SAN DIEGO – The No. 22-ranked San Diego State water polo team jets across the country for four games at the Princeton Invitational in Princeton, N.J., with contests against Siena and La Salle on Saturday and against Wagner and host Princeton on Sunday. All games will be played at DeNunzio Pool with and will feature live stat links and the Princeton game being streamed on ESPN+
This Week
Saturday, February 17
No. 22 San Diego State vs. Siena – 12:30 p.m. ET/9:30 a.m. PT
No. 22 San Diego State vs. La Salle – 6:30 p.m. ET/3:30 p.m. PT
Sunday, February 87
No. 22 San Diego State vs. No. 19 Wagner – 1 p.m. ET/10 a.m. PT
No. 22 San Diego State at. No. 9 Princeton – 4:30 p.m. ET/1:30 p.m. PT
Storylines
- San Diego State stands at 5-4 after three weeks of play in the 2024 season. It is the first time since the start of the 2018 season that the program has had a winning record after nine games and just the second time since the start of the 2015 the team has a winning record at this point in a season.
-The Aztecs have posted a 7-2 record in the two previous times it competed in the Princeton Invitational, 2008 & 2020. San Diego State went 5-0 the first time it played in the event (2008) and in 2020 split four games at DeNunzio Pool.
-In the 30 seasons of Aztec water polo, SDSU has a 583-394 record (.597).
-San Diego State has defeated Siena in its two previous meetings with the Saints. In 2019, at Arizona State, the Aztecs downed Siena 10-2 and at Aztecs Aquaplex last season, dispatched the Saints 20-4.
-San Diego State and La Salle will meet for the first time in program history.
-The Aztecs and No. 18 Wagner have met 10 times and split the series, 5-5. In a neutral pool, SDSU holds a 3-2 advantage, with wins in the 2012 Terrapin Invitational in College Park, Md. (13-7), 2016 Triton Invitational in La Jolla, Calif. (7-4), and 2017 Arizona State Invitational in Tempe, Ariz. (8-6). In the last two neutral pool meetings, at the 2018 Bruno Invitational at Brown University and UCSB Winter Invite in Santa Barbara, Calif., Wagner got the better of SDSU by scores of 10-6 and 12-11, respectively.
-In the series against Princeton, San Diego State holds a 14-8 advantage, including a 1-1 record in the Tigers' pool. SDSU defeated Princeton 11-6 in the first matchup in New Jersey, on Feb. 16, 2008, but lost 5-7 the last time the teams met at Denunzio Pool, on Feb. 15, 2020.
-Sophomore Claudia Valdes leads the Aztecs attack with a team-high 19 goals and 26 points. She is one of four SDSU players with double digit goals so far this season. In addition, she has seven assists, a team-best matching three blocks and a team-high 10 steals. Valdes has scored multiple goals in six of the team's nine games, including three hat tricks and a season-high four goals against No. 4 Hawai'i.
-Junior Klara Goldstein has 21 points and 15 goals, second best in both categories for SDSU. She has six assists and seven steals and a pair of hat tricks.
-Freshman Mimi Stoupas has the team's best shot percentage (.765) among those with at least 10 shots attempts, scoring on 13 of 17 shots. She has drawn 11 exclusions and has three steals. She has five multi-goal games including a pair of tallies in each of the last four games.
-Sophomore Sydney Gish has 11 goals, seven assists and 18 points. She has drawn 10 exclusions, stolen the ball nine times and blocked a shot. Six of her 11 goals came in the season opener against Cal State Monterey Bay and those six strikes are tied for the third most in a game in program history.
-Junior Rose Kanemy leads the team with 14 assists and has scored five times for a total of 19 points. She also has four steals and three blocks. She has four multi-assists games this year, including a game high three vs. Cal State Monterey Bay and California Baptist.
-Goalies Tiaare Ahovelo and Ava Ratajczak have spent the majority of time in the cage. In 127:45 minutes, Ahovelo has seen 47 goals go in the net, made 40 saves (.460 save percentage) and has two assists and six steals. Ratajczak has given up 42 goals in 120 minutes, while making 35 saves for a .455 save percentage. She also has four assists and four steals.