I guess we just kind of like turned it on,” Pardon said. “We were just like, ‘We can play with these guys, we shouldn’t be down this much.’ ”
But he also said he wished he scored earlier on to get that momentum started earlier rather than later in the game.
Hofmeijer said the team performance improved in the fourth quarter but it wasn’t enough as it was too late.
UC Santa Barbara retaliated late in the quarter by scoring three goals in a three-minute span for a 13-8 lead and ended SJSU’s hopes for a comeback win.
The loss served as a lesson for the Spartans as Hofmeijer said it showed that the team now knows its ability in persevering.
“It showed us our potential and that we are fighters to get back in the game,” Hofmeijer said. “I think that’s
really important.”
Hofmeijer said the team is now going to focus on its defense in blocking shots as well as offensively working on finishing plays and putting the ball into the net.
“We created a lot of opportunities and now we got to make sure that we finish those and I think that’s what we will practice in the upcoming practices,” he said.
Coach Watson said that especially with a young team, the Spartans just need to learn how to finish strong going into the last two games of the regular season against Santa Clara University and University of the Pacific.
“We are just going to kind of work on us getting a great start,” Watson said. “Hopefully, the second half of this game will get us rolling into our last two regular season games in conference championships.”
The Spartans will play the Broncos away today at 4 p.m.
