SAN DIEGO – Mimi Stoupas and Claudia Valdes, who were named to the ACWPC All-America Team recently, have earned inclusion on the College Sports Communicators’ At-Large Academic All-District Team. The announcement was made from the organization’s office in Greenwood, Indiana.
To be considered for CSC Academic All-District Team inclusion for water polo, an undergraduate student-athlete must be at least a sophomore academically and athletically, have at least a 3.50 cumulative grade point average (on a 4.0 scale), and have competed in 90 percent of the institution's games played or have started in at least 66.0 percent of the institution's games.
The At-Large category covers 13 women's sports: beach volleyball, bowling, crew/rowing, fencing, field hockey, golf, gymnastics, ice hockey, lacrosse, rifle, skiing, wrestling and water polo.
The pair were two of 40 water polo players, among 1,176 student-athletes, recognized with At-Large All-District distinction. Stoupas and Valdes are among 205 student-athletes, 13 who are water polo players, to advance to the national ballot which will decide who will earn the honor of Academic All-America.
This season, Stoupas, a junior two-meter, has been named an Association of Collegiate Water Polo Coaches (ACWPC) honorable mention All-America, the Golden Coast Conference (GCC) Player of the Year, and a first team All-GCC honoree, as well as Harper Cup Most Valuable Player. The native of Melbourne, Australia, competed in all 29 of the team’s contests and has a 3.71 cumulative grade point average while majoring in leadership studies. She led the conference in goals (81), was No. 6 in points (92) and No. 5 steals (35). In addition to leading the team in goals, Stoupas was the top producer of shots (143), drawn exclusions (61) and was the squad’s most accurate shooter (.566 shot percentage). Her point total and seven blocks ranked No. 3 among Aztecs, and her 35 steals were fourth most for the squad.
Stoupas finished the year with 21 multi-goal games, including 16 hat tricks, and her six goals against both Cal State Fullerton (Jan. 17) and Santa Clara (Feb. 27) are tied for the third most in a game in Aztecs’ history. Her 81 tallies are the sixth most in a single season for a player in Scarlet and Black and the most since Jenna Schuster scored 83 in 2008 and 185-career drawn exclusions rank No. 8 on the program’s all-time list. In 2026, the product of Caulfield Grammar School in Melbourne recorded 18 games with multiple drawn exclusions, including a mind-boggling seven against No. 2-ranked Southern California.
Valdes, an attacker who completed her college career in April, earned a degree in microbiology with a cumulative grade point average of 3.80. A native of Madrid, Spain, she is one of the most well-rounded players in program history. Valdes is the program’s career leader in points (438) and one-of-two Aztecs, since at least the 2014 season, the start of San Diego State’s GCC era, to total at least 100 points in a season. The first to accomplish the milestone was Caroline Israels, who finished the 2017 season with 108 points. Valdes has recorded at least 100 points in each of the last three seasons: 116 in 2024, 112 in 2025 and 123 in this season, and along with Amber Pezzolla is one of two Aztecs to record multiple seasons with 100-plus points. For her career, she ranks No. 2 in assists (191) and No. 4 in goals (247) for the program. Valdes’ 68 assists this season are the second most for an Aztec and her six versus Long Beach State during the opening weekend of the 2026 campaign equals the second most in a game in program history. In addition, her 76 goals in 2024 rank No. 10 on the single season list.
Valdes ranked second in the GCC this year in points (123) and assists (68), third in steals (42), fifth in blocks (14), and ninth in goals (55). Among the Aztecs, she led the team in points, assists and blocks, was second in steals and drawn exclusions (25), and her goals and 125 shots ranked third on the team. She recorded multiple assists in 19 contests and registered back-to-back games with one or fewer assists just twice in 2026. Twice she, in available information, totaled a tied a program-high nine points: vs. No. 9 Long Beach State (Jan. 16) and No. 21 California Baptist (Feb. 14). Valdes is the third Aztec, joining Stoupas (vs. California Baptist on Feb. 14, 2025) and Karli Canale (at California Baptist on April 14, 2022) as the only players to accomplish the feat in the GCC era (since the start of the 2014 season), and if you include the nine points from Jenna Schuster versus Hawai’i on February 27, 2007, she is one of four players to do it in available information and the only one to do it twice.