SAN DIEGO – With three weeks left in the conference season, No. 20 San Diego State water polo is heading to northern California this weekend for a pair of games which could help determine seeding for the Golden Coast Conference (GCC) Tournament which begins April 25. SDSU plays at No. 25 Pacific, which is tied with the Aztecs at 3-1 in league play, on Friday and then heads west to face Santa Clara on Saturday.
This Week
Friday, April 4 – 5 p.m. (PT)
No. 20 San Diego State (13-10, 3-1 GCC) at No. 25 Pacific (10-8, 3-1 GCC)
Chris Kjeldsen Pool – Stockton, Calif.
Saturday, April 5 – noon (PT)
No. 20 San Diego State (13-10, 3-1 GCC) at Santa Clara (5-13, 0-4 GCC)
Sullivan Aquatic Center – Santa Clara, Calif.
Live Stats and Streaming Video available for each game
About the Aztecs
-San Diego State, No. 20-ranked in this week’s Collegiate Water Polo Association (CWPA) poll, sits at 13-10 overall, 3-1 in Golden Coast Conference (GCC) play. The Aztecs have been slotted into the No. 20 ranking for the past seven weeks.
-In its last outing, San Diego State lost to No. 9 Fresno State Saturday, 15-9, and enters this weekend’s games 3-1 in GCC action, tied with UOP for third place in the league standings with one game in hand.
-San Diego State will play two of the top four teams in the GCC standings in the next two weeks starting at Pacific (3-1) this week and hosting Loyola Marymount (5-0) on April 12 in the regular season home finale.
-In the 31st season of San Diego State water polo, the Aztecs have a 607-414 (.595) record.
-Senior Rose Kanemy had an assist in the team’s game versus Fresno State, has 182 for her career, second most in program history, and enters the weekend four from equaling Elana Cervantes (2004-07) as the all-time assist leader for SDSU. Kanemy has six games with a season-high two goals among her 19 total for the year, with eight steals and eight blocks and has drawn four exclusions. She leads the squad in assists (46), is second in blocks (8) and ranks third in the GCC in assists. The native of Montreal, Canada, has had at least 46 assists in each of the last three seasons.
-Junior Claudia Valdes, a 2024 first-team All-GCC performer, enters the weekend one goal from entering the top 10 of the program’s career goal scoring list. The native of Madrid, Spain has scored 179 goals as an Aztec and is poised to tie Sara Hanneman (1996-99) for No. 10 with 180 goals. Next up on the list, at No. 9 is Ioli Benekou (2014-17) with 204 goals. Valdes leads the team in points (83), shots (101), and blocks (9) and ranks second in goals (49), assists (34), steals (20), and exclusions drawn (24). Among GCC players she is No. 4 in points, No. 6 in assists, and No. 9 in goals. Valdes has seven hat tricks among 15 multi-goal games. She has four contests with more than four goals, including a season-high five strikes against California Baptist (Jan. 18) and Concordia (March 7). Her four assists versus UC Davis (Jan. 19) are a season high among nine games with multiple assists. In addition, she has five multi-steal contests with a single game-best three swipes at Concordia (March 7).
-Sophomore Mimi Stoupas, a 2024 GCC All-Freshman Team honoree, leads the team in goals (57), exclusions drawn (44), steals (21), and shot percentage (.648) and is ranked No. 2 in shots (88), and points (72). Among GCC players she is No. 3 in goals and No. 10 in points. 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 versus California Baptist (Feb. 14) and has scored in every game, reaching at least two goals in 15 and finishing with at least a hat trick nine times.
-Sophomore Sydney Gish ranks second on the team in shot percentage (.582) and ranks third in goals (39), shots (67), steals (18), and exclusions drawn (18). She has nearly doubled her goals per game from 0.9 last season to 1.7 in 23 appearances this year and has banged the back of the cage in 11 of the last 13 games totaling 24 goals. Among her 14 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 18 steals, she grabbed at least two in four games with a single game best three vs. Mount St. Mary’s (Feb. 28) and a season-high two blocks came at Cal State Monterey Bay.
-Junior Shannon Murphy is fourth on the team with shots (56), goals (20), exclusion drawn (16) and steals (15). She’s logged six multi-goal games, including three hat tricks. She has three multi-assists contests to go along with five games with two or more steals, which includes a season-high four vs. Cal State Fullerton (Feb. 2).
-Goalies Tiaare Ahovelo, Ava Ratajczak, and Mandy Lagerlof have all seen time in the cage. Ahovelo has played 376 minutes in goal, while Ratajczak logged 264 and Lagerlof 96. Ahovelo (8-8), a junior who has played in 19 contests, 15 of which have been starts, leads the team in saves (119), with a save percentage (.458), while allowing 141 goals in with a goals-against average of 12.00 to go along with seven assists and 11 steals. Among GCC goalies, she is No. 1 in save percentage, No. 4 in goals-against average, and No. 5 in saves. Ratajczak (5-2), a senior, has started six times and appeared in 13 contests. She has surrendered 99 goals (12.00 GAA), made 55 saves (.357 save percentage) with 11 steals and five assists. Among GCC goalies, she is No. 9 in save percentage, No. 4 in goals-against average, and No. 9 in saves. Lagerlof (0-0) has appeared in seven games with one start. She’s made 26 saves and allowed 27 goals. The junior’s save percentage is .491, a 9.00 goals-against average and has six steals and three assists.
-Hannah Bell, Sammi Byers, and Makena Macedo rank fifth on the squad with 18 goals each. Sofia Righetti is No. 3 on the team with 22 assists.
-Fourteen Aztecs have scored at least 10 goals this season and 10 have double-digit assists.
-Head women’s water polo coach Dana Ochsner has a 42-46 record in three seasons, but 30-25 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 Tournament in 2024, its best finish in the event since it was the second-place team in 2021.
The Series
Versus Pacific (10-8, 3-1 GCC)
-Against the Tigers, the Aztecs own an 35-8 record in the all-time series, which started in 1996. In games at Chris Kjeldsen Pool, San Diego State is 10-3, but overall, San Diego State has dropped eight of the last 11 against UOP, regardless of location. The last Aztec regular season win over the Pacific was an 11-8 decision on April 23, 2021, in Stockton. Overall, the last victory in the series for SDSU was in last year’s GCC Tournament’s third-place game at Santa Clara, 12-8.
Versus Santa Clara (5-13, 0-4 GCC)
-San Diego State has lost to Santa Clara just once in the 17 games of the series. In contests at Sullivan Aquatic Center, SDSU is 6-0 and overall has won the last 13 meetings, regardless of location. SDSU has scored in double figures in six of the last seven meetings and has outscored the Broncos by an average of 11 goals per meeting, 17-6.