SARATOGA – West Valley women's water polo picked up back-to-back wins for the third time this season to improve to 3-0 in conference play.

It's the eighth-straight season the Vikings (6-7, 3-0 Coast) have opened their conference slate with three straight wins, knocking off their rivals, the College of San Mateo Bulldogs (0-6, 0-3 Coast), 18-4.

"Good day overall," said head coach Enrico De Munno. "The Vikings were able to get to 3-0 in conference, now waiting for next week to fight against Merced in Merced for first place in the conference."

The Vikings jumped on the board early in the first quarter when freshman Emma Van Laar was pushed in the act of shooting and leading scorer Sofia Gaytan Martinez converted the penalty shot. 

West Valley continued to score early and often, tallying seven goals in each of the first two periods. The Bulldogs had no answer for the strong Viking attack, with West Valley twice scoring off of their own misses in the first period. 

Van Laar was terrific on both ends of the pool as the point defender and one of the offensive leaders, making direct steals on back-to-back plays that led to her scores.

Gaytan Martinez played hole-set at the start of the season while the Vikings tried to rotate new talent through a very new roster. She was very good, but it seems as if West Valley's offense has moved to an entirely new level since moving her to the right flat and pushing Pooja Bucklin inside.

The two had Bulldog defenders off-tempo the entire game, at one point playing hot potato to lead to a score. Bucklin sensed two defenders collapsing on her, flicked the ball to Gaytan Martinez on the outside who, all in one motion, tapped it back to Bucklin to extend West Valley's lead.

"They are the backbone of our offense," said De Munno. "They were able to work together and create a lot of opportunities early on which allowed us to have a comfortable game, which is not always the case. But today, we executed everything we set ourselves to do, and the game went well."

While the Viking offense scored a season-high 18, the defense was fantastic also. West Valley's on-ball pressure led to numerous steals and, when the Bulldogs did have opportunities inside, Viking goalie Leo Jolissaint was there to make the play.

"Leo is yet to disappoint us in the cage," said De Munno. "Leo has been what is holding our defense together. It's always good when your goalie is able to take care of their job in the back end, and Leo has been doing that fantastically throughout the whole year."

West Valley also allowed a season-low four goals, the fewest the Vikings have allowed in a conference match since last October against City College of San Francisco.