SAN DIEGO – San Diego State water polo enters this weekend’s play ranked No. 19 in the Collegiate Water Polo Association (CWPA) national poll, and host the 18th Aztec Invitational from Friday, March 13 to Sunday, March 15, at Aztec Aquaplex.
Up Next - Aztec Invitational
No. 19 San Diego State (11-7) vs. No. 14 Princeton (15-2)
Friday, March 13 | 11:30 a.m. PT | Aztec Aquaplex | San Diego, Calif.
No. 19 San Diego State (11-7) vs. Bucknell (10-6)
Friday, March 13 | 3 p.m. PT | Aztec Aquaplex | San Diego, Calif.
No. 19 San Diego State (11-7) vs. No. 24 Pomona-Pitzer (9-10)
Sunday, March 15 | 11:40 a.m. PT | Aztec Aquaplex | San Diego, Calif.
No. 19 San Diego State (11-7) vs. No. 12 Harvard (18-1)
Sunday, March 15 | 4:20 p.m. PT | Aztec Aquaplex | San Diego, Calif.
Live Stats and streaming video links are available at the team’s schedule page
Aztecs Notes
Among the 15 games contested over the three-day Aztec Invitational, San Diego State will play No. 14 Princeton, Bucknell, No. 24 Pomona-Pitzer and No. 12 Harvard. The Aztecs
The Aztec Invitational has been held every year, since its inception in 2007, except for 2020 & 2021 due to the global pandemic. San Diego State has a 47-20 record in its home tournament and has emerged from it with a sub-.500 record just twice in the previous 17 iterations.
The Aztecs are ranked No. 19 in the CWPA poll for the seventh consecutive week and have been ranked in the top 25 in each of the organization’s eight weekly and preseason polls.
The Aztecs lead the all-time series against Princeton 14-10, including 7-7 at the Aquaplex. The teams last played at the 2025 Aztec Invitational on March 14, 2025, which ended in an 11-10 win for Tigers. The Scarlet and Black got goals from seven players led by a hat trick from Lucy Bullock (Jr., DEF, London, England) and a pair of strikes from Mimi Stoupas (Jr., CTR, Melbourne, Australia). Tiaare Ahovelo (Sr., GK, Auckland, New Zealand) played the entire game in goal and had seven saves.
Bucknell has never beaten San Diego State in 13 previous tries, which includes falling in all 11 contests at the Aquaplex. The teams last played at the 2025 Aztec Invitational on March 15, 2025, which resulted in an 11-7 win for the home team. Rose Kanemy led the Aztecs with a pair of goals and Tiaare Ahovelo (Sr., GK, Auckland, New Zealand) played the entire game in goal to earn the victory.
San Diego State cruised to an easy 12-9 win over Pomona-Pitzer at the Triton Invitational on January 31, in La Jolla. Pomona-Pitzer has never beaten SDSU (0-10), including being shutout in each of its three games at the Aquaplex. Shannon Murphy (Sr., ATT, Orinda, Calif.) and Mimi Stoupas (Jr., CTR, Melbourne, Australia) led San Diego State’s offense with four goals each and Hannah Bell (Sr., CTR, Auckland, New Zealand) added a pair of strikes to account for over 80.0 percent of the team’s scoring. Mandy Lagerlof (Sr. GK, Irvine, Calif.) played all 32 minutes in goal and had this season’s single-game team best 13 stops.
This will be the ninth meeting between San Diego State and Harvard, with SDSU leading in the series 6-2, including a 3-1 record at the Aquaplex. The teams last squared off at the 2024 iteration of the Aztec Invitational and the Crimson got the better of the Aztecs, 16-10. Claudia Valdes (Sr., ATT, Madrid, Spain) and Mimi Stoupas (Jr., CTR, Melbourne, Australia) scored three and two goals, respectively to pace the offense. Tiaare Ahovelo (Sr., GK, Auckland, New Zealand) started, played the entire game in net, and recorded 12 saves.
With its 19-6 win against Azusa Pacific last Thursday, the Aztecs have secured an unprecedented 13th straight GCC campaigns with a winning league record. No other program, among the original six (Santa Clara, Azusa Pacific, Loyola Marymount, Pacific, Cal Baptist and San Diego State) GCC programs can make that claim.
Senior attacker Claudia Valdes (Sr., ATT, Madrid, Spain) was named Golden Coast Conference (GCC) Player of the Week on February 19. 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.
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 Aztec Invitational with 122 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 weekend game with 513 for her career and is six away from equaling No. 6 Maura Cantoni’s (2017-19) and her 519 career saves.
Claudia Valdes (Sr., ATT, Madrid, Spain) enters the Azusa Pacific game with 167 career assists good for No. 4 on the program’s career list and is 13 from tying Sarah Brady (2008-11) for No. 3 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 227 and is two from No. 7 Amber Pezzolla’s (2010-13) career 229 tallies.
Mimi Stoupas (Jr., CTR, Melbourne, Australia) has drawn 164 exclusions in her Aztec career and sits at No. 10 on the program’s career list. She enters the weekend 10 from Meaghan Poland (2009-12) at No. 9, who drew 174 exclusions wearing the Scarlet and Black.
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 619-425 (.593), including a 133-108 (.555) 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 71-18 (.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 entering this year [also: Pacific - 60-17 (.779) & Loyola Marymount - 58-18 (.763)] 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.