The Pioneers travel to the South Bay on Thursday afternoon for their third showdown of the season with Santa Clara at 3:30 p.m. Then on Saturday, CSUEB returns home to host No. 17 ranked UC San Diego in the team's second designated Western Water Polo Association (WWPA) match at 12 p.m.

East Bay is coming off two dramatic home games last week at Pioneer Pool. The first designated WWPA contest of the Spring did not go as the Pioneers hoped, as Fresno Pacific erased an 11-7 deficit in the fourth quarter and scored the game-winner with three seconds left in regulation on Friday. CSUEB bounced back the following day, hanging on to beat Sonoma State 8-7 to split the week.

Sophomore Adrien Van Dyke scored four games in each game last week, dishing out a pair of assists against the Seawolves and tallying a team-high four steals against the Sunbirds. She was subsequently voted as one of CSUEB's Athletes of the Week. Van Dyke, who was a First Team All-American as a freshman, leads the Pioneers and ranks third among all WWPA players with 53 goals this season. She tops all players in the conference with 81 total points.

Reigning WWPA Player of the Year Auriel Bill was East Bay's second-leading scorer during the last week, notching four goals and four assists. The junior leads the conference with 39 assists and sits just behind Van Dyke with 79 points for the season.

If recent history is an indicator, Thursday's match at Sullivan Aquatic Center should be a tight battle. The Pioneers and Broncos have already met twice this season, with CSUEB capturing one-goal victories in both games. It was a similar story in 2018 as East Bay took two of three meetings from SCU, all of which were decided by just one goal. 

Santa Clara was victorious in their most recent game, a 9-4 win over Concordia-Irvine last week. Annie Eldredge (25 goals, 34 assists), Hailey Eberle (26 goals, 23 assists), and Hannah Buck (32 goal) have bee the top offensive players for the Broncos in 2019.

The history is a bit more one-sided in Saturday's matchup as the Pioneers enter their conference showdown in search of the program's first-ever win over UCSD. The Tritons travel to Pioneer Pool having won seven of their last eight contests, and all 12 of their losses this season have been to teams ranked in the top-20 nationally. 

East Bay already took on the Tritons once this year at UCSD's home tournament back in February, falling 15-4. UCSD has four players who have topped the 20-goal mark this Spring in Grace Pevehouse (42 goals), Taylor Onstott (36 goals), Ciara Franke (34 goals), and Chanel Schilling (24 goals).