Oct. 3, 2004

Stockton, CA (Oct. 3) - For the first time this season the seventh-ranked Loyola Marymount University men's water polo team used balanced scoring throughout the four games at the Northern California Water Polo Tournament and the result was the Lions highest finish in program history at the prestigious tournament as they defeated UC Irvine for seventh place on Sunday evening.

After falling to Western Water Polo Association rival UC San Diego 8-7 in the morning, the Lions defeated fifth-ranked UC Irvine 8-6 to take seventh place at the NorCal Tournament held in Stockton, CA, at the University of the Pacific. With the win, the Lions improve to 10-4 on the year.

Coming into the tournament, junior Endre Rex-Kiss led the team with 36 goals, three times as many as the next player on the team. However, throughout the tournament the Lions relied on a balanced attack and it was more of the same on Sunday.

In the first game of the day the Lions mounted another major come-back, overcoming a 5-1 deficit to tie the game at 7-7 with 27 seconds left on Nick Oster's second goal of the final quarter.

However, UC San Diego answered with nine second remaining on the fourth goal by Brett Eichholz. The sixth-ranked Tritons took a 5-1 lead at the break thanks to five unanswered goals in the second quarter and kept the four goal lead late in the third quarter at 7-3.

Showing once again they won't go away, the Lions out tie the game in the fourth with four unanswered goals. Rex-Kiss had two goals in the game, as did the senior Oster. Also scoring for the Lions was freshman Nik Barr, sophomore Ben Easton and senior Sean Wimer.

With little time to recover, the Lions came through in the final game as they once again showed they are second half team. Trailing 4-3 at the break, the Lions outscored UC Irvine 5-2 in the final half, including the games final four goals.

Trailing 6-4 with 6 seconds remaining, Sean Wimer scored his first goal to cut the lead to 6-5 heading into the final frame.

Just 57 seconds into the period the Lions tied the game on Wimer's second goal. Then Scott Marshall scored the eventual game winner with 4:13 remaining on an extra-man attack. Wimer would earn the hat-trick to give the Lions a two-goal cushion with 1:03 remaining for the win. Goalie Ian Elliott had 10 saves in the win, giving him 31 saves in the four-game tournament.

The Lions return home to take on BYU-Hawaii on Thursday at 3:00 p.m.

LMU vs. UCSD Box Score

TEAMS	1	2	3	4		F	RECORDS
#7 LMU	1	0	3	3	-	7	9-4
#6 UCSD	0	5	2	1	-	8	n/a
LMU GOALS: Oster 2, Rex-Kiss 2, Barr, Easton, Wimer UCSD GOALS: Eichholz 4, Budnick, Jerkovic, Williamson, Casellini

LMU vs. UCI Box Score

TEAMS	1	2	3	4		F	RECORDS
#7 LMU	1	2	2	3	-	8	10-4
#5 UCI	2	2	2	0	-	6	n/a
LMU GOALS: Wimer 3, Marshall 2, Reynolds 2, McShane UCI GOALS: Barry 3, Dunn 2, Noon