SAN DIEGO – With a 3-1 mark in Golden Coast Conference (GCC) play, the No. 19 ranked San Diego State water polo team can secure its unprecedented 13 straight winning league record with a victory against the Azusa Pacific Cougars on Thursday afternoon, March 5. The game is scheduled to get underway at 2 p.m. at Aztec Aquaplex.
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No. 19 San Diego State (10-7, 3-1 GCC) vs. Azusa Pacific (12-6, 0-2 GCC)
Thursday, March 5 | 2 p.m. PT | Aztec Aquaplex | San Diego, 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 week’s play in second place in the Golden Coast Conference (GCC) standings, ranked No. 19 in the Collegiate Water Polo Association (CWPA) national poll, and hosts its final conference home game at Aztec Aquaplex. SDSU faces Azusa Pacific on Thursday with the game slated to start at 2 p.m. PT.
The Aztecs are ranked No. 19 in the CWPA poll for the six consecutive week and have been ranked in the top 25 in each of the organization’s seven weekly and its preseason polls.
SDSU and Azusa Pacific last played at the Aquaplex in an 11-10 win for San Diego State on March 22, 2024. With four goals, Mimi Stoupas (Jr., CTR, Melbourne, Australia) led the team, and Tiaare Ahovelo (Sr., GK, Auckland, New Zealand) played the first half and made two saves but did not figure in the decision.
San Diego State leads the series with Azusa Pacific 14-1. In games at Aztec Aquaplex, SDSU leads 4-1 including wins in the last two at home and last six in a row, regardless of location.
With a win against Azusa Pacific, the Aztecs will secure an unprecedented 13th straight GCC campaigns with a winning league record.
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 (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.
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 Azusa Pacific game with 117 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 Azusa Pacific 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 Azusa Pacific game with 163 career assists good for No. 4 on the program’s career list and is 17 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 224 and is five from No. 7 Amber Pezzolla’s (2010-13) career 229 tallies.
Mimi Stoupas (Jr., CTR, Melbourne, Australia) has drawn 163 exclusions in her Aztec career and sits at 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 618-425 (.593), including a 132-108 (.550) 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 70-18 (.795) 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.