HAYWARD, Calif. – This past Friday, Cal State East Bay women's water polo defeated Cal State Monterey Bay, 18-8 in WWPA play to conclude the regular season. It was Senior Day at Pioneer Pool.
In the first quarter, the two teams would trade goals, and the lead, for the first three minutes of play. The Pioneers took the lead for good, at 3-2, with 3:16 left in the quarter on a Leti Mosqueda strike. The Pioneers would add two goals from Adrien Van Dyke and one from Luna Sarmiento. The Pioneers led 6-2 at the end of the first quarter.
The Otters struck first in the second quarter on a Kaya Ortega shot with 6:46 left in the half. However, the Pioneers responded with the next three goals with one apiece coming from Auriel Bill, Mosqueda and Hannah Peercy. The two teams would trade goals before the end of the quarter as the Pioneers led 10-4 at halftime.
The two teams traded goals to start the quarter with the goal coming off the hand of Bill with 5:26 left. Bill and Mosquesda would score goals before the end of the third quarteras the Pioneers led 13-5 at the end of the third quarter.
In the fourth quarter, the Pioneers pulled away from Cal State Monterey Bay. While goals were traded three times during the course of the quarter, the Pioneers would gain their largest lead of the game at 10, at 18-8, on a Van Dyke goal with 51 seconds left.
Cal State East Bay outshot CSU Monterey Bay 34-28 and the Pioneers won all four opening sprints.
Bill finished with a team-high five goals on Friday and one assist. Mosqueda had four and Van Dyke had three with two assists.
Defensively, Daniela Passoni had nine saves in net and Brighton Kinney had four.
The Pioneers ended the regular season undefeated at 6-0 in WWPA play (13-14 overall), thus clinching the WWPA Western Division title.
Prior to the match, eight members of the Pioneers were honored prior to their final home match, including Bill, Kinney, Passoni, Van Dyke, Mosqueda, Payton Bosque, Briana Ruiz and Maddie Wittkowske.
The Pioneers ended the regular season undefeated at 6-0 in WWPA play (13-14 overall), thus clinching the WWPA Western Division title.
CSUEB head coach Lisa Cooper reflected on Friday's regular season finale - "Today was an amazing day. It was great to be able to honor our eight seniors and send them out with a win in their final home game at Pioneer Pool. I was extremely happy with how we played as a team today. It was a complete team win and gives up a lot of confidence heading into the [WWPA Championship] next week."
With the regular season concluding, the matchups for the 2022 WWPA Women's Championship is set. For Cal State East Bay, the first match of the tournament takes place the morning of Friday, April 22 with the first round contest against Mercyhurst, which will begin at 9 a.m. at the Fresno State Aquatics Center. CSUEB is the No. 1 seed from the Western Division and Mercyhurst is the No. 4 seed from the Eastern Division.
