FRESNO, Calif. – San Diego State, the 3-seed in the 2026 Golden Coast Conference (GCC) Tournament, and 2-seed Fresno State combined to score 31 goals on Saturday afternoon in their semifinal matchup, but in the one-goal decision, the Aztecs came out on the short end of a 16-15 final score at Fresno State’s Aquatics Center.
San Diego State (18-10) will play 5-seed Pacific at 11 a.m. PT on Sunday in the third-place game.
With four goals, Claudia Valdes led the Aztecs’ offense. It was the second straight game with four strikes for the senior attacker and Mimi Stoupas picked up her second hat trick in as many games in the Tournament. Sydney Gish and Shannon Murphy each scored twice, and Hannah Bell, Megan Holcomb, Aiyana Mendoza and Poppy Phillips finished with a goal each.
In goal, Kyla Pranajaya stopped nine shots against 16 goals in 32 minutes, and she also had a steal.
The teams traded the first five goals with Fresno State getting on the board first on a goal at the 6:34 mark. Valdes came right back 18 seconds later to tie it 1-1. The goal was her 243rd as an Aztec and moved her into fourth place on the program’s career goals scoring list.
The Bulldogs took the lead back at 4:41, but 15 seconds later, Stoupas was set up by Murphy for the 2-2 equalizer. However, Fresno State scored the next goal at 3:36 and the following three, at 2:57, 2:17 and 1:43, to establish a 6-2 advantage. Then, 13 seconds after the Aztecs called timeout at 1:43, Gish set up Bell to trim the lead to 6-3, but the Bulldogs got the last two tallies of the period and led 8-3 heading into the second quarter.
San Diego State and Murphy, who scored 34 seconds into the second making it 8-4, had its own four-goal run. Following the Murphy strike, Gish, with an assist from Valdes, made it a three-goal game on a power play strike at 6:07. Mendoza bent the net at 5:32 to draw SDSU to within a pair of goals, 8-6. Fresno State called timeout to try to steady the ship, but it didn’t work as Valdes scored her second of the game at 4:28.
The run ended with Bulldog’s scores at 3:59 and 3:26 to make it 10-7, but Valdes got the hat trick with a strike at 3:05, which was set up by Phillips. Down 11-8, following a Fresno State goal, Sammi Byers assisted on Phillips’ goal at 2:30. It was 11-10 following a tally from Holcomb with 1:38 remaining in the half. It looked like SDSU’s deficit at the half would be one goal, but Fresno State finished the second period with a strike and the teams went to the intermission with SDSU trailing 12-10.
After combining on 22 goals in the initial 16 minutes, the teams totaled just four in the third quarter and nine for the second half.
Coming out of the break, Stoupas drew an exclusion and then scored the ensuing goal at the 7:10 mark. A second shy of 3:30 later, at 3:49, Valdes scored for the fourth time in as many days to tie the game 12-12. The Bulldogs went back in front with 1:23 to go and then scored on the power play, with 35 seconds on the clock, to lead San Diego State 14-12 heading to the final eight minutes.
Fresno State (15-9) extended its advantage to three, 15-12, just 15 seconds into the fourth quarter. Gish, off an assist from Lucy Bullock, got it back to a two-goal deficit on a score at 7:22. Murphy made it a one-goal game, 15-14, with five minutes on the clock and Stoupas got the equalizer and the hat trick at the 4:17 mark, with Holcomb and Bullock picking up assists on the two goals, respectively.
Fresno State forged back into the lead, 16-15, on a tally with 2:24 to play. Gish took the game’s final shot, in the last 10 seconds, but it was denied and SDSU fell 16-15. The 31 combined goals in a GCC Tournament game are a record for the Aztecs, eclipsing the 30 scored in an 18-12 loss to LMU in the semifinal of the 2024 Tournament.
Fresno State had two players, Kira Anderson and Noa Markovsky, with hat tricks and goalie Katelyn Mobley earned the win with 15 goals allowed in 32 minutes with nine saves and a couple of steals.
San Diego State: 3-7-2-3 - 15
Fresno State: 8-4-2-2 - 16
San Diego State Goals: Valdes (4), Stoupas (3), Gish (2), Murphy (2), Bell (1), Holcomb (1), Mendoza (1), Phillips (1),
Fresno State Goals: Anderson (3), Markovsky (3), Andress (2), Stephens (2), van der Kolk (2), Williams (2), Cranley (1), Daly (1)
San Diego State Saves: Pranajaya (9)
Fresno State Saves: Mobley (9)