TEMPE, Ariz. - On its first day of competition of the 2025 season, the No. 23 San Diego State water polo team defeated No. 25 California Baptist 19-16 but came up on the short end of a 19-13 decision against No. 13 Arizona State on the opening day of the 2025 ASU Invitational at Mona Sullivan Aquatic Center in Tempe, Ariz.
The Aztecs (1-1) were led offensively by sophomore Mimi Stupas who scored seven goals on eight shots in the two contests. Claudia Valdes totaled six goals, while Sydney Gish and Shannon Murphy had four goals each. Hannah Bell, Makena Macedo, and Julianne Stark found the back of the cage twice and Sofia Righetti, Amanda Chambers, Rose Kanemy, Luna Sarmiento and Megan Holcomb were credited with a goal apiece.
Tiarre Ahovelo and Ava Ratajczak each played 32 minutes in the two contests. Ahovelo (1-1) started both contests, earning the win against California Baptist, but taking the loss against Arizona State.
No. 23 San Diego State 19, No. 25 California Baptist 16
In San Diego State’s first game, Stoupas scored six times, the most by an Aztec since Sydney Gish tallied as many against Cal State Monterey Bay on January 19, 2024, nearly a year to the day. Valdes added five tallies, while Bell, Gish and Macedo banged the back of the net twice each and Murphy and Stark were credited with a goal apiece.
Tiaare Ahovelo (1-0) started in goal for the Scarlet and Black, played the first half, and stopped five shots, while allowing eight past and Ava Ratajczak also let in eight goals and had four saves playing the second half.
Stoupas scored the initial goal of the season for the Aztecs (1-0), just 26 seconds into the game, but the Lancers (0-1) nabbed the next three goals to take a 3-1 lead with 4:45 to play in the opening stanza. Stoupas scored her second of the game to cut it to 3-2 at the 3:43 mark, but CBU answered to push its lead back to two goals, 4-2. The last tally of the period came from the arm of Gish with 3:08 to go and the game went to the second with SDSU trailing 4-3.
The second was another closely played eight minutes. Stoupas tied the game on her third of the contest, which came a minute into the period, and then placed another in to put San Diego State up 5-4 at the 5:28 mark. The Lancers answered 14 seconds later to knot it back up at 5-5 and went back in front, 6-5, with 4:23 to play before intermission. Stark tied it at 6-6, but again California Baptist answered to make it 7-6 in CBU’s favor. The Lancers made it a two-goal lead, 8-6, at the 2:55 mark, but Valdes, at 2:36, and again on a penalty shot at 1:50, tied it back up, 8-8. Macedo scored the final goal of the half, with 33 seconds to play, to send SDSU to the break leading 9-8.
Each team totaled four goals in the third quarter. Murphy and Stoupas scored at 7:27 and 6:14, respectively, to push the San Diego State lead to 11-8. California Baptist got the goals back at 5:17 and 4:26 to make it, 11-10. Bell responded with back-to-back tallies, at the 3:30 and 1:45 marks, to once again give SDSU a three-goal advantage, this time at 13-10. But again, the team could not shake the Lancers who responded with the last two goals of the period to send the game to the final stanza with the Scarlet and Black up 13-12.
The fourth quarter opened with the teams trading seven goals. CBU tying things at 13-13. Gish gave SDSU the lead back, 14-13, at 5:13. Twenty seconds later, the Lancers tied it at 14-14, then Stoupas gave the Aztecs the lead back at 4:41. California Baptist tied it at 15-15 at 4:12 and Macedo put SDSU up 16-15 with 3:57 to go before CBU made it 16-16 with 3:36 to play. The eventual game-winner came on a Valdes penalty shot at 2:06 and she added a pair of insurance scores; with 22 and one second remaining for the 19-16 win. SDSU improved to 28-2 all-time against CBU and head coach Dana Ochsner is now 5-0 against the Lancers.
San Diego State: 3-6-4-6 - 19
California Baptist: 4-4-4-4 - 16
San Diego State Goals: Stoupas (6), Valdes (5), Bell (2), Gish (2), Macedo (2), Murphy (1), Stark (1)
California Baptist Goals: Almendariz (5), Kahahawai (3), Bumbaca (2), Moreno (2), Carter (1), Gates (1), Lehoczky (1), Ruffer (1)
San Diego State Saves: Ahovelo (5), Ratajczak (4)
California Baptist Saves: Antanasijevic (7), Urry (4)
No. 13 Arizona State 19, No. 23 San Diego State 13
San Diego State played Arizona State straight up in the first 16 minutes, having led four times and never letting the Sun Devils get more than a two-goal advantage in the first half, but ASU pulled away in the second half to hand SDSU its first setback of the campaign.
Murphy paced the offense with three tallies and Gish scored twice, while Chambers, Holcomb, Kanemy, Righetti, Sarmiento, Stark, Stoupas, Valdes added a goal each.
Ahovelo (1-1) gave up nine first-half goals while making three stops. Ratajczak played the second 16 minutes also surrendering nine goals while stopping four shots.
Valdes gave SDSU a 1-0 lead 31 seconds into the contest and with the game tied 1-1, Chambers found the back of the cage with 6:20 to go in the first for a 2-1 lead for the Aztecs. The Sun Devils tied the game again before Gish made it 3-2 on a tally at 5:34. ASU got the equalizer 27 seconds later and took its first lead, 4-3, at the 3:12 mark. Gish tied it 4-4 with 2:45 to go in the period and on the last goal of the quarter, Arizona State took a 5-4 advantage into the second stanza.
ASU took the first multi-goal lead of the game for either team with 6:33 to go before the half, 6-4 and then made it 7-4 at the 5:51 mark. A Kanemy goal 24 seconds later got it back to a two-goal difference, 7-5 and following Sarmiento’s tally at 4:44, SDSU was down by just one, 7-6. The Sun Devils pushed it back to a two-goal spread with 4:32 to go in the quarter, but Righetti reduced it to a one-goal game at the 2:48 mark. The final tally of the half went to ASU, and it took a 9-7 lead into the break.
Coming out of the intermission, the team traded the first four scores of the third to get it to 11-9 with 4:37 to go with Murphy picking up both of SDSU’s goals. The Sun Devils then put up back-to-back scores to make it 13-9, before Stark trimmed the lead to 13-10 with 1:11 to go in the period. But ASU scored two more times and took a 15-10 lead into the final eight minutes.
Stoupas and Murphy got the first two tallies of the fourth quarter, at the 5:56 and 4:54 marks, respectively, to draw the Aztecs to within three, 15-12. However, Arizona State put four more goals on the board to SDSU’s one, by Holcmob with 17 seconds to play, and took the 19-13 decision. San Diego State is now 12-19 in the all-time series against the Sun Devils.
San Diego State: 4-3-3-3 - 13
Arizona State: 5-4-6-4 - 19
San Diego State Goals: Murphy (3), Gish (2), Chambers (1), Holcomb (1), Kanemy (1), Righetti (1), Sarmiento (1), Stark (1), Stoupas (1), Valdes (1)
Arizona State Goals: Quinn (5), Shorter-Robinson (4), Z. Frangieh (3), Almeda (2), Dikmans (1), K. Glad (1), M. Glad (1), Pamp (1), Smith (1)
San Diego State Saves: Ratajczak (4), Ahovelo (3)
Arizona State Saves: K. Glad (9)
The Aztecs wrap up play in the ASU Invitational on Sunday with games against Cal Lutheran and No. 15 UC Davis. The games are scheduled to start at 10:30 a.m. and 1 p.m. PT, respectively.