Nov. 9, 2009

SAN BRUNO, Calif. - Senior Patrick Sampson has been named the West Coast Conference Player of the Week for November 2-7, the conference office announced Monday. The award is the first of the season for Sampson, who received the honor twice last year. He is the third Lion to be named the WCC Player of the Week this season, following freshman Max Young on September 14 and junior Rafael Baca on September 21.

Sampson (Lake Oswego, Ore.) marked his final weekend at Sullivan Field with a pair of victories to help LMU climb from last place in the WCC into a tie for third heading into the last week of play. He started Friday's game against Gonzaga on the bench but replaced Young at halftime with the score tied at 1-1. Called into action for the final 45 minutes, Sampson made three saves to shut out the Bulldogs as LMU rallied from a 1-0 deficit for a 2-1 victory. The three saves put him at 100 for his career. On Sunday, Sampson was one of seven LMU seniors honored in the final home game of 2009 and then went out to record his fifth career clean sheet, and first of the season, making two saves to blank Portland. Thanks in part to Sampson, LMU's two wins on the weekend allowed it to top last season's overall and WCC win totals.

Sampson, who is one of 10 finalists nationwide for the Lowe's Senior CLASS Award, improved his record to 3-3-0 this season, including a 2-1-0 mark in WCC play. He also lowered his goals-against-average to a team-best 1.40 in 515:27 minutes. His career GAA of 1.25 ranks fifth in the LMU record books while he also jumped up to sixth place in career goalkeeper wins (10) and into a tie for seventh in shutouts (five).

LMU (9-8-1, 4-5-1 WCC) heads out on the road for the final weekend of conference play needing one victory to reach 10 in a season for the first time since 2004. The Lions travel to Santa Clara on Friday at 8 p.m. before closing out the regular season at Saint Mary's on Sunday at 1 p.m.