HAYWARD, Calif. — The Pioneer water polo team is currently on a six-game winning streak, the program's longest since 2010. This week, Cal State East Bay (9-7, 0-1 WWPA) will hit the road for the first of three consecutive official conference games. The Pioneers' lone game of the week is a date with Sonoma State at 12:30 p.m. on Friday. This will be a rematch of the season opener, which the Seawolves won 13-10, although this time it counts for a lot more.

WEEKLY RECAP
The Pioneers notched their ninth straight victory over Fresno Pacific last Saturday with a 12-6 win in their home pool. The Sunbirds grabbed an early 2-0 lead in the game, but the Pioneers slowly clawed back, taking a 3-2 lead after one quarter, and extending it to 5-3 at halftime. East Bay locked down on defense in the second half and netted seven more goals to pull away in the final few minutes.

Claire Pierce led all players with four goals in the game. Sara Hudyn and Casey Rushford each scored twice, while Julia Charlesworth, Allison Zell, Hollie Mickelson, and Rita Ortega all found the back of the cage once.

Marrina Nation played the first half in the cage, allowing three goals and making five saves. Mary Reardon got the call for the second half and blocked four shots, letting in three goals as well.

WWPA STANDINGS
No team has played fewer official WWPA games than the Pioneers so far. Their winning streak has vaulted them up the standings, but all that really matters is the team's record in those seven contests. Santa Clara (5-2) has completed its schedule and UCSD (3-0) is in good shape, but a great deal is still to be decided for the rest of the conference.

Team	W-L	Pct.	WWPA
1. Loyola Marymount	9-6	.600	1-1
2. Cal State East Bay	9-7	.563	0-1
3. UC San Diego	10-8	.556	3-0
4. Santa Clara	10-10	.500	5-2
5. Cal State Monterey Bay	5-8	.385	0-2
6. Sonoma State	6-11	.353	1-3
7. Colorado State	3-9	.250	1-1
8. Cal State San Bernardino	2-16	.111	0-1

STAT LEADERS
As a team, the Pioneers have dished out the most assists in the conference, averaging 7.88 per game. They're also second in goals per game (10.63) and steals per game (8.75). The East Bay goalkeepers collectively rank third in the WWPA in saves per game (10.88) and goals against average (9.00).

Hudyn maintained her position this week as the WWPA's leading scorer with 62 goals. The junior has 14 more goals than CSUSB's Misty Vu in second place. Hudyn also ranks eighth in the conference with 24 steals on the year from the 2M set position.

Pierce is a jack-of-all-trades, holding a narrow lead on the WWPA steals list with 36. She also ranks third in scoring with 44 goals and sixth in assists with 23. The senior Aussie paces the Pioneers with 60 drawn kick outs this season.

Junior Kate McAfee had a fairly quiet week with just the single game, but she's still second in the WWPA with 29 assists, one behind the leader. McAfee is East Bay's fourth-leading scorer with 11 goals, as well.

Fellow junior Allison Zell is having a nice first season on the Hayward campus. She's third in the team with 15 goals, 10th in the conference with 16 assists, and just squeezes inside the WWPA top-20 with 16 steals.

SCOUTING THE SEAWOLVES
Sonoma State is just 5-11 since beating the Pioneers on opening day, although seven of those games were against top-20 teams. In four official conference games, they beat CSUMB, but suffered losses to UCSD, Colorado State, and Santa Clara. Noelle Herrera leads the Seawolves with 18 goals, though the team's best all-around player is probably Jessica Stansfield, who has 16 goals and 15 steals this season. Both she and Lindsay Rangel have been honored as WWPA Players of the Week this year. Senior keeper Ariel Lockshaw ranks fourth in the conference in saves with 134. East Bay has defeated Sonoma State in seven of their last eight meetings.