SAN DIEGO - San Diego State enters this week’s play ranked No. 16 in the Collegiate Water Polo Association (CWPA) national poll and the 3-seed in the Golden Coast Conference (GCC) Championship Tournament at Fresno State’s Aquatics Center. The Aztecs are scheduled to play Azusa Pacific, the 6-seed, on Friday at noon PT in a quarterfinal match-up.
Aztecs Notes
San Diego State is 15-1 all-time against Azusa Pacific, which includes a 3-0 mark in neutral site games, all of which have been in the GCC Tournament. With its 19-6 victory on March 5, SDSU extended its current win streak against the Cougars to seven games.
SDSU has faced, and defeated, APU three times in the GCC Tournament. The most recent match-up was an 8-7 win in the quarterfinal of the 2022 Tournament. The other two results were: an 8-5 victory in the third-place game in 2018 and a 13-7 win in the semifinal in 2017.
The Aztecs record in the GCC Tournament by round is: 5-0 in the quarterfinal, 5-6 in the semifinal, 2-4 in the third-place game, and 1-4 in the championship contest.
San Diego State has a 5-0 record in the quarterfinal round of the GCC Tournament. Its most recent win came last year, a 14-13 decision against California Baptist. SDSU has won three quarterfinal games by a point, one by three goals, and the other by seven.
SDSU, with a 17-9 record entering the GCC Tournament, has its best winning percentage (.654) since the 2014 squad finished the year 23-12 (.657). San Diego State, prior to this year, has 12 seasons where it has won at least 60.0 percent of its games and this season will mark the first time in 12 seasons it will do it again.
The Aztecs are ranked No. 16 in the CWPA poll after spending last week at No. 17. SDSU has been ranked in the top 25 in each of the organization’s 11 weekly and preseason polls and in the top 20 for the last 10 weeks.
San Diego State enters the GCC Tournament eight games above .500, with a 17-9 mark. It is the most games above .500 that team has been since it finished the 2014 campaign, 23-12, nine games clear of .500. This year marks the fifth time since 2014 that the team has finished with a winning record, with two of those five years coming in the last three campaigns.
Award Season
By a vote of the league’s coaches, Mimi Stoupas (Jr., CTR, Melbourne, Australia) is the 2026 Golden Coast Conference Player of the Year. Stoupas is a two-time GCC Player of the Week designee and led the league in goals and ranked No. 5 in steals (33) and No. 6 in points (83). She totaled 19 games with multiple goals, including 14 hat tricks, and her six goals against both Cal State Fullerton and Santa Clara are tied for the third most in a game in Aztecs’ history. In 2026, she recorded 15 games with multiple drawn exclusions, including a mind-boggling seven against No. 2-ranked Southern California. Stoupas is the second Aztec to earn the honor, joining Caroline Israels who won it in 2015 & 2017.
Claudia Valdes (Sr., ATT, Madrid, Spain), one of the most well-rounded players in the league, is a first-team All-GCC performer who ranked second in the league in points (107), third in assists (60) and steals (40), sixth in blocks (11), and 10th in goals (47). Among the Aztecs, she led the team in points and assists, was second in steals, blocks and drawn exclusions (24), and her goals and 108 shots ranked third on the team.
Sydney Gish (Sr., ATT, Clovis, Calif.) had the best goal scoring year of her career, scoring 56 times, and is a second-team All-GCC honoree. In addition to her goals, she produced career-highs in shots (115), assists (33), points (89) and steals (34).
Kyla Pranajaya (Fr., GK, Orange, Calif.) garnered honorable mention All-GCC accolades. Among the GCC goalies, her saves rank No. 6, her save percentage is the second best and goals against average ranks fourth.
Ioanna Petiki (Fr., ATT, Stuttgart, Germany) earned inclusion on the GCC’s All-Freshman Team. She ranks second on the team with 56 assists, which slots in at No. 4 in the GCC. In addition, she is third for SDSU in drawn exclusions (18), fourth in points (79) and blocks (6), and fifth in steals (24). Her seven assists against Azusa Pacific match the program’s single-game high and she also posted a six-assist game versus Biola, which is tied for the second most in program history.