SAN DIEGO – The San Diego State women’s water polo head coach Dana Ochsner announced the signing of six high school seniors to athletic aid agreements which begin in the 2025-26 school year.
The sextet includes an international player from Germany, Ioanna Petiki and five California players; Natalia Barrot, Mackenzie Dollander, Kyla Pranajaya, Anay Smith, and Avery Sullivan.
“I'm really excited about this group,” said Ochsner. “We’re losing a very experienced senior class at the end of this year who are very balanced positionally. We tried to sign players one-for-one. We looked for a defender to fill the spot of Sophia (Righetti), a lefty for Rose (Kanemy), a few right-handed attackers, and a goalie. With this signing class, I think we were able to find athletes who not only will be able to step in and fill those roles, and in the next couple years, elevate past that. This is an impressive group of athletes. They come from all over California, with all types of experience, as well as a high-level international player who is going to continue this tradition of being very focused and driven with high-level goals, and that usually tends to motivate those around you.”
Petiki, is a 5-5 attacker out of Stuttgart, Germany, and the Johann Friedrich Cotta School – Stuttgart Elite School of Sport and plays club polo at SSVEsslingen. Playing for the German National Team, she has competed at the 2022 and 2024 European Championships and the 2023 World Cup. In addition, playing with the German Junior National Team, she played in the European Championships in 2021 (17U), 2022 and 2024 (19U) as well as the 2021 World Championships (20U) and won the 2023 (18U) Nations Cup, where she was named the Most Valuable Player.
For SSVEsslingen, she won the 2022 (17U) German Cup and finished in third place in the event in 2023. Also in 2022, SSVEsslingen finished in third in the German Championships and took second place for the season in the German First Division.
“With Claudia (Valdes) going into her senior season next year,” said Ochsner, “my goal with Ioanna is to use her years of international experience to help come in and fill that pivotal scoring role. Another important contribution she will bring is leadership. This is one of my pillars to a successful program and she has been a leader on her youth club team, a captain of the German junior national team, and now plays in the German senior league. She's got a multitude of experience, leadership, athletic excellence, and she excels in the classroom.”
Barrot is a 5-4, attacker out of Foothill High in Santa Ana, Calif., and plays her club polo at SoCal. In the last two years, her Foothill teams are a combined 51-11 overall, including an undefeated league record. They finished last season ranked No. 3 in the state and nation and the year before that No. 2 in each. In each of her three high school seasons Foothill has won the Crestview League title and in 2023 was the CIF regional champion and the CIF Open Division runner-up.
In club competition, in 2024 SoCal placed second at the Junior Olympics as well as earning runner-up finishes at the US Club Championship and the Futures Championship.
“Natalia comes from an incredibly high-level high school program at Foothill, and she competes at SoCal Water Polo Club, which has won Junior Olympics and seems to always be in the top three clubs every year. She plays at a strong competitive level of water polo every day. Many of her teammates are also going off to play at Division I schools. So, she's currently competing against people she's going to see for the next four years. What I really like about Natalia is that she's incredibly smart. She's a fast offensive player but is super aware on defense. I watched her over the summer, and she is always prepared to help defensively, so she's one of those players who I'd say is really reliable. She’ll bring good defensive awareness to the team, but at the same time, she's not afraid to attack, get into the body and score goals on the other side too. She's a very balanced player.”
Dollander is a 5-5 attacker out of Corona del Mar High School in Newport Beach, Calif., and competes at the club level for CDM, starting for both programs. She is a current starter and two-time CIF Division I champion (2022 & 2024) and last year earned third team All-CIF designation.
“Mackenzie is a strong lefty and she's definitely going to be stepping into a big role for us. We're losing our only current lefty, and our captain this year in Rose (Kanemy). So, Mackenzie is, as of right now, coming in as our singular left hander. She’s played with other very high-level players, so she's used to having to control the ball and help set them up for success. However, last year especially, she stepped into a new role and was able to grow her game and be a shooter and a contributor when needed. I think she'll be great for us on not only the scoring side, but with her great vision, also the facilitation side.”
Pranajaya is a 5-7 goalie out of Orange (Calif.) Lutheran High School and plays club polo with Legacy. As a starter she helped to defensively lead Orange Lutheran to the 2022 and 2023 CIF Open Division crowns and an undefeated season in 2023, including the Division One state title, where she was honored as a first-team All-Trinity League performer and first-team All-CIF honors.
Starting with Legacy she was named a 2021 first-team All-American, was part of the 2023 runner-up at the US Club Championship, and in 2024 finished in third place at the Junior Olympics.
“With Ava (Ratajczak) graduating, I felt we needed to bring in a freshman goalie who could play behind two seniors [Tiaare Ahovelo and Mandy Lagerlof] with a lot of experience. I'm really excited to see Kyla get the opportunity to learn, but by the same token, she's coming from the best high school and club in the country. She's being coached by four-time Olympian Brenda Villa. So, she's definitely getting year-round, high-level coaching and experience right now. But what I love, and why I was drawn to Kyla is she is really good at reading shooters, always working at covering the distance of the cage, and is consistently a step ahead of the offense, which I think has really helped her development. She's a very smart player, and I think her work ethic and leadership will be a great addition to our goalie group. I’ve seen her block against high-level shooters, and I think she should be ready for the kind of shooting we’ll see at this level.”
Smith is a 5-4 attacker who is out of Arroyo Grande (Calif.) High School and competes for Arroyo Grande at the club level. In 2022 and 2023 she earned first-team All-Mountain League distinction as well as second-team All-CIF designation. Arroyo Grande has been the Mountain League champ in each of Smith’s three seasons and each of those titles were won without losing a single conference game. The program finished runner-up at the 2022 Division 2 Regionals and in 2023 won the Division 1 Central Section championship.
“What I saw Anay, that I really like is she's an incredibly fast, hardworking, dynamic player. With the older players that we've lost in the last couple years, I know she’s going to bring in the skill sets that we really need… being aggressive in transition, strong inside, and a finisher. She creates a lot of offense, but at the same time, has good vision of the field and is able to make passes and be a role player when needed. With how well she's been playing and how big of a role she plays on her current team, I believe she's going to do a great job of fitting right into the college game."
Sullivan is a 5-10 defender out of Moraga, California’s Campolindo High School who plays club polo with Lamorinda. Campolindo finished as the runner-up in the North Coast Section in 2021, 2022, and 2023 and in 2024 was the CIF runner-up. This year Avery has stepped into a big role as a starter and offensive contributor in the center position for Campolindo.
“Avery is helping to contribute to the size and versatility of this class. This class is a little bit on the smaller side and consists predominantly of fast attackers. So, her height and ability to play wherever she is needed on offense and defense is very important. But the big reason that I wanted to bring her into our family, and what I really liked from speaking to her coaches, is that she is someone who started playing the game more recently, so her growth potential is huge and still in front of her. I can see it watching her play from Junior Olympics to her high school season. She’s one of those players who's very coachable, a sponge. I’ve seen her take information and apply it on the fly. She's also someone who's had to play a lot of different roles for her club team. She was a defender for her high school team, but is now a center, and just does whatever coaches ask of her, and that's really something that impressed me. Having to play various positions and learn new skills will really level her up and she's someone who, from what I've seen, has the ability to learn quickly, which will allow her to pick up the nuances of the game. It'll be fun to be able to have room to develop her and watch her grow with this team.