This blog is written by Ray Ferrari, a sophomore Communication Studies major from Eugene, Ore. Ray works in the LMU Sports Media department, is a leader of the ROAR Student Section, is a former sports writer at The Los Angeles Loyolan, and is a member of The Crimson Circle service organization. His weekly recap of LMU Athletics will be posted here every Monday allowing for a quick glance at the week that was in Lion Sports.

Lion pride is at a true low point around campus these days, with most LMU teams continuing their slumps over the past week. 

In what some might call the most anticipated LMU sporting event every year, the men's basketball team had no answers for the visiting Gonzaga Bulldogs. Last Thursday, LMU hosted Gonzaga in front of a packed Gersten Pavilion with hopes of upsetting the No. 7 Bulldogs, who are undefeated in the WCC. But the Lions failed to get stops on defense or baskets on offense, which added up to an embarrassing 88-43 loss. 

The women's basketball team had an unpleasant visit to the Northwest over the weekend, dropping another two conference games, extending their losing streak to four. Thursday night, the Lions fell to Gonzaga 79-57 before losing another close game with Portland, 65-63 on Saturday.

In their final meet before the season finale at the MPSF Championships, the LMU swimming team dropped a pair of decisions at UC Santa Barbara Saturday. At the double dual meet, the Lions fell to host UCSB 176-85 and also lost to Pacific 159-103. This meet ended the Lions' regular season, as the team will now begin preparation for the conference championships in two weeks.

The women's tennis team provided the highlight of the week when they upset No. 39 Long Beach St. at home 4-3 on Friday. The big non-conference win took the Lions to 2-0 to start the season. However, their luck changed when they went on the road Sunday as LMU was swept 7-0 to No. 65 UC Irvine.

The men's tennis team had a tough test at hand on Sunday as they took on No. 2 USC, who has dominated the region for years. The Lions lost 6-1 and dropped to a bitter 0-4 to start 2013.

While most of the teams in season are struggling, other teams are making coaching moves in hopes to foster future success. The women's volleyball team just named Ron Larson as its top assistant coach. Larson is the former head coach at UC Riverside and has also helped coach the U.S. Olympic team. The softball team just added Katie Schroeder to the coaching staff as well. Schroeder was a two-time All-American for UCLA before graduating last year. 

This blog is written by Ray Ferrari, a sophomore Communication Studies major from Eugene, Ore. Ray also writes sports for the Los Angeles Loyolan and is a leader of the ROAR Student Section. His weekly recap of LMU Athletics will be posted here every Monday allowing for a quick glance at the week that was in Lion Sports.

After a long road trip that included a weekend in Alaska over the break, the men's basketball team finally returned home last week for two games at Gersten Pavilion. Thursday night against Long Beach St., the Lions came out firing and went up by double digits early. But a 49ers comeback ended the hard-fought match giving LMU the 73-70 loss. Saturday the Lions took on Portland St. for the annual homecoming game. A pregame tailgate and t-shirt giveaway got the LMU fan base behind their team and helped them to a 66-56 win and a 4-4 record.

The women's basketball team found similar results in their first week back after their Thanksgiving tournament. At home Wednesday, the Lions easily handled Colorado St. and won 69-52. LMU then headed across town to face UCLA on Sunday, where they lost 86-66 to the No. 19 Bruins.

The volleyball team played their first postseason match since 2005 on Friday when they went to Palo Alto to face Western Kentucky. After receiving the unexpected bid to the tournament the week before, the Lions were thrilled to extend their season. Unfortunately the No. 17 Hill Toppers (32-3) were too much to handle as they swept LMU 25-23, 25-19, 25-17.

Three LMU swimmers were invited to compete at the U.S. Winter National Championships last weekend in Austin, Texas. Senior Camille Hopp appeared in two events, the 100 breaststroke, in which she recorded a season-best time, and the 50 freestyle. Junior Rachel Dekar raced in the 100 breaststroke as well while freshman Kristen Clarno swam in the 200 intermediate medley. All three swimmers finished their preliminary race in the top 50. The event featured the top swimmers in the country, which included a number of Olympians.

This blog is written by Ray Ferrari, a sophomore Communication Studies major from Eugene, Ore. His weekly recap of LMU Athletics will be posted here every Monday allowing for a quick glance at the week that was in Lion Sports.

Fall sports are officially over for 2012 here at LMU with water polo, volleyball, and cross country wrapping things up over the weekend. The campus is starting to slow down, as students are getting ready for the much-needed five-day break to celebrate Thanksgiving before returning for the final stretch of the semester.

The men's water polo team finished their season at the WWPA Championships in Whittier, Calif. last weekend. Friday, the Lions beat Pomona-Pitzer 13-11 in the opening round. Saturday, the Lions' hopes of a conference championship were washed away in a heartbreaking 10-9 loss to #13 Air Force. In the consolation final Sunday, LMU went out with a win as they defeated #16 UC Davis 12-7 to take third place in the tournament.

Volleyball's final weekend resembled much of their season as they earned one big win and then lost a close one. The Lions entered the final round of conference games with a slight outside shot at making the NCAA tournament, giving them something to fight for. LMU opened up strong on the road, sweeping Santa Clara 3-0 on Thursday. But at San Francisco on the final day of the season, the Lions fell 3-2 in five sets. LMU will now take a few weeks off before getting ready for the sand volleyball season in the spring.

Senior Sheree Shea represented LMU at the NCAA Cross Country National Championships Saturday in Louisville, Ky. She was the lone Lion to qualify for the meet after strong performances all fall and an 11^th place qualifying finish at the West Regionals in Seattle, Wash. last weekend. Shea ran the 6,000 meter event in a time of 21:23.2.

Men's basketball earned their first road win of the season in a 76-73 decision at CSU Bakersfield. The Lions jumped out to a fast start, going up 16 points early before CSUB came charging back at home. The game wasn't pretty, but the Lions will take the result and improve to 2-1. LMU is now off to Anchorage, Ak. for the Great Alaska Shootout, where they will play three games over the Thanksgiving weekend. 

Women's basketball got its first two wins of the season in the first two home games of the year last week. On Thursday, the Lions beat visiting Long Beach St. 58-52 and Saturday, the team put up 98 points in a 17-point win over Utah St. The 98 points is the most scored by the Lions since 2007 and the third most in program history.

The LMU swimming team had a big weekend at the Arena Invitational in Long Beach, Calif., sending multiple swimmers to event finals on each day in a very competitive field. Freshman Kristin Clarno set the LMU record in the 200 IM with a time of 2:02.98. LMU's 200 medley relay team also broke a school record over the weekend with a time of 1:44.23. Many Lions also set season and career personal records. 

This blog is written by Ray Ferrari, a sophomore Communication Studies major from Eugene, Ore. His weekly recap of LMU Athletics will be posted here every Monday allowing for a quick glance for the week that was in Lion Sports. 

The open to the 2012-13 LMU men's basketball season comes at a perfect time tomorrow with midterms mostly finished and the student body at the peak of their excitement in between two Halloween weekends. But let's talk about what has already happened in the wide world of LMU sports.

Lion water polo got back on track this week when the 11^th ranked men's team won both of its WWPA matches to improve to 9-2 in conference play. Friday, LMU scored the game-winning goal with nine seconds left to beat #16 UC Davis on the road. Saturday, the Lions won again on the road when they took down #19 Santa Clara 12-7.

Volleyball had a strong week as well, which began Thursday in Malibu when they took #23 Pepperdine to a fifth set before losing a close one. Pepperdine needed 32 points to win the first set and 28 to win the second set before LMU took back the third and fourth sets, which led to a close loss in the final deciding set. At home Saturday, the Lions took care of business against Gonzaga when they won 3-0 in a quick and efficient sweep.

After a strong season of races, the Lion cross country teams both took 5^th place at the WCC Championship meet in Portland, Ore. Leading the men was junior Weston Strum who finished seventh overall while the women's race saw senior Sharee Shea take third overall. The Lions will compete at the NCAA West Regionals in Seattle starting on November 9.

Men's soccer had their bye week the previous week and after 12 days without a match, the team came out slow on the road against WCC leader San Diego when they fell 2-0 on Wednesday. Sunday, the Lions ended a four-match losing streak when they drew a tie against San Francisco at home. This gave the Lions their fifth point and keeps them at sixth place in the conference.

The women's soccer team also saw a streak end but unfortunately this was not a good thing. After winning three games in a row, the Lions had a tough stay in the Northwest, losing to Gonzaga 2-0 on Friday and losing to Portland 2-0 on Sunday. Remaining with nine points, the women are now tied for fifth place in the WCC.

Continuing its start to the season, the swim team had another strong showing at the Malibu Invitational over the weekend. The LMU women won two of the three distance events and won 11 out of the 14 sprint and mid-distance events.

The LMU men's golf team wrapped up their fall season last week at the Bill Cullum Invitational at Wood Ranch Golf Club in Simi Valley, Calif. After three rounds of play, the Lions finished the tournament in ninth place.

This blog is written by Ray Ferrari, a sophomore Communication Studies major from Eugene, Ore. His weekly recap of LMU Athletics will be posted here every Monday allowing for a quick glance for the week that was in Lion Sports. 

Two weeks away from the WCC Championships, the LMU cross country teams continued to look fast over the weekend. Amongst a strong field at the Chile Pepper Festival race in Fayetteville, Ark., the women's team finished in fifth place and the men's team received fourth place.

After seven consecutive wins, the ninth-ranked men's water polo team was put to the test Saturday against #1 USC. The big home crowd helped the Lions to a 1-0 lead at the end of the first period but the talent and depth of the visiting Trojans proved too much to handle as the Lions eventually lost 13-6.

The volleyball team got back on track Thursday with a win in straight sets over visiting Santa Clara. After six straight home matches, the Lions then started their stretch of two weeks of road games. On Saturday, LMU fell to #13 San Diego in three games. The weekend split sent LMU to 2-5 in the WCC.

Considering they played against a team that had not lost the previous eight games in #18 Santa Clara, the women's soccer team performed quite well over the weekend. On the road against the Broncos, LMU barely lost 1-0 as a late goal held up for the home team despite more shots on goal and corner kicks by the Lions. Then at home Sunday, the team picked up its first conference win against Saint Mary's in an offense-heavy 3-2 match.

Continuing to struggle, the men's soccer team lost another pair of games during the week. After jumping to an early lead Wednesday against visiting San Diego, the Lions could not hang on and eventually lost 2-1 in the two overtime periods. At San Francisco on Friday, some defensive mishaps led to two USF goals, sending the Lions to an unexpected 1-4-1 start in WCC play. The Lions will receive a much needed bye week now before returning to play in San Diego on October 24.

The women's tennis team played well on the road when they traveled to Tennessee last week for the Memphis Invitational. On Friday, all six Lions won their singles matches against opponents from UT Martin but lost 1-2 in doubles matches against the University of Memphis. Saturday, LMU went 2-4 in singles matches against Memphis and swept Drake in three doubles matches.  And on Sunday, the Lions went 5-1 in singles matches against Drake to wrap up a successful weekend.

In their first competitions of the year, the women's swim team came out to a fast start as they earned a share of first place in the PCSC Relays Saturday and dominated the PCSC Pentathlon Sunday, which were both held at Biola University in La Mirada. Calif.