Scoresheet | WWPA Tournament Central

LA JOLLA, Calif. - In a repeat of last year's semifinal, the fourth-seeded Cal State East Bay water polo team fell to No. 1 seed Loyola Marymount, 13-5, moving on to Sunday's third-place game at the 2012 WWPA Championships. The Pioneers (18-12) fell behind early and could not overcome a strong Lions team in their second loss of the season to LMU.

The Lions opened the game with a goal at the 6:50 mark before both teams went scorless for more than three minutes. LMU made it two in a row ith another score with 3:35 left to play in the first quarter to take a 2-0 lead. The Pioneers got on the board less than 30 seconds later, though, as Sophie Armstrong took advantage of a 6-on-5 opportunity to cut the Lion lead to one, 2-1. Loyola Marymount answered with a goal in the last two minutes of the quarter to take a 3-1 lead into the first break.

In the lowest scoring quarter of the game, East Bay was held scoreless in the second eight minutes of the game but also held the Lions to just two goals. Erin Manke scored for the second time at the 6:03 mark in the quarter to put LMU up 4-1. Neither team scored again until the 3:18 mark, when the Lions drew a five-meter penalty and made the most of the chance with a penalty score from Alex Honny to take a 5-1 lead at the half.

The third quarter saw the Pioneers put together a strong comeback push. Though the Lions opened the quarter with a second goal from Honny, East Bay got back-to-back goals from Kate McAfee and Claire Pierce to cut the LMU lead to just three, 6-3, for the first time since the beginning of the second quarter. An East Bay exclusion with 4:50 remaining in the third gave the Lions the chance to score a 6-on-5 goal to push the lead back to 7-3 with just under five minutes left in the quarter. Monica Delgado made it two straight goals from the Lions at the 3:34 mark to make it a five-goal game. The Pioneers got their third goal of the quarter from Carly Clark with 1:21 remaining, but Loyola Marymount grabbed back its five-goal advantage with another Manke goal to take a 9-4 lead with just one quarter left to play.

The Lions weren't through, however, as they opened the fourth with back-to-back goals to take an 11-4 lead with 6:16 remaining. Though the Pioneers answered with another Pierce goal at the 4:42 mark, that would be the extent of their scoring for the game. Some tough defense from LMU allowed it to fight off East Bay during another two 6-on-5 opportunities. On the other end, the Lions added another two goals to finish out the game and earn the right to face UC San Diego in a rematch of last year's WWPA Championship game.

Pierce led the Pioneers with a pair of goals, while Clark, Armstrong and McAfee each added a goal. Jayme Pekarske posted four saves in goal before Marinna Nation took over and made one stop. Manke and Honny combined to score seven of the Lions' 13 goals in the win.

Cal State East Bay will now move on to the third place game for the second consecutive year. The Pioneers will meet sixth-seeded Cal State Monterey Bay in the game after the Otters topped No. 3 seed Cal State Bakersfield in the opening round. CSUMB nearly pulled off a second upset in the semifinal matchup with second-seeded UC San Diego, but fell 10-9 to move on to the third-place matchup with East Bay. Last year, the Pioneers fell to Santa Clara in the third-place game and with a win would capture their best finish in program history at the WWPA Tournament.

Cal State East Bay and Cal State Monterey Bay are set for a 1:30 p.m. first sprint for the third place game on Sunday at Canyonview Aquatic Center in La Jolla.