LA JOLLA, Calif. -- The Cal State East Bay water polo team played yet another dramatic game against Santa Clara on Sunday morning and once again came out on top, defeating the Broncos by a final score of 8-7 in the third round of the Triton Invitational.

The Pioneers then closed out the weekend by falling to No. 22 ranked San Diego State by a 10-3 score in the tournament's 13th-place match. CSUEB is now 3-3 for the season with all three losses coming to nationally-ranked teams this weekend.

The morning game marked the fifth consecutive matchup between East Bay and Santa Clara that was decided by one goal. Last week, they beat the Broncos 12-11 in their home opener, and today they erased a three-goal third-quarter deficit.

SCU opened the scoring by converting a 6-on-5 advantage early in the first. The Pioneers returned the favor two minutes later as Auriel Bill scored on a power play. Bill found the back of the cage on CSUEB's next possession, but the Broncos evened the score again 2-2 before the end of the period.

Adrien Van Dyke gave the Pioneers their first lead two minutes into the second quarter, but that was the only goal East Bay managed in the period. Meanwhile, SCU scored three times to take a 5-3 advantage into halftime, then they notched the first goal of the second half to go ahead 6-3.

The Pioneer defense clamped down for the final 13 minutes of game time, however, and Santa Clara scored just once more the rest of the game. Van Dyke scored her second of the day with 4:30 left in the third, then Maeve Flynn and Bill both converted on power play situations to tie the score 6-6 heading into the fourth. Bill finished with a game-high three goals, her second hat trick of the young season.

The Broncos went back ahead 7-6 early in the final period, and then the Pioneers had a few chances to net the equalizer before Brittany Smith finally did so with just 2:12 remaining. East Bay then got a stop on defense and drew an exclusion, which set up a 6-on-5 advantage. At the end of the power play with just 1:24 left, Cheyenne Brady beat the keeper for her first goal of the game. It ended up being the game-winner after the CSUEB defense clinched it on the final two possessions.

The Pioneers were back in the pool a few hours later to take on the No. 22 Aztecs. They fell into an early hole against a very talented foe, trailing 4-1 after the first quarter despite a goal for Van Dyke. The sophomore All-American scored again in the third, and then Meghan Hayward found the back of the net a minute later. 

East Bay gave up just one goal in the second and trailed just 5-3 at halftime. It appeared the teams might be headed for a tightly-contested finish. But the SDSU defense held the Pioneers scoreless the remainder of the game as the Aztecs slowly stretched their lead out over the latter two quarters to win by seven.

After a weekend of competing against an extremely high caliber opponents at UCSD, the Pioneers will now return home briefly before heading back to SoCal on Friday. They'll play four more games on Feb. 16-17 at the Redlands tournament.