Sept. 4, 2004

Los Angeles, Calif. - The Loyola Marymount men's tennis team, which finished third in the West Coast Conference and achieved a top-75 national team ranking for the first time in school history last season, is ready to take things even further in 2004-05. A young 2003 LMU squad- five freshmen, two sophomores, and one junior- got off to a rough 3-5 start last season, but came on strong to win 12 of their final 16 matches to finish 15-9 overall. The Lions defeated nationally-ranked Yale along the way, and avenged two regular season losses to San Francisco and Santa Clara at the WCC Championships to capture third place in the tough conference, equaling the highest program finish for LMU. "Our guys really came together as a unit last year, which helped us to grind out a lot of close matches," Head Coach Nik DeVore said. "Every guy on the team made a significant contribution to a victory at some point during the season. We had a lot of ups and downs, but the adversity only made us stronger at the end of the season. The confidence and maturity our guys gained really showed." The 2004-05 Lions return every player from last year's squad and are looking for bigger and better things with the addition of transfer Purav Raja and a much stronger schedule. "Purav is a very experienced international player who possesses a great deal of talent," DeVore said. "I'm not sure where he will play, but there is no doubt that he will make a significant contribution." Raja will have the chance to add depth to a team that will face a challenging spring schedule, featuring home matches against Pepperdine, Miami, Princeton, Yale, Utah, Dartmouth, and Penn. The Lions will also take on Fresno State, San Diego, UC Santa Barbara, UNLV, Denver, and New Mexico State on the road. "Our schedule is very challenging this year, which is just what our team needs in order to get to the next level," DeVore said. The Lions are particularly looking forward to hosting so many strong teams at LMU after playing all of last year's home contests off-campus due to construction of the new tournament court. "We have a great new facility here at LMU, which features five newly surfaced courts and a stadium center court," DeVore said. We are looking to attract more fans to our matches this year and really gain a home court advantage. The Lions, who began training last week with the start of classes, will open the fall season at the Princeton Invitational September 17-19. "This season we are really looking to step things up," DeVore previews. "We are no longer a team made up of freshmen who are still learning the ropes. We are looking to achieve a much higher national ranking as a team and challenge for the WCC Championship. We have the talent, we have the experience, we just need the belief." -GO LIONS-