SAN DIEGO – After a 13-day break from action, the No. 20-ranked San Diego State water polo team returns to the pool this weekend at the Claremont Convergence in Claremont, Calif. The Aztecs will play four games over two days, including matchups against No. 10 UC Irvine and No. 17 Michigan on Saturday.
This Week
Claremont Convergence – Claremont, Calif.
Friday February 28
No. 20 San Diego State (7-5) vs. Chapman (1-4) – 12:45 p.m. (PT)
No. 20 San Diego State (7-5) vs. Mount St. Mary’s (10-3) – 4:30 p.m. (PT)
Saturday, March 1
No. 20 San Diego State (7-5) vs. No. 10 UC Irvine (4-8) – 10:15 a.m. (PT)
No. 20 San Diego State (7-5) vs. No. 17 Michigan (3-5) – 2 p.m. (PT)
Live stats and fee-based streaming video will be available for each contest through links on the team’s schedule page at www.goaztecs.com.
Storylines
-The Aztecs have been off for nearly two weeks, but in their last action won a pair of home games, including their conference and home opener, 22-14 against California Baptist on February 14 and then downed No. 23 Pomona-Pitzer the next day, 13-10.
-Sophomore Mimi Stoupas earned the team’s first Golden Coast Conference Player of the Week honor for the week ending February 6. In addition to scoring seven goals, the native of Melbourne, Australia, drew three exclusions, had four steals and assisted on five goals in team wins against California Baptist and No. 23 Pomona-Pitzer at Aquaplex. In the team’s season opening conference game, Stoupas scored six times in its 22-14 win against California Baptist on Friday, February 14. It is the second time this season she has banged the back of the net half a dozen times in a game, both times coming against the Lancers. In addition to her six goals, a season-high for an Aztec this season, Stoupas added a pair of assists, two steals and drew three exclusions in the eight-goal win against CBU. On Saturday, February 15, against No. 23 Pomona-Pitzer, Stoupas scored once and had three assists and a couple of steals in a 13-10 victory.
-San Diego State has reached double figure goals in 11 of its first 12 games this year, averaging 15.3 goals per contest.
-Now, in its 31st season, San Diego State has an overall record of 601-409 (.595).
-The series against Chapman began on March 25, 2006, with a 14-3 victory for the Aztecs, and San Diego State has not lost to the Panthers in any of its four succeeding meetings, the last of which was a 17-2 triumph on March 11, 2017, at the Aquaplex. SDSU has never failed to score double-digit goals against Chapman (averaging 16.2 goals per game) and has never surrendered more than seven goals in a game (averaging 3.2 allowed per contest). A member of the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SCIAC), Chapman is 1-4 this year, having lost its last four, but is No. 3-ranked in the CWPA’s Division III national poll.
-Friday will be the first meeting between San Diego State and Mount St. Mary’s. The Mount, a member of the MAAC (Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference), bring a 10-3 record into the weekend and will face Cal State Fullerton earlier on Friday before taking on the Aztecs in the afternoon. Mount St. Mary’s currently sits in first place in its division of the MAAC standings.
-The Aztecs and Anteaters have played 45 times, with SDSU holding a 25-20 advantage in the all-time series, however in neutral site games, San Diego State is 12-3 against UC Irvine. The Anteaters, members of the Big West, have only played nationally ranked teams this year with their best win coming against then No. 10 Long Beach State (15-12).
-San Diego State holds a slim 13-12 lead in its all-time series with Michigan, which includes an 8-6 mark in neutral site games. The Wolverines have played eight games coming into the weekend and all have been against nationally ranked programs. In the last seven meetings, SDSU has a 1-6 record against the Wolverines, with three of those game being played at a neutral site, including a 13-5 defeat for the Aztecs in Irvine last year. Michigan’s best win was a 15-14 decision at No. 12 Indiana.
-After this weekend’s games, the Aztecs return to Aztec Aquaplex on Friday, March 7, to play a conference game against Concordia at 12:30 p.m.
-Head women’s water polo coach Dana Ochsner has a 36-41 record in three seasons, 24-20 in the two seasons she has been the fulltime leader of the program. She led the team to a third-place finish in the Golden Coast Conference in 2024, its best finish since it was the second-place team in 2021.
-Junior Claudia Valdes, a 2024 first-team All-GCC performer, leads the team in points (51), and blocks (5) and ranks second in goals (30), shots (49), assists (21), exclusions drawn (13). Among GCC players she is No. 5 in points. Valdes has five hat tricks among. Her four assists versus UC Davis (Jan. 19), also a season high. In the last two games the team played, both wins, she scored five times on seven shots (.714 shot percentage).
-Sophomore Mimi Stoupas, a 2024 GCC All-Freshman Team honoree, leads the team in shots (54), goals (32) and exclusions drawn (29) and is ranked No. 2 in steals (9) and points (40). In the season opener against California Baptist (Jan. 18), the native of Melbourne, Australia totaled six goals, one of 16 players in program history to score at least six times in a game, and the first since Sydney Gish scored as many against Cal State Monterey Bay (Jan. 19, 2024). Stoupas repeated the feat in the team’s conference opener and has scored in every game, reached at least two goals in eight and finished with at least a hat trick five times.
-Sophomore Sydney Gish ranks third on the team in goals with 20 and fourth with 31 shots for a team-high .645 shot percentage. She has upped her goals per game from 0.9 last season to 1.7 in 12 appearances this year. Gish ranks No. 2 on the squad in exclusions drawn (13), steals (9) and block (4). Among her eight multi-goal efforts, are three hat tricks and she has five games with multiple exclusions drawn. Among her nine steals, she grabbed a season-high two vs. Cal State Fullerton (2-2-25) and a season-high two blocks came at Cal State Monterey Bay.
-Sophomore Makena Macedo ranks third on the team with 31 shots and has converted on 14 of them (.438 shot percentage). She logged a pair of career-high four-goal games at the ASU Invitational and is 70.0 percent of the way to eclipsing her goal total from her freshman season (19 goals in 32 games) after 12 contests this year. She has at least a hat trick in three games among four multi-goal outings, and a pair of multi-assists contest to go along with a field block and one exclusion drawn.
-Senior Rose Kanemy is pacing the team with 22 assists, including a single-game high five vs. Arizona State, among seven multi-assist games. The Montreal native has a career total of 158 assists, No. 4 on the program’s all-time list, and she enters the weekend two from passing Anique Hermann’s 159 assists (from 2012-15) for the No. 3 spot. Elana Cervantes (2004-07) is the career leader in assists at San Diego State with 186 and Saran Brady (2008-11) in No. 2 with 180 assists. Kanemy has 12 goals with six steals and two blocks.
-Goalies Ava Ratajczak and Tiaare Ahovelo have virtually split time in the cage, outside of Mandy Lagerlof’s 40 mintues. Ahovelo has played 176 minutes in goal while Ratajczak logged 168. Ratajczak (4-0), a senior, has started three times and appeared in nine contests. She has surrendered 62 goals (11.81 GAA), made 32 saves (.40 save percentage) with seven steals and two assists. Ahovelo, a junior who has played in nine contests, eight of which have been starts, leads the team in saves (67), with a save percentage (.472) while allowing 60 goals in with a goals against average of 12.18 to go along with three assists and four steals. Lagerlof has appeared in three games with nine saves and 14 goals allowed. The junior’s save percentage is .391 and she has an 11.20 goals against average and has made one steal and has an assist.
-For the fourth year in a row, the Aztecs are picked to finish fourth in the Golden Coast Conference (GCC) preseason coaches’ poll. Fresno State is predicted to defend its 2024 conference title and earned 47 points and five first-place votes, followed by Loyola Marymount (43 points, three first-place vote), Pacific (36 points), San Diego State (30 points), Azusa Pacific (25 points), California Baptist (21 points), Santa Clara (11 points), and Concordia (nine points).