SAN DIEGO – San Diego State enters this weekend’s play in first place in the Golden Coast Conference standings, ranked No. 19 in the Collegiate Water Polo Association (CWPA) national poll and faces No. 8 Loyola Marymount on Saturday at 1 p.m. PT at Burns Aquatic Center in Los Angeles, Calif.
Aztecs Notes
The Aztecs (8-6, 1-0 GCC) are ranked in the top 20 on the CWPA poll for the fourth consecutive week and have been ranked in the top 25 in each of the organization’s five weekly and preseason polls.
The teams last played at Burns Aquatic Center in semifinals of the 2025 GCC Championship Tournament. Four Aztecs scored multiple goals, led by Megan Holcomb’s hat trick, but the Aztecs came up on the short end of a 16-10 decision to the eventual champions.
San Diego State trail in the all-time series 18-29, 3-7 at Burns Aquatic Center. The Aztecs longest win streak against LMU (10-3, 0-0 GCC) is four games during the 2016 & 2017 seasons. The Lions are currently enjoying a 10-game win streak against SDSU, who have not defeated LMU since an 11-4 win on March 20, 2021, at the Aquaplex.
In the GCC era, since the start of the 2014 season, SDSU is 7-18 against Loyola Marymount, which includes a 2-6 mark at LMU.
With its GCC opening win at No. 21 California Baptist last week, SDSU moves to 10-3 its last 13 conference openers, regardless of location. When the Aztecs’ conference opener is on the road, they are 6-1.
Senior attacker Claudia Valdes was named Golden Coast Conference (GCC) Player of the Week on Thursday. The Madrid, Spain native, posted game highs in goals (4), assists (5), points (9) and steals (2) and drew an exclusion. She completed a hat trick, her sixth of the season, with 4:13 to play in the first half, totaled four total goals for the second straight game and for third time in the campaign’s 14 contests. The five assists were her second most in a game this season and nine points match her career high. It is Valdes’ second GCC Player of the Week honor in her college career and the second for an Aztec.
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 LMU game with 111 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 Loyola Marymount game with 510 for her career and is nine away from equaling No. 6 Maura Cantoni’s (2017-19) and her 519 career saves.
Claudia Valdes (Sr., ATT, Madrid, Spain) enters the weekend with 156 career assists good for No. 5 on the program’s career list and is three 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 with 221 and is eight from No. 7 Amber Pezzolla’s (2010-13) career 229 tallies.
Mimi Stoupas (Jr., CTR, Melbourne, Australia) drew four exclusions at No. 21 California Baptist, has drawn 162 exclusions in her Aztec career to move into No. 10 on the program’s 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, San Diego State has an overall record of 616-424 (.592), including a 136-107 (.560) 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 68-17 (.800) 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 entering this year [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.