No. 13 IU water polo traveled to San Jose, California, to face off against No. 16 San Jose State University this weekend. The Hoosiers split the series against the Spartans, winning the first match 12-8 and losing 9-8 in the second.
IU’s win Saturday was its first since Feb. 27 and its first Mountain Pacific Sports Federation victory this season.
IU water polo head coach Taylor Dodson was not satisfied with the weekend performance.
“Winning and then losing like that really exposed some areas that we need to improve right away,” Dodson said. “We played young today.”
IU’s offense shined through in the first match with five different Hoosiers scoring. Junior attacker Tina Doherty led the charge with five goals.
IU only shot one more shot on goal than SJSU in the first match, but the Hoosiers shot efficiency was .124 better than the Spartans.
Junior goalkeeper Mary Askew led the defense by saving 10 goals in the win. This is Askew’s second week in a row of recording double-digit saves in a match.
“What worked in the first match was our together play,” Dodson said. “Anytime that we play well it’s usually because we are playing really together.”
In the second match, the Hoosiers fell in a tight match losing by one goal.
Dodson said she felt that, individually, the Hoosiers couldn’t execute.
“When it’s your turn to execute you have to execute, and that’s the biggest piece to me that we struggled,” Dodson said.
The team’s next series will be against No. 4 University of California, Berkeley. This will be the final regular-season opponent for IU.
IU was not able to face UC Berkley last season because of the COVID-19 pandemic. The last time the two teams competed was April 14, 2019.
Dodson is still very hopeful that her team can come ready to go against a strong opponent.
“We’re gonna do a lot of scouting against Cal. They have a lot of really strong players, and their roster is really talented,” Dodson said. “I think that we go into every game very prepared.”
The first match against IU and UC Berkley will be at 4 p.m. April 24 in Berkeley, California.
