HAYWARD, Calif. – Santa Clara women's water polo and Cal State East Bay have a recent history of close games and Saturday's matchup was no different.

Auriel Bill scored four times and Adrien Van Dyke had two goals, including the game-winner with just more than 2 minutes remaining, to lift the Pioneers to a 12-11 victory over the Broncos who squandered a three-goal first-half lead then battled to tie the game three times in the final 10 minutes.

Hailey Eberle and Gabi Sicat each posted three goals and Hannah Buck scored twice for the Broncos (2-2) who out-shot the Pioneers 32 to 24.

Eberle scored twice in the final 5 minutes, tying the game each time. Her final goal tied it up at 11-all with 4:19 remaining, but Ivanna Anderson feed Van Dyke for the go-ahead strike 2 minutes later.

Santa Clara was unable to take advantage of two exclusions on Cal State East Bay (1-1) in the final 1:01. The Broncos, who were just 3-for-10 on the power play, missed their final four shots.

A goal by Sicat gave Santa Clara a 5-2 lead with 16 seconds left in the opening period, but Maci Taylor scored with 1 second on the clock for the Pioneers who ended up taking a 7-6 edge in the third quarter when Van Dyke set up Bill for a goal.

Annie Eldredge, who had a career-best five assists, scored to even the game at 8-all, but Maeve Flynn answered with a pair of goals for the Pioneers who didn't trail in the final 20 minutes.

Santa Clara and Cal State East Bay played three times last season and each was a one-goal game with the Pioneers winning twice.

Lydia Dadd was credited with four saves, but suffered the loss in net for the Broncos.

Makenna Nation secured the win for the Pioneers by turning aside 13 Santa Clara shots.

NOTES
• Hannah Buck, Emma Allegrucci, Annie Eldredge, Lauren Paxton, Kelly Frumkin, Hailey Eberle and Lydia Dadd started the game. Frumkin started for Maggie Oys who missed the game..
• Gabi Sicat's three goals were a career-high.

NEXT UP
The Broncos will play in their first tournament of the season next week. They will have four games in the two-day Triton Invitational, opening play against No. 3-ranked UCLA on Saturday in San Diego.

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