The CSU East Bay water polo team brought the regular season to a close over the weekend and is now preparing for the Women’s Water Polo Association Championships set to be played in two weeks.

The Pioneers began their final regular season weekend at home against Cal State San Bernardino on Friday night, celebrating “Senior Night” where the four seniors on the team were recognized for their time and contribution to the program. These seniors included Jayme Pekarske, Erica Crain, Ariel Noriega and Carly Clarke.

The Pioneers were able to defeat CSU San Bernardino by a score of 18-13 finalizing CSUEB’s first undefeated home campaign in program history.

After the victory, the Pioneers traveled to Santa Clara the following day to kick off the Bronco Invitational against conference opponent and No. 19 UC San Diego on April 14.

In a tough matchup, the Pioneers suffered a loss against UCSD by a score of 9-3 matching a season low of three goals for the Pioneers.

Despite the early loss however, East Bay was able to win the second game of the invitational against conference opponent Cal State Monterey Bay by a score of 9-5. Junior Claire Pierce led the scoring for the second straight game of the day with five goals in the matchup.

In the second and final day of the invitational on April 15, the Pioneers opened things up against the Santa Clara Broncos where they defeated the home team by a score of 11-8.

The Pioneers faced Colorado State for the final matchup of the invitational.

In a head-to-head matchup, the Pioneers matched Colorado State goal-for-goal heading into the half with the score at 4-3 in favor of Colorado. Although the Pioneers outscored the Rams in the fourth quarter, their efforts were not enough as Colorado State hung on to win by a final score of 8-7.

Pierce continued to lead the team in scoring in both games of the final day of the invitational knocking in a total of 21 goals on the weekend.

The WWPA named Pierce the KAP7 Western Water Polo Association Women’s Co-Player of the week for April 18.

In a 21-goal scoring effort, Pierce led the Pioneers to a 3-2 record over the weekend, breaking the CSUEB program record for career goals finishing with 83 to end the regular season. Her efforts brought her career total to 260.

Liz Warren, who had 241 career goals with the Pioneers, set the previous mark.

Pierce is also now third for career steals in CSUEB history with 191.

With the conclusion of the weekend’s matchups, the Pioneers have ended the season with a 10-6 conference record and a 17-11 overall record.

CSUEB now has two weeks to prepare for the 2012 WWPA Championships, which will take place April 27 to 29 at UC San Diego at the Canyonview Aquatic Center in La Jolla.

The Pioneers will enter the championships seeded fourth in the conference, with Loyola Marymount entering as the No. 1 seed, UC San Diego as the No. 2 seed and CSU Bakersfield as the No. 3 seed.

After CSUEB, Santa Clara enters as the No. 5 seed, CSU Monterey Bay as the No. 6 seed, Sonoma State as the No. 7 seed, Colorado State as the No. 8 seed and rounding it out, CSU San Bernardino as the ninth and final seed.

The Pioneers first matchup of the championships will be against No. 5 seed Santa Clara University on April 27.

The WWPA Championships winner will earn an automatic bid to the 2012 National Collegiate Women’s Water Polo Championship hosted by San Diego State University from May 11 to 13.