FRESNO, Calif. – San Diego State, the 3-seed in the 2026 Golden Coast Conference (GCC) Tournament, scored the first goal of its third-place game against 5-seed Pacific, and never trailed, in its 12-11 victory at Fresno State’s Aquatics Center on Sunday afternoon.
With the win, the Aztecs finished in third place for the third time in their 12 years in the Golden Coast Conference. The 2026 squad joins the 2018 and 2024 teams, which also were third place finishers. In SDSU’s 12 seasons in the GCC, it has never finished outside the top four in the standings and is third or better for the eighth time.
San Diego State, which finished the season with a 19-10 record and is the No. 16-ranked team in the nation, was led offensively by two goals each from Lucy Bullock, Sydney Gish, Aiyana Mendoza and Ioanna Petiki. The Aztecs garnered single goals from Shannon Murphy, Poppy Phillips, Mimi Stoupas, and Avery Sullivan.
SDSU used each of its three goalies in the game. Kyla Pranajaya (5-4) started and played the first 16 minutes. She stopped eight shots against five goals and had an assist in earning the victory. Mandy Lagerlof was inserted for the third quarter and made a save while surrendering a pair of goals. Tiaare Ahovelo, playing the final eight minutes, stopped a pair of shots, while giving up three.
The game marked the final Scarlet and Black appearances for seniors Hannah Bell, Megan Holcomb, Ahovelo, Gish, Lagerlof, Mendoza, Murphy, and Valdes.
The initial goal of the contest belonged to Stoupas, who upon being set up by Valdes, bent the net at the 5:42 mark. It was Valdes’ 187th career assist and moved her into second place on the program’s career assist list.
The Tigers (11-11) responded 18 seconds after Stoupas’ strike to tie the game, 1-1. After Sammi Byers drew an exclusion at 2:12 and SDSU took a timeout, Sullivan rifled a shot, at 1:57, which beat the Tigers’ goalie and moved SDSU back in front 2-1. UOP tied it again on a goal with 41 seconds to play before Mendoza scored with 21 ticks on the clock. It looked like SDSU would take a one-goal lead into the second period, however as the clock expired, Pacific scored to end the initial eight minutes in a 3-3 tie.
Valdes, on her second assist of the game, helped Gish give the Scarlet and Black a 4-3 lead at the 6:53 mark, a lead it would never surrender, and then Gish set up Murphy at 5:59 to make it a 5-3 San Diego State advantage. Pacific scored at 3:45, but back-to-back Aztecs’ tallies made it 7-4. Petiki scored the first goal, at 3:20, and was followed by Gish’s second of the day, at 2:32, with an assist from Pranajaya.
The Tigers sliced the lead to 7-5 with a goal with 2:05 before the intermission, but Mendoza, on her second of the contests, put the Scarlet and Black back in front by three goals, 8-5, with 1:38 on the clock. Neither team would find the back of the net before the horn sounded and SDSU led 8-5 at the break.
Coming out of halftime, Lagerlof was inserted into the cage. Pacific trimmed its deficit to two, 8-6, with a score at 6:45 and then to a single goal, 8-7, at 2:43. Bullock righted the Aztecs’ ship with a power play goal at 2:16, which was followed by a strike from Phillips to make it 10-7. UOP got the final goal of the third quarter, at the 1:30 mark, to send the game to the final quarter with SDSU up 10-8.
Ahovelo played the final eight minutes in goal. Pacific trimmed its deficit to one, 10-9, with a score at 7:20. Petiki picked up her second of the day at 6:16 to give the Aztecs some breathing room, at 11-9, but it took only 29 seconds to get it back to one goal, 11-10. Twenty-Four seconds after the UOP goal, at 5:23, Bullock scored for the second time and put SDSU back up by two, 12-10.
Following an Aztecs’ exclusion, the Tigers converted on the ensuing power play to make it 12-11 with 2:47 on the clock. The SDSU defense then clamped down, kept the Tigers out of the goal to secure the victory, and took third place in the GCC Tournament.
Pacific’s offense was paced by a hat trick from Sophie Pethers and in goal Maja Lizy Dulic took the loss giving up all 12 Aztec goals while stopping 14 shots with a steal.
Record Book Updates
Valdes completed her college career with 247 goals and 190 assists, which slots in all-time at No. 4 and tied for No. 2, respectively, at San Diego State. In addition, her 67 assists this season are tied for No. 2 on the single season list and her 76 goals in 2024 are the 10th most in a season for an Aztec.
Ahovelo stopped 543 shots in the four years on The Mesa and finished her career No. 6 in saves in Aztec history.
Stoupas scored 81 goals this season which ranks No. 6 on the single season list and her 185 exclusions drawn for her career are No. 8 all-time for an Aztec.
Petiki’s 63 assists are the fifth most in a season, and a record for a program freshman.
Pacific: 3-2-3-3 - 11
San Diego State: 3-5-2-2 - 12
Pacific Goals: Pethers (3), Ikonomou (2), Petkov (2), Cowan (1), Jacobson (1), Marsinach (1), Van Putten (1)
San Diego State Goals: Bullock (2), Gish (2), Mendoza (2), Petiki (2), Murphy (1), Phillips (1), Stoupas (1), Sullivan (1)
Pacific Saves: Dulic (13), Ecklund (0)
San Diego State Saves: Pranajaya (8), Ahovelo (2), Lagerlof (1)