HAYWARD, Calif. – Cal State East Bay women's water polo will return to Pioneer Pool to host a pair of contests on Sunday, March 9. The Pioneers will take on Western Water Polo Association (WWPA) foe Sonoma State in the morning, followed by Mercyhurst University out of Pennsylvania in the evening.

Sonoma State and Mercyhurst will also play each other at Pioneer Pool at 2:30 p.m. The game will take place in between the Cal State East Bay contests currently scheduled for 11:30 a.m. and 5:30 p.m. starts.

Cal State East Bay (5-9, 0-1 WWPA) will look to earn its first official league win of the season to open Sunday's action. The Pioneers have previously defeated Sonoma State (2-11, 1-0 WWPA) this season doing so at the Triton Invitational on Feb. 9, by a 10-9 score.

Both squads participated at the Cal Lutheran Invitational this past weekend with the Pioneers splitting their four games. East Bay picked up a win over Azusa Pacific on Saturday and against Occidental on Sunday to close out both days.

During that time East Bay senior Sara Hudyn became the third player in program history to score 200 career goals. She scored multiple times in all four games at the Cal Lutheran Invitational and will enter Sunday with 209 scores to her name.
 
CSUEB goalkeeper Marrina Nation made 50 saves and stopped 13 or more shots in three of four contests. She has made 129 stops heading into Sunday's action and at the time made a season-high 12 saves in the team's victory over SSU.
 
Sonoma State posted a 1-3 record against four NCAA Division III squads at the CLU Invite. The Seawolves earned an 11-10 victory over the host Regals, and fell by two goals or fewer in the other three contests.
 
Cal State East Bay has won three straight against Sonoma State dating back to the last two meetings of the 2013 season. The Pioneers are 10-2 versus the Seawolves since 2010 with their only losses coming in a season series split last year.
 
Cal State East Bay and Mercyhurst (6-1) have faced off twice at neutral locations over the past decade. The Pioneers earned a 14-8 victory back on March 28, 2010 in Bloomington, Indiana. The next year the Lakers earned a slim 7-6 victory in the city of Orange at Chapman University.
 
Mercyhurst enters Sunday winning six of its first seven games to open the 2014 season. The Lakers are most recently coming off a road victory over Penn State Behrend on Tuesday, March 4.
 
Through the first six games of the season the Lakers boast four players whom have scored 10 goals or more. Offensively Mercyhurst is led by Cailin Jope with 19 goals. She ranks second on the team with 10 steals and third with seven goals.

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