SAN DIEGO – In its final game at the Aquaplex for the 2025 season, the No. 21-ranked San Diego State water polo team hosts the No. 9 Loyola Marymount Lions on Saturday afternoon in a game that has direct impact for the seeding in the upcoming Golden Coast Conference Tournament. The Aztecs currently sit in fourth place in the league standings, while the Lions are at the top of the table.
San Diego State will honor its six seniors: Rose Kanemy, Amanda Chambers, Sofia Righetti, Brooke Lee, Ava Ratajczak and Luna Sarmiento in a ceremony prior to the contest.
This Week
Saturday, April 12 – 2 p.m. (PT)
No. 21 San Diego State (14-11, 4-2 GCC) vs. No. 9 Loyola Marymount (15-11, 5-0 GCC)
Aztec Aquaplex – San Diego, Calif.
Live Stats and Streaming Video links are available on the water polo schedule page at www.goaztecs.com.
About the Aztecs
-San Diego State, No. 21-ranked in this week’s Collegiate Water Polo Association (CWPA) poll, sits at 14-11 overall, 4-2 in Golden Coast Conference (GCC) play. After seven weeks at No. 20, the Aztecs have been slotted in at No. 21 this week.
-In its last outings, San Diego State lost at No. 25 Pacific last Friday, 14-12, and defeated Santa Clara on Saturday, 14-10, and enters Saturday’s game 4-2 in conference action, half a game behind both Pacific and Fresno State for second place in the league standing with a game in hand. An Aztecs win will secure at least a fourth-place finish in the regular season standings, a feat it has accomplished in each of the program’s 11 previous seasons in the GCC.
-In the 31st season of San Diego State water polo, the Aztecs have a 608-415 (.595) record.
-In a ceremony prior to the LMU game, San Diego State will honor six seniors: Luna Sarmiento, Ava Ratajczak, Brooke Lee, Sofia Righetti, Amanda Chambers, and Rose Kanemy, who will be competing in the final home game of their college careers.
-Senior Rose Kanemy (Montreal, Canada) had three assists in the team’s game at Pacific (April 4), to tie and then pass Elana Cervantes (2004-07) as the all-time assist leader for SDSU. She enters Saturday’s game with 188 career assists and her 52 assists this season slot in at No. 7 in the single-season list for the Aztecs. Kanemy has six games with a season-high two goals among her 20 total for the year, as well as 10 steals, eight blocks and has drawn four exclusions. She leads the squad in assists (52), with 14 games of at least two and a single-game best six vs. Chapman (2/28), which is the second time in her college career that she totaled six assists in a game. Within the squad she is tied for second with eight blocks and is second with 12 sprints won. Among GCC players, she ranks No. 2 in assists.
-Junior Claudia Valdes, a 2024 first-team All-GCC performer, enters the weekend with 55 goals this year, good for second most on the squad. The native of Madrid, Spain has scored 185 goals as an Aztec and is No. 10 on the program’s career goals list. Next up on the list, at No. 9, is Ioli Benekou (2014-17) with 204 goals. Valdes leads the team in points (96), shots (115), and blocks (12) and ranks second in goals, assists (41), steals (20), and exclusions drawn (25). Among GCC players she is No. 2 in points, No. 4 in assists, and No. 8 in goals. Valdes has eight hat tricks among 16 multi-goal games. She has five contests with more than four goals, including a season-high five strikes against California Baptist (Jan. 18) and Concordia (March 7). Her four assists versus UC Davis (Jan. 19) are a season high among 11 games with multiple assists. In addition, she has five multi-steal contests with a single game-best three swipes at Concordia (March 7).
-Sophomore Mimi Stoupas, a 2024 GCC All-Freshman Team honoree, leads the team in goals (59), exclusions drawn (55), steals (24), and shot percentage (.596) and is ranked No. 2 in shots (99), and points (77). Among GCC players she is No. 3 in goals and No. 8 in points. 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 versus California Baptist (Feb. 14) and has scored in every game, reaching at least two goals in 15 and finishing with at least a hat trick nine times.
-Sophomore Sydney Gish ranks second on the team in shot percentage (.582) and is third in goals (39) and, and fourth in points (653), steals (19), and exclusions drawn (19). She has nearly doubled her goals per game from 0.9 last season to 1.6 in 25 appearances this year and has banged the back of the cage 24 times in the last 15 games. Among her 14 multi-goal efforts, are four hat tricks, including a season-high six goals against Mount St. Mary’s (Feb. 28) and she has five games with multiple exclusions drawn. Among her 19 steals, she grabbed at least two in four games with a single game best three vs. Mount St. Mary’s (Feb. 28) and a season-high two blocks came at Cal State Monterey Bay.
-Junior Shannon Murphy leads the team in sprint wins (19), is third in exclusions drawn (21) and is fourth with shots (64), goals (23), and assists (19). She’s logged seven multi-goal games, including four hat tricks. She has four multi-assists contests to go along with six games with two or more steals, which includes a season-high four vs. Cal State Fullerton (Feb. 2).
-Goalies Tiaare Ahovelo, Ava Ratajczak, and Mandy Lagerlof have all seen time in the cage. Ahovelo has played 424 minutes in goal, while Ratajczak logged 264 and Lagerlof 120. Ahovelo (8-9), a junior who has played in 21 contests, 17 of which have been starts, leads the team in saves (133), with a save percentage (.459), while allowing 1457 goals in with a goals-against average of 11.85 to go along with eight assists and 18 steals. Among GCC goalies, she is No. 1 in save percentage, No. 5 in goals-against average and saves. Ratajczak (5-2), a senior, has started six times and appeared in 13 contests. She has surrendered 99 goals (12.00 GAA), made 62 saves (.385 save percentage) with 12 steals and eight assists. Among GCC goalies, she is No. 8 in save percentage, No. 6 in goals-against average, and No. 9 in saves. Lagerlof (1-0) has appeared in nine games with one start. She’s made 35 saves and allowed 38 goals. The junior’s save percentage is .479, has a 10.13 goals-against average to go along with eight steals and six assists.
-Hannah Bell and Rose Kanemy rank fifth on the squad with 20 goals each, and Bell’s .476 shot percentage ranked No. 4 on the squad. Sofia Righetti is No. 3 on the team with 25 assists.
-Fourteen Aztecs have scored at least 10 goals this season and 11 have double-digit assists.
-Head women’s water polo coach Dana Ochsner has a 43-47 record in three seasons, but 31-26 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 Tournament in 2024, its best finish in the event since it was the second-place team in 2021.
The Series
Versus Loyola Marymount (15-11, 5-0 GCC)
-The Aztecs trail in the all-time series against Loyola Marymount, which started in 1998, 27-18. In games at the Aquaplex, San Diego State is 5-3, but SDSU has dropped its last two at home against LMU, and overall has lost 12 of the last 14, including each of the last eight, regardless of location. The last Aztec regular season win over Loyola Marymount was an 11-4 decision on March 20, 2021, at the Aquaplex.