SAN DIEGO – With a 9-7 overall record, including a 1-0 mark in Golden Coast Conference play, the No. 20-ranked San Diego State water polo team jumps back into league play at Concordia on Friday in its lone game of the week.
This Week
Friday, March 7
No. 20 San Diego State at Concordia – 12:30 p.m. PT
Storylines
- San Diego State stands at 9-7 after completing play at the Claremont Convergence last weekend. The Aztecs went 2-2 at the event with wins over Chapman and Mount St. Mary’s, but came up short to No. 10 UC Irvine and No. 17 Michigan.
-San Diego State has reached double figure goals in 13 of its 16 games this year, averaging 14.5 goals per contest, and has reached double figure goals in each of its wins.
-Now, in its 31st season, San Diego State has an overall record of 603-411 (.595).
-The series against Concordia began on January 30, 2011, with a 13-5 victory for the Aztecs in Santa Barbara, Calif., and San Diego State has not lost to the Golden Eagles in any of its 13 succeeding meetings, the last of which was a 12-8 triumph on April 12, 2024, at the Aquaplex. SDSU has never failed to score double-digit goals against Concordia (averaging 13.1 goals per game) and has surrendered double digit goals just once (averaging 5.9 goals allowed per contest). The Golden Eagles are 2-12 so far this year, which includes a 0-2 record in GCC action.
-After this weekend’s game, the Scarlet and Black return to Aquaplex to host the Aztec Invitational from Friday to Sunday, March 14-16.
-Head women’s water polo coach Dana Ochsner has a 38-43 record in three seasons, 26-22 in the two seasons she has been the fulltime leader 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.
-Senior Rose Kanemy is pacing the team with 30 assists, including a single-game high six vs. Chapman (Feb. 28), among nine multi-assist games. The Montreal native has a career total of 166 assists, No. 3 on the program’s all-time list, and she enters the weekend 15 from passing Sarah Brady’s 180 assists (from 2008-14) for the No. 2 spot. Elana Cervantes (2004-07) is the career leader in assists at San Diego State with 186. Kanemy has 12 goals with six steals and two blocks.
-Junior Claudia Valdes, a 2024 first-team All-GCC performer, leads the team in points (62), shots (75), and blocks (7) and ranks second in goals (36), assists (26), exclusions drawn (17). Among GCC players she is No. 4 in points, No. 6 in assists, and No. 9 in goals. Valdes has six hat tricks among 11 multi-goal games. She has three contests with more than four goals, including a season-high five strikes against California Baptist (Jan. 18) in the season opener. Her four assists versus UC Davis (Jan. 19) are a season high.
-Sophomore Mimi Stoupas, a 2024 GCC All-Freshman Team honoree, leads the team in goals (40), exclusions drawn (30) and shot percentage (.615) and is ranked No. 2 in shots (65), points (50) and steals (13). In the season opener against California Baptist (Jan. 18), the native of Melbourne, Australia 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 repeated the feat in the team’s conference opener and scored in every game, reaching at least two goals in 10 and finishing with at least a hat trick six times.
-Sophomore Sydney Gish leads the team in steals (14), is second in shot percentage (.596) and blocks (4) and ranks third in goals with 31, shots (52) and exclusions drawn (14). She has upped her goals per game from 0.9 last season to 1.9 in 16 appearances this year. Among her 11 multi-goal efforts, are four hat tricks, including a season-high six goals against Mount St. Mary’s (Feb. 28) and she has five games with multiple exclusions drawn. Among her 14 steals, she grabbed a season-high two in three games and a season-high two blocks came at Cal State Monterey Bay.
-Sophomore Makena Macedo ranks fourth on the team with 43 shots and has converted on 16 of them, also fourth on the team, for a .372 shot percentage. She logged a pair of career-high four-goal games at the ASU Invitational and is 84.0 percent of the way to eclipsing her goal total from her freshman season (19 goals in 32 games) after 16 contests this year. She has at least a hat trick in three games among four multi-goal outings, and a pair of multi-assists contests to go along with a field block and one exclusion drawn.
-Goalies Ava Ratajczak, Tiaare Ahovelo, and Mandy Lagerlof have all seen time in the cage. Ahovelo has played 232 minutes in goal, while Ratajczak logged 216 and Lagerlof 64. Ratajczak (5-1), a senior, has started five times and appeared in 11 contests. She has surrendered 81 goals (12.00 GAA), made 42 saves (.341 save percentage) with 10 steals and two assists. Ahovelo (4-6), a junior who has played in 13 contests, nine of which have been starts, leads the team in saves (81), with a save percentage (.482) while allowing 87 goals in with a goals against average of 12.00 to go along with three assists and five steals. Lagerlof (1-0) has appeared in five games with one start. She has made 17 saves and allowed 22 goals. The junior’s save percentage is .436, an 11.00 goals against average and has one steal and 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).