FULLERTON, Calif. – The No. 23 San Diego State women's water polo team opened the 2024 season on Friday at the Titan Invitational with a pair of victories: 20-8 over Cal State Monterey Bay and 14-9 over Cal State Fullerton at Titan Aquatics Center.
Sophomores Sydney Gish and Claudia Valdes led the Scarlet and Black with six and five goals apiece and freshman goalie Ava Ratajczak earned both wins. Gish is the first Aztec to tally at least six goals in a game since Emily Bennett scored as many against Bucknell on March 11, 2018, and in the two games, 22 of the team's 34 goals were produced by underclassmen.
The Aztecs open the season with a 2-0 mark for the 18th time in the now 35 years of the program, but this is the first time since the 2015 campaign that the team has opened a season with back-to-back wins.
No. 23 San Diego State 20, Cal State Monterey Bay 8
Ten Aztecs appeared in the scoring column, led by Sydney Gish's six goals.
The Aztecs did not get off to the start they had hoped for, surrendering the game's first three goals. After that rude awakening the Scarlet and Black leveled the game at 3-3 by the end of the first quarter. The scores came on successive goals from freshman Mimi Stoupas, sophomore Shannon Murphy and sophomore Gish.
The Otters went back ahead on the first goal of the second period, but that would be the last lead for Cal State Monterey Bay in the game. The Aztecs ripped off eight straight goals and sent the game to the intermission with SDSU up 11-4.
Sophomore Hannah Bell scored at the 6:19 mark, followed by sophomore Claudia Valdes at 5:39 and junior Amanda Chambers' tally with 3:28 to go before the break. Freshman Lucy Bullock scored the first goal of her college career with 2:49 left on the clock, ahead of Gish's second of the game, on a power play with 1:52 to go. Junior Klara Goldstein, junior Daphne Wilder, and Gish had the final three scores of the half and sent the teams to the break with SDSU up by seven goals.
Coming out of the break, SDSU kept up the pressure with four more goals to the Otters two in the third quarter. Junior Rose Kanemy opened the second half scoring at 7:43 and just 25 seconds later Cal State Monterey Bay got the goal back. But the Aztecs saw Chambers, at the 6:17 mark, and Goldstein, with 4:18 to go in the quarter, each picked up their second goals of the game and after a CSUMB tally, Gish, with 3:02 left, closed out the period with her fourth goal of the contest.
In the final quarter, the Aztec goals just kept coming. Valdes, Goldstein, Stoupas and two more goals from Gish accounted for SDSU's scores and the team cruised to a 12-point win.
The goalie duties were handled by a pair of Aztecs. Freshman Ava Ratajczak played the first 16 minutes and surrendered five goals while stopping four shots (.444 save percentage) and earned the win. Sophomore Tiaare Ahovelo was in the cage in the second half and made five saves against three goals allowed (.625 save percentage).
For the game, the Aztecs outshot the Otters 38-to-28 and had a .526-to-.286 advantage in shot percentage. SDSU was hit with 16 exclusions to Cal State Monterey Bay's four, but San Diego State was a perfect 4-of-4 on power plays compared to CSUMB, which was 4-of-16 in player advantage situations.
Cal State Monterey Bay: 3-1-2-2 - 8
San Diego State: 3-8-4-5 - 20
Cal State Monterey Bay Goals: Ainsworth (2), Day (2), Delport (1), Harper (1)
San Diego State Goals: Gish (6), Goldstein (3), Chambers (2), Valdes (2), Stoupas (1), Kanemy (1), Murphy (1), Bell (1), Bullock (1), Wilder (1)
No. 23 San Diego State 14, Cal State Fullerton 9
Sophomore Claudia Valdes produced a hat trick and junior Rose Kanemy scored twice to lead the Aztecs to a five-goal win against Cal State Fullerton in San Diego State's second game of the day.
The teams traded the first four goals with senior Danni Croteau opening the scoring 22 seconds into the game and junior Sofia Righetti scoring at the 6:30 mark to give SDSU a 2-1 lead. The Titans then scored a pair of goals to move ahead 3-2, before freshman Mimi Stoupas tied it with 4:08 to go in the first period. CSF got the last score of the first eight minutes and took a 4-3 advantage into the second quarter.
The Titans scored 53 seconds into the second to push their lead to two goals, 5-3, but the Aztecs answered with strikes from freshmen Lucy Bullock and Makena Macedo at 4:16 and 2:54, respectively, to send the game to the break tied 5-5.
In the second half, SDSU took over and outscored Cal State Fullerton 9-4 in the final 16 minutes.
Power play tallies from Klara Goldstein and Kanemy to open the third put the Aztecs up 7-5 and from there they never looked back. Shannon Murphy and Kanemy split the final four goals of the period with the Titans and SDSU was up 9-7 heading into the last eight minutes.
In the final period, Valdes scored three times 67 seconds to make it a 12-7 game. CSF got one back, but Kendall Houck found the back of the cage with 1:57 left on the clock and Elena Pena finished things off with the first goal of her major college career in the 14-9 victory.
As in the first game of the day, the goalie duties were handled by a pair of Aztecs, but against the Titans the roles were reversed. Sophomore Tiaare Ahovelo played the first 16 minutes and surrendered five goals while stopping two shots (.286 save percentage). Freshman Ava Ratajczak was in the cage in the second half and made seven saves against four goals allowed (.636 save percentage) and earned her second win as a collegiate goalie.
Despite being outshot 34-to-32, SDSU had a .438-to-.265 advantage in shot percentage. The Aztecs were successful on 4-of-6 power plays (.667) compared to the Titans who were 3-of-13 in the power play (.231). Each team was successful on its lone penalty shot.
San Diego State: 3-2-4-5 – 14
Cal State Fullerton: 4-1-2-2 - 9
San Diego State Goals: Valdes (3), Kanemy (2), Righetti (1), Houck (1), Murphy (1), Goldstein (1), Croteau (1), Bullock (1), Macedo (1), Stoupas (1), Pena (1),
Cal State Fullerton Goals: Hernandez (2), Brouwer (2), Halva (1), Cuevas (1), Mason (1), Solorzano (1), Wilder (1)
San Diego State wraps up play at the Titan Invitational on Saturday with a 9 a.m. PT game against preseason No.1 Southern California and then faced Cal State Monterey Bay at 5 p.m.