Dec. 15, 2016
SAN DIEGO - San Diego State Women's Water Polo released its 2017 schedule on Thursday, which will commence with the annual alumni game on Saturday, Jan. 21, at Aztec Aquaplex.
The Aztecs immediately take to the road to compete at the ASU Tournament in Tempe, Arizona, where they will face-off against both Arizona State and Wagner on Jan. 28. The team will then make its way to Los Angeles for a game against the defending NCAA champions, USC, on Feb. 3.
After a week-long break, the Aztecs will play their first Golden Coast Conference home game against Santa Clara on Feb. 10. The following day, the team will head over to La Jolla for the UCSD Triton Invitational on Feb. 11-12. SDSU will move from one tournament to the next as it will jump from the Triton invitational to the UC Irvine Invitational from Feb. 24-26.
SDSU will head back to the Aztec Aquaplex after more than a month of away games for its very own Aztec Invitational. The tournament will run March 11-12, with the list of participating teams to be announced at a later date.
On March 16, the Aztecs will remain at home in order to face-off against UC Irvine. The team must then immediately head up to Fresno for their second conference game against Fresno Pacific on March 17.
Having concluded their two contests against UC Irvine and Fresno Pacific, the water polo team will once again make their way to a tournament competition. They will remain in the central California area as the Aztecs compete in the Bakersfield Roadrunner Invitational. The team will participate in a doubleheader on March 18, as it plays against Cal State East Bay in the morning and Princeton in the afternoon.
Once they return to the southern California region, SDSU will make the quick trip up to Riverside on March 24 to compete against California Baptist in the first of two back-to-back, away conference games. The second of these two games will be against Loyola Marymount on March 25. California Baptist and Loyola Marymount finished their respective seasons ranked in a tie for No. 23 in the CWPA's final poll.
SDSU will then move on to Hawaii for the last of the season's invitationals. The Aztecs will be challenged by UCLA, UCSB, and Hawai'i over the course of the three-day tournament.
The Aztecs will then make their way back home for good, as they stay at Aztec Aquaplex all the way up to the Golden Coast Conference Championship. SDSU will play Pacific, in their first conference home game since Santa Clara, on April 7. The next day, the Aztecs take on Long Beach State.
On April 13, the Aztecs will compete in two conference home games that afternoon. The first contest will pit the home team against Azusa Pacific, while the game immediately after will be against Concordia.
Following a nine-day break, SDSU will challenge UC San Diego in a home game for the right to lift the Harper Cup on April 22.
With the regular season behind them, the Aztecs will look to defend its GCC championship. The GCC tournament will take place April 28-30 at Santa Clara.
San Diego State enters the 2017 campaign as the three-time defending Golden Coast regular-season champions and will be in search of its second-straight NCAA tournament berth after earning the league's automatic bid last year.