Despite her team suffering back-to-back losses, Cal State East Bay women’s water polo junior utility player Tori Dettloff is the Pioneer of the Week.

Dettloff scored six goals on 14 shots in two close losses this past week, which helped keep the Pioneers close in both games. Dettloff scored once on three shots in an 8-5 loss to Cal State Monterey Bay in Seaside last week and then scored five times on 11 shot attempts in a 15-13 loss to UC San Diego on Sunday at Pioneer Pool in Hayward.

“She got a lot of shots off and kept me guessing a little bit,” UC San Diego goalkeeper and the school’s all-time save leader Courtney Miller said.

Dettloff was named the Western Water Polo Association player of the week last week after she scored in all four of her team’s contests for a conference-high of seven goals and 11 assists. Dettloff scored two game-winning goals first against Chapman in a 6-5 win and then against Concordia-Irvine in a 12-11 victory. Both goals came with less than two minutes to play in the matches.

“Towards the end of the Concordia game, we had set up on offense but the play we ran was unsuccessful. Near the end of our shot clock I received a pass and I heard my coach, Lisa, yelling from the bench that I should shoot the ball,” Dettloff said.

“I shot at the middle of the cage, and a Concordia player field blocked the ball and redirected it over the goalie’s head and into the cage.”

This season Dettloff has amassed 24 goals on 73 shot attempts for a .329 shot percentage, 30 steals and 14 assists in 25 games played. She is second on the team in goals, second in steals, and fourth in shot attempts. The Pioneers are 11-14 this season with just two regular season games remaining before the WWPA championships begin on April 24 in Geneva, Ohio.

“In the beginning of the season I was timid and I didn’t trust myself to execute the skills we have worked on, which led to me not being an offensive threat,” Dettloff said. “It is still a work in progress, but I can definitely feel the difference now that I am focusing on my confidence.”

A transfer student from San Joaquin Delta College, Dettloff was named to the All Big 8 Conference team and All NorCal team twice during her time in Stockton.

Dettloff graduated from Lodi High School in Lodi in 2012 where she earned first team all-league honors in her senior season and was named to the honor roll in all four years during high school.

She played for two club teams, the first of which was the Lodi Water Polo Club and she was a member of the Big Valley Water Polo Academy in Lodi.

She said she chose to attend CSUEB because, “its good Biology program, we’re close to the beach and the city, and red and black are the best colors.”