TEMPE, Ariz. - Makena Macedo scored eight goals, four times in each of San Diego State’s two games on Sunday but the team could only earn a split: winning 21-7 over Cal Lutheran in the morning but coming up short in the afternoon, 13-11, versus No. 15 UC Davis as it wrapped up play at the 2025 ASU Invitational at Mona Sullivan Aquatic Center in Tempe, Ariz.
No. 23 San Diego State 21, Cal Lutheran 7
Nine Aztecs scored, led by four goals each from sophomore Makena Macedo and freshman Juilanne Stark, as San Diego State jumped out to a 4-0 lead and never looked back in its first game of the day, a 21-7 win over the Cal Lutheran Regals.
In addition to Macedo and Stark’s goals, Hannah Bell, Sydney Gish and Claudia Valdes scored three times apiece while Delanney Ewing, Rose Kanemy, Luna Sarmiento and Mimi Stoupas finished with one tally each.
Ava Ratajczak (1-0) made eight saves to go against seven goals allowed and added three steals and an assist in her first win of the year.
The Aztecs (2-1) did all the scoring in the first period, getting goals from Valdes, at the 5:59, mark and Gish, with 3:32 to play, to take a 2-0 advantage into the second quarter.
SDSU doubled its lead to 4-0 in the first two minutes of the second. Bell and Stark scored at the 7:00 and 6:20 marks, respectively. Cal Lutheran responded with a pair of goals of its own to trim its deficit in half, 4-2 with 3:59 to play in the opening 16 minutes. A Stoupas score at the 3:33 mark and one from Ewing 33 seconds later pushed the Aztecs lead back to four goals, 6-2. The teams traded the final two tallies of the half. The Regals scored with 2:44 to play and Stark responded for San Diego State with 40 seconds left before intermission, sending the teams to halftime with SDSU leading 7-3.
Coming out of the break, the Aztecs’ offense opened the floodgates. SDSU scored eight times in the third period to put the game out of reach.
Gish scored 17 second in and after Cal Lutheran got the goal back, Valdes banged the back of the net for the first of four straight goals for the Scarlet and Black. Valdes’ first score of the period came at 7:06 and she scored again 46 seconds later to make it 10-4. Gish followed Valdes, at 5:44, to push the lead to 11-4. After Sarmiento banged the back of the net the scoreboard read 12-4 with 4:10 to go in the third. The Regals got one back with 2:59 to play, but SDSU finished the quarter on three straight goals. Bell started the run off at the 2:34 mark and Stark closed the period on tallies at the 32 and five second marks to give San Diego State a 15-5 lead with eight minutes to play.
The final stanza opened with three more scores for the Aztecs to make it an 18-5 lead with 5:39 to play. Kanemy and a pair of Macedo goals were scored at 7:06, 6:24, 5:39, respectively to finish the 6-0 run going back to the end of the previous period. Cal Lutheran scored twice to reduce its deficit to 18-7 with 3:34 to play, but Bell scored with 1:28 to go and Macedo put an exclamation point on the game with goals with 47 seconds and one second left on the clock for the final tally of 21-7.
San Diego State: 2-5-8-6 - 21
Cal Lutheran: 0-3-2-2 - 7
San Diego State Goals: Macedo (4), Stark (4), Bell (3), Gish (3), Valdes (3), Ewing (1), Kanemy (1), Sarmiento (1), Stoupas (1)
Cal Lutheran Goals: Knight (2), Lohmeier (2), Favazzo (1), Metcalfe (1), Portillo (1)
San Diego State Saves: Ratajczak (5), Ahovelo (4)
Cal Lutheran Saves: De Souza (7), Barrus (6)
No. 15 UC Davis 13, No. 23 San Diego State 11
Leading 9-7 heading into the final period against UC Davis, San Diego State struggled to score, netting two goals, or hold the Aggies offense in check, UCD scored six times, in SDSU’s 13-11 loss in each team’s final game at the ASU Invitational.
San Diego State (2-2) was led, as they were in game one, by a four-goal effort from Makena Macedo as well as four goals from Mimi Stoupas. The other Aztecs to score were Rose Kanemy, Sofia Righetti and Claudia Valdes, who netted a goal apiece.
In the cage, Tiaare Ahovelo (1-2) stopped 14 shots, but let 13 by in the two-goal defeat.
The Aggies scored twice in the first 2:10 of the game, but Stoupas and Righetti responded at the 5:29 and 5:03 marks, respectively, to level the score 2-2. The only other goal of the stanza came from the arm of Macedo, whose tally with 2:11 to play sent the game to the second quarter with SDSU up 3-2.
In a second period that was a defensive struggle, each team was able to bang the back of the cage just once. UC Davis scored with 3:05 left in the quarter and then with 46 ticks left on the clock, Macedo scored for the second time in the contest and the teams went to the intermission with SDSU up 5-3.
Coming out of the break, Stoupas twice gave SDSU its largest lead at the time, three goals. She stretched the net at the back of the cage at the 7:11 mark to make it 6-3 and after a UC Davis goal, did it again with 6:24 to play in the period to make the score 7-4. When a Kanemy shot went in with 5:44 to play in the quarter, the Aztecs held what would turn out to be their largest lead of the game, 4 goals, 8-4, but in the final 13:44 of the game the Scarlet and Black were outscored 9-3.
The Aggies scored back-to-back goals to cut the SDSU advantage to 8-6 and when Macedo picked up a goal with 4:05 to play in the third, it was a 9-6 game. With 1:45 on the clock, UC Davis put the final tally on the board and the game went to the final eight minutes with San Diego State up 9-7.
Stoupas pushed the lead back to three, 10-7 on a score at the 5:59 mark, but UCD then rattled off four straight goals to move ahead 11-10 with 3:40 left on the clock. Twenty seconds later Macedo tied it up, 11-11, but SDSU would not score again. UC Davis closed the game out with two tallies for a 13-11 win.
San Diego State: 3-1-4-2 - 11
UC Davis: 2-1-4-6 - 13
San Diego State Goals: Macedo (4), Stoupas (4), Kanemy (1), Righetti (1), Valdes (1)
UC Davis Goals: Henry (4), Miller (2), Nocetti (2), Sumner (2), Giusti (1), Sparre (1) , Wallin (1)
San Diego State Saves: Ahovelo (14)
UC Davis Saves: Holland (6), Stein (3)