No. 13 San Jose State dropped its fourth straight game in a 14-7 home defeat against No. 6 Arizona State University Saturday afternoon.
The loss marked the second time the Spartans (5-12, 0-3 MPSF) have lost to the Sun Devils (12-4, 1-0 MPSF) this season, after losing 8-6 on Feb. 21.
Junior diver Lili Urvari’s performance was a silver lining in SJSU’s disappointing loss.
Urvari ended the game as the Spartans’ top scorer with 3 goals, along with 3 steals on the defensive side of the ball.
“We really wanted to beat ASU,” Urvari said. “We played against them earlier this season and we only lost by 2, so that was bad. I scored 3 goals, but it doesn’t really matter when we lose.”
The Sun Devils opened the game by scoring the first 4 goals and did not give up the lead for the remainder of the game.
SJSU utility sophomore Clarissa Wandinger responded, scoring a power play goal at the end of the quarter, making the
score 4-1.
ASU freshman goalkeeper Itzahiana Baca kept SJSU out of the net in the second quarter, blocking 5 corner shots as ASU added 3 goals to their lead.
SJSU cut the deficit throughout the quarter but ended the half trailing 7-4.
Utility junior Riley Agerbeek and utility sophomore Olga Descalzi Portell both scored early in the second quarter.
Urvari scored off an assist from junior two-meter defender Isabella Schmidt.
ASU extended its lead to 11-5 with 4 goals in the third quarter.
Urvari and Schmidt kept SJSU in the game being the only players to score in the third quarter.
Urvari added one more goal in the final quarter but it wasn’t enough for the Spartans to get past the Sun Devils.
“I think it was a bit of [a] disappointment for the team to see the score this week,” two-meter senior Jacqui Maisey said. “We know that we trained hard and hopefully we will see them again at the MPSF conference and we’ll be able to have a better score.”
SJSU could not defend ASU utility junior Amira Van Buren as she scored 6 goals on 7 shots to lead the Sun Devils.
Head coach Beth Harberts wants the team to fix its mistakes from this four-game skid going into the Loyola Marymount University Invitational on March 20.
“I think we have a lot of speed over these other programs,” Harberts said. “LMU is obviously going to be the highest competitor in that tournament and that’s someone we want to go after.”
Harberts said after SJSU’s loss to No. 1 University of Southern California on March 1 that these losses against higher-ranked teams are learning experiences for the team.
However, the Spartans have now lost four games in a row against higher-ranked schools and are currently in last place in the conference.
The LMU Invitational begins on March 20 where SJSU plays Princeton University at 11 a.m.
