BRIDGEPORT, Pa. — The CWPA Remote interview series continues as Mount St. Mary’s University men’s and women’s head coach Alyssa Diacono talks with Collegiate Water Polo Association (CWPA) Director of Communications Ed Haas about recruiting for the Mountaineers’ first year programs and more.
A graduate assistant coach at Mercyhurst University prior to joining the Mount St. Mary’s staff, Diacono spent two seasons working with the Lakers’ water polo teams. She arrived in the Keystone State by way of her native California after earning a degree in Public Health from San Diego State University.
In between her stops, she played professional water polo in international waters for the University of Western Australia Team, based in Perth, and The Exiles Sports Club in Malta from 2017-2019.
While competing for the Aztecs, Diacono earned SDSU’s Female Student-Athlete of the Year Award in 2017, and was a two-time Association of Collegiate Water Polo Coaches (ACWPC) All-American, garnering Honorable Mentions in 2015 and 2016.
The ACWPC also acknowledged her as an All-Academic selection four times. Beginning in her junior season, her teammates elected her as team captain.
During Diacono’s time with the Aztecs, the team went 76-60 with an unblemished 26-0 record in the Golden Coast Conference. Her career totals include 158 goals, 90 steals, 23 assists and 17 saves. This includes 47 goals as a freshman and 43 more as a senior. The senior campaign also included 35 steals and 11 assists. Another specialty of Diacono’s was drawing ejections, or exclusion fouls, as she stands second all-time in program history with 292.
The team won Golden Coast regular season all four years Diacono competed, and earned an NCAA Tournament berth in 2016. That year they won the play-in game against Wagner before ultimately finishing eighth.
For her efforts, Diacono was named All-Conference three times. She earned an Honorable Mention as a freshman in 2014, followed by two First Team selections as a junior and senior.
Additional coaching stops on her résumé include an eight year stint as an assistant with Tesoro High School – a member of the Capistrano Unified School District – and an internship with the Mission Viejo Nadadores Swim Team. At Tesoro, she was instrumental in creating a perennial playoff contender at both the conference and state levels.
The Mount St. Mary’s men’s water polo team will start competition in the fall of 2020, and the women will start in spring 2021.
