SAN DIEGO – After a split in a quick two-game northern California road trip last week, No. 21-ranked San Diego state water polo opens its regular season home schedule with a pair of games at Aztec Aquaplex. On Friday at noon, SDSU plays California Baptist in its Golden Coast Conference opener and on Saturday at 1 p.m. welcomes No. 23-ranied Pomona Pitzer to The Mesa.
This Week
Friday, February 14
No. 23 San Diego State (5-5, 0-0 GCC) vs. California Baptist (6-8, 0-0 GCC) – noon (PT)
Aztec Aquaplex, San Diego, Calif.
Live Stats
Saturday, February 15
No. 23 San Diego State (5-5) vs. No. 23 Pomona-Pitzer (2-1) – 1 p.m. (PT)
Aztec Aquaplex, San Diego, Calif.
Live Stats
Storylines
-For the third of three weekends, San Diego State split its games, a 21-7 win at Cal State Monterey Bay and 10-9 loss at No. 17 San Jose State last Friday and Saturday and enters week four with a 5-5 record.
-San Diego State has reached double figure goals in nine of its10 games this year, averaging 14.7 goals per contest.
-Now, in its 31st season, the Aztecs have a 600-410 record (.594).
-This will be the third time this season SDSU and CBU will play, but the first as conference opponents. San Diego State leads the all-time series with California Baptist, 28-3, which includes a 19-16 victory in the season opener at the ASU Invitational and an 11-14 loss at the Triton Invitational. Before the game in La Jolla two weeks ago, the last time the Lancers had bettered SDSU was an 8-4 decision on April 13, 2001. The Aztecs had won 26 straight before its last game against the Lancers and are 9-0 at the Aquaplex in a series which started in the 2000 season.
-The series against Pomona-Pitzer began on April 10, 2005, with a 17-2 victory for the Aztecs at the Aquaplex. San Diego State has never lost to the Sagehens in eight previous meetings, including a 12-10 win on March 1, 2024, at the Claremont Convergence, the last meeting between the programs. At the Aquaplex, the Aztecs are 2-0 against Pomona-Pitzer, but have not met in the Scarlet and Black’s pool since a 16-3 decision on March 25, 2007.
-Head women’s water polo coach Dana Ochsner has a 34-39 record in three seasons, 22-20 in the last two seasons after being named the full-time head of the program. She led the team to a third-place finish in the Golden Coast Conference in 2024, its best finish since it was the second-place team in 2021.
-Junior Claudia Valdes, a 2024 first-team All-GCC performer, is tied for the team lead and is No. 5 in the GCC, in goals (25). She paces the squad, and slots in at No. 2 in the league, in assists (19) and points (44). The native of Madrid, Spain has a team-high five field blocks and is No. 2 in shots (42), shot percentage (.595), as well as blocks (5), and is No. 4 in steals (7). Valdes has four hat tricks, including a single game best five tallies vs. California Baptist (Jan. 18), has scored in every game and failed to score multiple goals in just three games this season. Her four assists versus UC Davis (Jan. 19), also a season high among five multi-goal games. With 155 career goals, she stands 25 from entering the program’s career top 10.
-Sophomore Mimi Stoupas, a 2024 GCC All-Freshman Team honoree, leads the team in shots (44) and exclusions drawn (29). The native of Melbourne, Australia is tied for the team lead and is No. 5 in the GCC in goals (25). She is second in points (31), third in shot percentage (.568) and steals (8). In the season opener against California Baptist (Jan. 18), she totaled six goals, one of 16 players in program history to score at least six times in a game, and the first since Sydney Gish scored as many against Cal State Monterey Bay (Jan. 19, 2024). Stoupas scored nine out of 10 games, reached at least two goals in seven and finished with a hat trick four times. She has drawn multiple exclusions in nine, with a season-high four on three occasions.
-Sophomore Makena Macedo ranks fourth on the team with 14 goals. She logged a pair of career-high four-goal games at the ASU Invitational and is 75 percent of the way to eclipsing her goal total from her freshman season (19 goals in 32 games) after 10 contests this year. She has three hat tricks, one multi-assists contest (vs. Concordia, 2-1-25) to go along with a field block and one exclusion drawn.
-Sophomore Sydney Gish’s 15 goals rank third on the team and has upped her goals per game from 0.9 last season to 1.5 this year. She has totaled 20 points, has a .577 shot percentage and is tied at No. 2 on the team with 13 exclusions drawn. Gish has six multi-goal games which include hat tricks against Cal Lutheran (1-19-25) and Cal State Monterey Bay (2-8-25). She has drawn multiple exclusions in five games. Among her nine steals, good for No. 2 on the team, she grabbed a season-high two vs. Cal State Fullerton (2-2-25) and has four field blocks.
-Senior Rose Kanemy is No. 2 on the squad and in the GCC with 18 assists, including a single-game high five vs. Arizona State, to go along with eight goals on the season. The Montreal native has a career total of 154 assists, No. 4 on the program’s all-time list, and she enters the weekend five from equaling Anique Hermann’s 159 assists (from 2012-15) for the No. 3 spot. Elana Cervantes (2004-07) is the career leader in assists at San Diego State with 186. Kanemy has a season best five assists at No. 13 Arizona State (1-18-25) to go along with six goals. She has six steals, two field blocks and has drawn three exclusions.
-Junior Shannon Murphy’s 10 steals lead the team and rank No. 3 in the league. She has eight goals and eight assists and has drawn nine exclusions, which slots her in at No. 4 on the team.
-Goalie Tiaare Ahovelo, a junior, has spent the most time in the cage for the Aztecs logging 160 minutes in eight appearances and seven starts. She has a 2-5 record with 62 goals allowed and her 48 saves rank No. 3 in the GCC. She has a .436 save percentage and has three assists and four steals. Senior Ava Ratajczak is 3-0 on the season in two starts among seven appearances for a total of 128 minutes in the pool. Ratajczak has surrendered 46 goals and stopped 25 shots (.352 save percentage) to go along with four steals and two assists. Junior Mandy Lagerlof has appeared in two games with eight saves and 11 goals allowed. The junior’s save percentage leads the team (.421) and she has a 11.00 goals against average and has made one steal and has an assist.
-For the fourth year in a row, the Aztecs are picked to finish fourth in the Golden Coast Conference (GCC) preseason coaches’ poll. Fresno State is predicted to defend its 2024 conference title and earned 47 points and five first-place votes, followed by Loyola Marymount (43 points, three first-place vote), Pacific (36 points), San Diego State (30 points), Azusa Pacific (25 points), California Baptist (21 points), Santa Clara (11 points), and Concordia (nine points).
-After this weekend’s games, the Aztecs return to tournament play at the Claremont Convergence in Claremont, Calif. The Aztecs are scheduled to play Chapman and Mt. St. Mary’s on Friday, February 28 and No. 6 UC Irvine and No. 16 Michigan on Saturday, March 1.