SAN DIEGO – In its 2026 Golden Coast Conference opener, the No. 19-ranked San Diego State water polo team travels to Riverside, Calif., on Saturday to face the California Baptist Lancers, ranked No. 21, at Lancer Aquatic Center. The game is scheduled to get underway at noon PT.
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No. 19 San Diego State (7-6) at No. 21 California Baptist (7-4)
Saturday, February 14 | noon PT | Lancer Aquatic Center | Riverside, Calif.
Live Stats are available through a link on the team’s schedule page at www.goaztecs.com
Aztecs Notes
San Diego State enters this weekend’s Golden Coast Conference (GCC) season opener ranked No. 19 in the Collegiate Water Polo Association (CWPA) national poll and faces No. 21 California Baptist on Saturday at noon at Lancer Aquatic Center in Riverside, Calif.
The Aztecs are ranked in the top 20 on the CWPA poll for the third straight week and have been ranked in the top 25 in each of the organization’s four weekly and preseason polls.
The teams played in last year’s GCC opener at the Aquaplex with the Aztecs earning a 22-14 victory.
San Diego State leads the all-time series 30-3, 15-0 in GCC play, and 6-0 at the CBU pool. The only time the Aztecs have fallen to the Lancers since April 13, 2001, was an 11-14 decision at last year’s Triton Invitational. In that timeframe, SDSU is 28-1 vs. California Baptist. SDSU’s three losses to CBU have come in neutral site contests and at the Aquaplex is 10-0.
This will be the final regular season meeting as members of the GCC. California Baptist will compete in the Big West starting in 2027.
In the GCC era, since the start of the 2014 season, SDSU is 9-3 in the previous 12 conference openers, regardless of location. When the Aztecs’ conference opener is on the road, they are 5-1, and at home have a 4-2 mark.
San Diego State went 2-2 at last weekend’s ASU Invitational at Mona Plummer Aquatic Center in Tempe, Arizona. On the opening day, SDSU throttled Cal Lutheran 21-1, at one point scoring 18 unanswered goals, and then battered UC Santa Barbara 18-8. However, on day two, the Scarlet and Black fell in a pair of close games to ranked opponents; falling to No. 6 Arizona State (15-10) and No. 18 Marist (14-13).
Following its 15-9 win over Claremont-Mudd-Scripps (1-16-26) in its season opener, SDSU has an overall record of 22-10 in lid lifters. In openers away from the Aquaplex, the Aztecs are 15-9, while at home they boast a 7-1 mark in season openers.
Junior two-meter Mimi Stoupas was named the initial 2026 Golden Coast Conference (GCC) Player of the Week. At the season opening Titan Invitational, Stoupas scored 19 goals, drew 12 exclusions, had nine steals and shot a team-leading 67.9 percent (19-of-28) with two blocks and an assist. It is Stoupas’ third GCC Player of the Week honor in her college career.
With her first of four goals against UC Santa Barbara (2-7-26), Sydney Gish (Sr., ATT, Clovis, Calif.) passed the 100-goal milestone and enters the weekend with 109 career tallies.
With her first save against No. 6 Arizona State (2-8-26), Tiaare Ahovelo (Sr., GK, Auckland, New Zealand) became the seventh player in the 32 seasons of Aztecs water polo to reach the 500-save plateau. She enters the California Baptist game with 506 for her career saves and is 13 away from equaling Maura Cantoni’s (2017-19) 519 saves and moving into a tie for No. 6 on the career list.
Claudia Valdes (Sr., ATT, Madrid, Spain) enters the weekend with 149 career assists good for No. 5 on the program’s career list and is 10 from tying Anique Hermann (2012-15) for No. 4 in program history. In addition, Valdes passed the 200-goal milestone vs. Biola (1-17-26), sits in eighth place on the San Diego State career goals list and is 12 from Amber Pezzolla’s (2010-13) 229 tallies in seventh place.
Mimi Stoupas (Jr., CTR, Melbourne, Australia) has drawn 158 exclusions in her Aztec career and enters the California Baptist game four away from jumping into the top 10 on the career list.
San Diego State will play all but four games of its 2026 season, its four at the ASU Invitational in Tempe, Ariz., in the state of California. In its 13 years in the GCC, SDSU has played all its regular-season games in the state of California just three times (2015, 2022 & 2023).
After guiding the Aztec to a 32-30 record in her two seasons as the full-time head coach, Dana Ochsner is in her fourth season leading San Diego State after serving as the interim head coach for the 2023 campaign.
Since the program’s inception prior to the 1995 season, San Diego State has had just three head coaches: Deena Schmidt (1995-98), Carin Crawford (1999-2022) and Dana Ochsner (2023-present).
In its now 32nd season of competition, SDSU has an overall record of 615-424 (.593), including a 135-107 (.558) mark in league contests. In 17 of the previous 31 seasons, the program finished ranked in the top 10 nationally, has only finished outside of the top 20 four times and has never finished a season ranked outside the top 25.
Since it joined the Golden Coast Conference (GCC) for the 2014 season, San Diego State has posted a 67-17 (.798) mark in league contests. Among the six original members of the league - Santa Clara, Azusa Pacific, Loyola Marymount, Pacific, Cal Baptist and San Diego State - that are still members, SDSU is one of three programs with a winning league record [also: Pacific - 60-17 (.779) & Loyola Marymount - 57-18 (.760)] and SDSU is the only one of the original six to not have suffered a league season with a losing record.
With three appearances, the Aztecs are tied with Pacific for second most NCAA Tournaments among programs in the Golden Coast Conference. The pair trail only Fresno State and the four NCAA bids it has earned.
In the 12 seasons of women’s water polo in the Golden Coast Conference, San Diego State’s five tournament championship game appearances are tied with Pacific and Fresno State for second most in GCC history. LMU has appeared in the most tournament championship games with seven. With the 2020 championship canceled, there have been 11 championship games with San Diego State, Fresno State, Pacific and LMU the only teams to have reached the final game of the tournament.
In the 11 years that a champion has been crowned by the GCC, the 2020 season was canceled after the games of March 7, San Diego State has never failed to reach the final day of the tournament and has never finished lower than 4th place.
Among the original six schools in the GCC - Azusa Pacific, Cal Baptist, Loyola Marymount, Pacific, San Diego State, and Santa Clara - the Aztecs are the only program to have finished in the top 4 in every league tournament.
San Diego State is picked to finish in fourth place in the GCC coaches’ preseason poll. This marks the third time in the last three years the Aztecs have been predicted to finish fourth.
San Diego State returns its five top scorers from the 2025 season and, overall, 78.0 percent of its tallies (320-of-410), 66.7 percent (53-of-87) of its blocks, 66.4 percent (168-of-253) of its steals, and 52.4 percent (182-of-347) of its assists.