SAN DIEGO – Entering her fourth season overall, and third as the full-time head coach with San Diego State water polo, Dana Ochsner revealed her team’s 2026 schedule on Friday.
The campaign has a total of 26 regular-season games, including four tournaments, and 11 games at the Aztec Aquaplex, 10 in the regular season and an exhibition against a team of the program’s alumni. Thirteen of the known opponents, the Triton Invitational will not release its schedule until January, finished last season ranked in the top 25 of the Collegiate Water Polo Association (CWPA) national poll, including five that finished in the top 10.
For the second time in the last three seasons, the schedule kicks off at the Titan Invitational at Titan Aquatics Center in Fullerton, Calif., on Friday and Saturday, January 16 and 17.
On Friday, at 11 a.m. PT, the Scarlet and Black open the season against Claremont-Mudd-Scripps (CMS). San Diego State is 5-0 overall and 3-0 in neutral site games against CMS, but this contest will be the first time the programs have met since 2007. The team’s second game on Friday is at 3 p.m. PT against Long Beach State, a program it has a 27-20 advantage over in the all-time series but has come up short against in each of the last seven meetings. In the last matchup, a 20-11 win for the Beach at last year’s Triton Invitational at UC San Diego, Claudia Valdes led the game with four goals while Sammi Byers and Mimi Stoupas added a team-best two assists each.
The first of Saturday’s two contests are at 11 a.m. PT against Biola. The only previous meeting between the programs came in the 2024 season, a 15-10 victory for SDSU at the Claremont Convergence. In that game, 12 Aztecs combined to score the teams 15 goals, led by Claudia Valdes’ and Shannon Murphy’s two tallies each. Tiaare Ahovelo made 15 saves and had a pair of steals in earning the win. The last game of the event for San Diego State is against the host Cal State Fullerton (CSF) at 7 p.m. PT. The Aztecs have won all three meetings against the Titans. The only matchup at Titan Aquatics Center was in the 2024 season and resulted in a 14-9 win for SDSU. Eleven Aztecs combined to score the team’s 14 goals led by Valdes’ three tallies.
Following the Titan Invitational, the team plays its home opener, at the Aquaplex, on Saturday, January 24. The Aztecs will play Southern California at 1 p.m. PT and then, at 3 p.m. PT, has an exhibition against a team of program alumni. The Aztecs and Trojans have met 51 times, 12 in SDSU’s home poll, with Southern California leading 42-9 all time, including 8-4 in America Finest City.
The squad’s next event on the calendar is the Triton Invitational, from Friday, January 30 through Sunday Feb. 1, at UC San Diego. The Aztecs will play four times over the weekend, and their matchups and game times will be announced later.
SDSU remains on the road for the next weekend, when it competes at the ASU Invitational at Mona Plummer Aquatic Center in Tempe, Ariz. The Aztecs open the event on Saturday, February 7, against Cal Lutheran (11:15 a.m. MT) and UC Santa Barbara (3 p.m. MT). San Diego State won the first-ever meeting with the Cal Lutheran Regals, 21-7 at last year’s ASU Invitational. Makenna Macedo and Julianna Stark shared game-high goal scoring with four strikes each, while Sydney Gish, Hannah Bell and Valdes each contributed three goals. With the Aztecs holding a 44-24 advantage, the meeting with UC Santa Barbara will be the 69th in the all-time series. The last matchup, at the 2023 Barbara Kalbus Invitational, saw the Gauchos roll over SDSU, 20-5. Only four Aztecs from that squad are on this year’s team. Of those, Valdes finished with a team-high two assists and added a goal.
Play concludes in Tempe on Sunday, February 8, against event host Arizona State (12:45 p.m. MT) and Marist (3:15 p.m. MT). The Sun Devils lead the series 19-12, which includes a 19-13 win in last year’s ASU Invitational. The Aztecs 13 tallies were the most ASU surrendered in 2025 to a team ranked outside the top 20, SDSU was ranked No. 23 at the time. In the series with Marist, the Scarlet and Black are riding a two-game win streak and overall hold a 9-2 advantage, including a 15-13 win in their last matchup, at the 2024 Claremont Convergence. In that game, six Aztecs scored multiple goals, led by a Valdes hat trick.
SDSU opens its 2026 Golden Coast Conference (GCC) slate on successive Saturdays; February 14 at California Baptist (CBU) and February 21 at Loyola Marymount (LMU), at noon and 1 p.m. PT, respectively. The Aztecs and Lancers have played 33 times with the Aztecs winning 30 of those contests and in GCC play CBU has yet to record a win against SDSU in 15 tries, including a 0-5 mark in its home pool. With California Baptist leaving the GCC for the Big West in 2027, this will be the last regular-season game between these programs as conference opponents. In the 37 all-time meetings with LMU, San Diego State is 18-29, including 8-17 as a member of the Golden Coast Conference. In games at Loyola Marymount, SDSU is 3-7 and has dropped its last three.
The team’s next seven games, three consecutive conference games and the 2026 Aztec Invitational, are scheduled for the Aquaplex. The conference home opener is against Santa Clara (Friday, February 27 at 1 p.m. PT), then at 1 p.m. PT on Sunday, March 1, Pacific comes to town, and the triumvirate concludes with Azusa Pacific (Thursday, March 5 at 2 p.m. PT).
San Diego State has defeated the Broncos in 17-of-18 all-time meetings, including a 7-0 record at the Aquaplex. SDSU has held Santa Clara to single-digit goals in 15 of its 18 meetings. In the last game played on The Mesa, in the 2024 season, Valdes scored three times, while Gish banged the net twice in a 14-8 win for the home team.
The Scarlet and Black hold a 35-10 lead in its all-time series with Pacific. That record includes a 12-3 mark for San Diego State at the Aquaplex; however, those three losses have come in the last three times UOP has played on The Mesa.
Azusa Pacific is in its penultimate year in the GCC, it will join the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SCIAC) for the 2028 season and make what could be its final appearance at the Aquaplex as a conference foe. In the all-time series, SDSU is 14-1 versus the Cougars. In San Diego, the Aztecs are 4-1 against APU, including an 11-10 nailbiter in the 2024 season in which Mimi Stoupas banged the back of the net a game-high four times.
The 18th Aztec Invitational, March 13-15, at the Aquaplex is the next event on the team’s calendar. Except for 2020 and 2021, when the event was cancelled due to the coronavirus pandemic, the Aztec Invitational has been hosted by San Diego State every year since 2007. Nine teams, from five conferences, will contest 15 games over three days.
The Aztecs open the event on Friday, March 13, with games against Princeton (11:30 a.m. PT) and Bucknell (3 p.m. PT). San Diego State and the Princeton Tigers have played 24 times with the Aztecs holding a 14-10 advantage in the all-time series; while in 13 tries, the Bucknell Bison has never gotten the better of SDSU.
In home games against the Tigers, the teams have split 14 contests. The Aztecs started the series with 13 straight wins from 1998-to-2013, but since then has come out on the good end of a decision once, a 12-11 two overtime, sudden victory on March 2, 2022, at the Aquplex. The Bison are 0-11 on The Mesa, which includes an 11-7 loss at last year’s Aztec Invitational. In that game, SDSU used a five-goal barrage in the fourth quarter to break a 6-6 tie.
After being off Saturday, SDSU wraps up the Aztec Invitational with a pair of contests on Sunday, March 15: against Harvard (11:40 a.m. PT) and Pomona-Pitzer (4 p.m. PT). In eight contests against Harvard, San Diego State has a 6-2 record, including a 3-1 mark at the Aquaplex, but its two losses have come in the last two meetings. The Scarlet and Black haven’t defeated the Crimson since a 7-6 decision at the 2018 Aztec Invitational.
Pomona-Pitzer, the two-time defending Division III national champions, has yet to earn a win against SDSU in nine tries, including an 0-3 mark in San Diego. Last year, a 13-10 win with multiple goals scored by Gish and Valdes, was the Sagehens first appearance on The Mesa since the 2007 season.
The last two regular-season road games are in Fresno, California. At 5 p.m. PT on Saturday, March 21, the Aztecs play at Fresno Pacific in what is the seventh meeting overall and the first since the 2017 campaign. The Aztecs are 6-0 against the Firebirds, including a 2-0 mark at Sunnyside Aquatics Center, FPU’s home pool.
The following day the team moves to the Aquatic Center at Fresno State to take on the Bulldogs in their 2026 GCC regular-season road finale. SDSU has not defeated Fresno State since the 2021 season, a span of eight games, and trails 3-9 in the series.
The final games for SDSU before the GCC Tournament are scheduled for the Aquaplex at 4 p.m. PT on Friday, March 27 versus Brown, and at 4 p.m. (PT) on Thursday, April 2 against UC San Diego.
SDSU is 11-0 against Brown, including 7-0 in San Diego, but the teams have not faced off since the 2018 campaign. The game UC San Diego is the annual Harper Cup, in which UCSD holds a 14-9 advantage, but overall, the Aztecs have dominated the Tritons more than doubling their win total (44-21) in the all-time series.
The 2026 GCC Championship Tournament will be contested Friday through Sunday, April 10-12 at Fresno State’s Aquatics Center and the NCAA Championship is scheduled for Wednesday through Sunday, April 22-26 at UC San Diego.