HAYWARD, Calif. — Last weekend, the Pioneer water polo team had one must-win game on their schedule, a WWPA contest against Cal State San Bernardino, and they took care of business with a 14-12 victory. This weekend, Cal State East Bay (11-10, 1-3 WWPA) has another crucial showdown with conference foe Cal State Monterey Bay. The Pioneers and Otters enter Saturday's 10 a.m. game in Seaside tied at 1-3 in WWPA play, so this will certainly impact the standings and potential seeding. CSUEB will then close out the day with a non-conference match-up against Concordia at 1:30 p.m.

TOURNAMENT RECAP
The Pioneers competed in the 12th annual LMU Invitational in Los Angeles last week. In the two-day event, they split a pair of doubleheaders, took on two nationally ranked teams, and went 1-1 in conference play. In their most important game of the weekend against the Coyotes on Friday morning, East Bay jumped out to a 9-4 halftime and held off CSUSB's comeback to pick up the narrow win. Sara Hudyn scored nine of the team's 14 goals, setting a tournament record and a new career high in the process.

The Pioneers played another official WWPA game in the afternoon against the hosts, No. 14 Loyola Marymount. The Lions exploded for eight goals in the second quarter and pulled away for a 16-5 win in their home pool. The Pioneers have still never beaten LMU in 11 tries.

Saturday morning, CSUEB played Whittier for the second time this season, and for the second time, they notched a close victory, 6-5. The Pioneers couldn't do much on offense, but their defense was stingy. Goalkeeper Marrina Nation held the Poets scoreless the entire second half, and Allison Zell netted the game-winner with 5:38 left in the fourth.

East Bay closed out the tournament against No. 11 Princeton on Saturday afternoon. They jumped out to a 4-2 lead as Claire Pierce scored three first-quarter goals, but the Tigers came back to grab a 7-5 halftime lead. The Princeton defense locked down the Pioneers in the second half en route to a 12-7 victory. 

LEADING THE WAY
With 12 goals in the four games, Hudyn maintains her status as the WWPA's leading scorer, a title she has held virtually all season. The junior has notched 78 goals, just one more than San Bernardino's Misty Vu, although the Coyotes have played six more games. Pierce ranks third in the conference with 56 goals, and Zell cracks the top-30 list with 20.

Pierce and Hudyn are both top-10 in the WWPA in steals with 44 and 38, respectively. Zell is third in the team with 23; she and Pierce are the only two Pioneers to post 20-20-20 in the three major stat categories.

Kate McAfee is the conference leader in assists by a narrow margin with 37 on the season, although she's played five fewer games than the player in second place. East Bay has five field players in the WWPA top-30 in assists in McAfee, Pierce (25), Zell (20), Julia Charlesworth (14), and Simonne Call (13).

WWPA STANDINGS
The postseason picture is beginning to come a bit more clearly into focus, although quite a bit can still change. The Pioneers have conference games remaining against Cal State Monterey Bay, Colorado State, and UC San Diego.

TEAM	W-L	Pct.	WWPA
1. #11 Loyola Marymount	15-7	.682	6-1
2. #15 UC San Diego	14-8	.636	3-0
3. Cal State East Bay	11-10	.524	1-3
4. Santa Clara	11-12	.478	5-2
5. Sonoma State	10-13	.435	3-4
6. Cal State Monterey Bay	7-14	.333	1-3
7. Colorado State	7-15	.318	2-2
8. Cal State San Bernardino	6-21	.182	0-6

CLIMBING THE RANKS
The Pioneers have a few players nearing historic accomplishments as we get into the latter part of the season. Pierce is finishing off a four-year career as the most prolific field player in the history of the program. She was already CSUEB's all-time leading scorer entering the season. Now with 320 career goals, she has scored 79 more than second-place Liz Warren. Pierce also now holds the Pioneer record with 239 career steals after passing Ashley Vierra's 203 earlier this year. Finally, Pierce has recently moved into second place all-time with 115 career assists. The Pioneers still have at least a dozen games remaining, but assistant coach Jenna Casady's record of 154 is probably safe.

Hudyn's outstanding junior year is moving her up a couple of lists, as well. Her 78 goals in 2013 is the ninth-highest single-season scoring total in program history. However, Hudyn is likely to move up two more spot this weekend, and she may be within striking distance of Gabriella Keri's record of 106 goals. Furthermore, with 127 career goals, the Ontario native is now in sixth place all-time and needs three more scores to move into fifth.

MaAfee is just seven assists shy of her 2012 season total of 44, which ranks as the ninth-best season in Pioneer history. With 81 career assists in less than two seasons, the junior is already sixth on the all-time list. Nation has 139 saves on the season and needs seven more to crack the top-10 single-season save totals.

OUTLOOK ON THE OTTERS
Cal State Monterey Bay has lost four straight entering the weekend, including an 0-3 showing last weekend at the LMU Invitational. They were outpaced by LMU, 13-3, and Princeton, 12-4, sandwiched a narrow 6-5 loss to Whittier. The Pioneers defeated the Otters 14-7 when the teams met in Hayward last month. CSUMB is 4-9 since then, picking up their sole WWPA win against San Bernardino.

The Otters are led offensively by Jackie Walters, the fifth-leading scorer in the conference with 52 goals. Julie Cooper ranks second in the WWPA with 51 steals to go along with 30 goals. Kylie Field is also a top-20 scorer in the conference with 28 goals, while Alex Tyrell paces the team with 30 assists. Goalkeeper Amanda Jennings has made 181 saves and allowed 92 goals, the best ratio of any cage-minder. As a team, the Otters lead the conference in saves per game.

EVALUATING THE EAGLES
Concordia has played many of the same opponents as East Bay this season, notching several quality wins. They have defeated Azusa Pacific (14-7), La Verne (9-3), Cal State San Bernardino (12-6), Fresno Pacific (14-4), Colorado State (12-8), Cal Baptist (10-9), and Whittier (11-6). All told, they have played nine games against top-20 teams. Last week, the Eagles lost both games of a road doubleheader to Marist and No. 13 Cal State Northridge. The Pioneers are 5-0 all-time against Concordia. The last time the team met was last year, also in Seaside, and East Bay squeaked out a 7-6 victory. 

Click here to view this week's full WWPA Release.