In a year filled with broken records and all-time best finishes in program history, the CSU East Bay water polo team has added to the list of feats accomplished this year, completing the season better than any team has done in the past.

From April 27 to 29, the Pioneers competed in the Western Water Polo Association Championships hosted by UC San Diego, where they defeated CSU Monterey Bay on the final day 7-6 and claimed a third place finish.

The Pioneers entered the championships seeded fourth out of nine teams. Their first matchup came against fifth seeded Santa Clara University (SCU), where they were victorious in a close matchup with the final score of 11-10 in favor of the Pioneers.

With a first-round victory, the Pioneers then advanced to play the top seeded team, Loyola Marymount University, in a repeat of last year’s semifinals. Although the Pioneers entered the game with high momentum, their efforts weren’t enough to topple the first place team in the conference as they fell by a final score of 13-5.

With the loss in the second round, the Pioneers entered the final day of the championships fighting for a top three finish where they went on to defeat the Monterey Otters and earned a third place finish to cap the WWPA Championships.

“I am so proud of my whole team.  We played some of the best water polo we have played all season this past weekend,” expressed head coach Lisa Cooper.

“My team stayed focused, calm and relaxed through all three very tough games.  When we got down against Santa Clara, LMU and Monterey Bay they didn’t freak out, which shows great maturity.  And to be able to pull out two- one goal wins over some very good opponents shows great mental toughness.  We are in an extremely difficult conference and to finish third is a huge accomplishment including finishing above three division I programs.”

The Pioneers were led by the scoring efforts of Erica Crain, who scored six goals over the weekend, Carly Clark who scored five and Claire Pierce, who scored four goals. Goalie Jayme Pekarske had a total of 34 saves over the three games.

When it was all said and done, LMU claimed the title of WWPA champions with the home team UC San Diego finishing in second. Behind the Pioneers was CSU Bakersfield in fourth place, followed by CSUMB in fifth, Sonoma State in sixth, Colorado State in seventh, SCU in eighth and CSU San Bernardino in ninth place.

With the conclusion of the championships, the Pioneers officially closed out the 2012 campaign finishing with a 19-12 overall record and an 11-7 record against WWPA opponents.

“This season as a whole has been one of the best in my 10 years coaching at Cal State East Bay.  The team chemistry this year was amazing.  We had a great group of young women who all worked well together and believed in our team philosophy.  At the start of the season our two main goals were to go undefeated at home and to finish in the top three at the conference championships and we achieved both,” expressed Cooper.

“I had a lot of fun this year and I want to thank my team for believing and working hard.  I also want to thank my assistant coaches Jenna Casady and Cal Caplan. Cal did an amazing job with our goalies.  I believe Jayme Pekarske was the best goalie at the WWPA championships this year; she was a brick wall in the cage and our defensive leader.  Jenna is a great assistant and compliments my coaching style very well.  We could not have achieved what we did without them.”

Senior Pekarske along with teammates Pierce and Crain were selected to All-WWPA teams, making it the second straight year that three Pioneers earn All-WWPA honors.

Pierce led the trio collecting All WWPA First Team honors while both Pekarske and Crain earned Honorable Mention accolades.

The honor marks the second straight year that Pierce receives first team recognition and third straight year that she earned a spot on the All-WWPA team after receiving All-Freshman Team honors in 2010.

This year, Pierce became the Pioneers’ all-time leading scorer with 83 goals in the regular season, bringing her career total to 260.

Concluding her final year with the Pioneers, senior Pekarske started every game this year as goalie, capturing 279 saves leading the WWPA and all of Division II.

“This season was a great team effort,” said Cooper. “It really shows that when you have great team chemistry and belief, you can achieve anything.”