#6 Arizona State 11, CSUEB 5 -- Scoresheet (PDF)
#19 Loyola Marymount 11, CSUEB 4 -- Scoresheet (PDF)

LA JOLLA, Calif. -- For the third and fourth times in the young 2018 season on Saturday, the Cal State East Bay water polo team battled squads ranked among the top 20 in the nation as they competed in the first day of UC San Diego's Triton Invitational at Canyonview Aquatic Center.

The Pioneers started the morning with an 11-5 defeat at the hands of No. 6 Arizona State. That matched them up with No. 19 Loyola Marymount in the second round, a game that East Bay's former WWPA rival won by a final score of 11-4.

CSUEB never led in either contest, but their defense turned in an impressive effort in limiting the scoring output of two extremely talented Division I opponents.

Against the Sun Devils, Brittany Smith scored in the first period, and Brooke Hodgkinson found the back of the cage to beat the second quarter buzzer, but the Pioneers went into halftime trailing 6-2. 

ASU led 9-2 before Auriel Bill closed out the third quarter with a goal for the Pioneers. Cheyenne Brady and Maci Taylor both got into the scoring column as well, notching fourth-quarter goals.

Bill led the team with two assists in the first game. Erika McFeggan and Makenna Nation each spent one half in goal, tallying three and two saves, respectively.

The Pioneers were back in the pool about four hours later to take on LMU, which had earlier dropped an 11-10 nail-biter to No. 10 UC Davis. East Bay behind 2-0 early, but a goal by Adrien Van Dyke just over three minutes into the game cut the LMU lead in half.

Unfortunately, East Bay wasn't able to find any holes in the Loyola defense as the Lions stretched out their lead to 5-1 heading into halftime.

Rookies Taylor and Ivanna Anderson scored within a minute of each other to give the Pioneers some momentum and make the score 7-3 midway through the third quarter. The Lions struck quickly, however, scoring goals on their last possession of the third and their first possession of the fourth.

Bill answered back with 6:33 left, notching her second goal of the day. But that was all the Pioneers were able to manage offensively in the final period. 

McFeggan and Nation again split the game in the cage, and the former led the way with three saves in the loss.

Next up, CSUEB has two more games on the final day of the Triton Invitational, starting with a third-round matchup against Iona College at 9:20 a.m.