LA JOLLA, Calif. — Kendall Thomas and
Caroline Christl of the UC San Diego women's water polo team earned All-America recognition from the Association of Collegiate Water Polo Coaches (ACWPC) as the organization announced its 2025 honorees Friday.
Both seniors, Thomas was named to the Third Team while Christl was selected Honorable Mention.
A team captain and now four-time All-American, Thomas rang up 58 goals in 2025, second-most on the team and 10th-most among all Big West players. The center scored in 25 of 31 games and found the back of the net multiple times in 18 contests. She also totaled 20 steals, tied for second on the team. For the third-consecutive season, Thomas was named the Harper Cup MVP after scoring four goals to help the Tritons defeat San Diego State for the ninth-straight year in the annual game. She was named the Big West Player of the Week in late April.
Thomas also earned ACWPC All-America nods in 2024 (Third Team), 2023 (Honorable Mention), and 2022 (Honorable Mention).
Christl was a scoring machine this past season. She led the Tritons with 92 goals, the second-most of any Big West player. Christl also led UC San Diego in points (108), shots (194), and field blocks (6), while ranking second in steals (20). She scored at least once in 30 of 31 games played and registered multiple goals in 23 contests. On two occasions she netted a career-high seven goals. She was tabbed the Big West Player of the Week twice in 2025.
In 2023 and 2024, Christl garnered ACWPC All-America Honorable Mention as well.
Thomas and Christl were All-Big West First Team selections in 2025.
UC San Diego, which climbed to a No. 9 national ranking, finished its 2025 campaign with a 17-14 overall record and a 4-3 mark in Big West play. The Tritons served as the fourth seed in the Big West Championship, where they defeated fifth-seeded UC Santa Barbara in a quarterfinal before falling to top-seeded Hawai'i in a semifinal.
------
About UC San Diego Athletics
After two decades as one of the most successful programs in NCAA Division II, the UC San Diego intercollegiate athletics program began a new era in 2020 as a member of The Big West in NCAA Division I. The 23-sport Tritons earned 30 team and nearly 150 individual national championships during its time in Divisions II and III and helped guide 1,400 scholar-athletes to All-America honors. A total of 84 Tritons have earned Academic All-America honors, while 38 have earned prestigious NCAA Post Graduate Scholarships. UC San Diego scholar-athletes exemplify the academic ideals of one of the world's preeminent institutions, graduating at an average rate of 91 percent, one of the highest rates among institutions at all divisions.
