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One to Grow On
Sept. 4, 2008
Los Angeles, CA -- Heading into the 2007 water polo season, Loyola Marymount Head Coach John Loughran looked at his roster and wondered how they would survive the season with just two seniors, a group of newly anointed leaders from the junior class and a bunch of newcomers who would be asked to fill roles. Despite a season that featured as many ups and downs as a rollercoaster, the Lions peaked at the right time and won its fifth Western Water Polo Association championship, advanced to the NCAA tournament and set the table for more in the future. The future has arrived, the juniors have become seniors and their leadership is setting the tone for a title defense. Seniors Mark Milovic (DR, 6-1, 190, Villa Park, CA), Tim Heafner (UTL, 6-2, 215, Belleville, IL), Tim Hummel (UTL, 6-3, 215, Bellevue, WA) and Julien Lormant (UTL, 6-4, 210, Laguna Nigel, CA) have now won a pair of conference titles, as freshmen in 2005 and then again last year. And for Loughran, they will play a big part in the upcoming season, which starts this weekend at the UC San Diego Triton Invitational. The Lions open with No. 17 Cal Baptist at 12:30 p.m. on Saturday, Sept. 6 and then will play either No. 6 UC Santa Barbara or Cal Lutheran later that afternoon. The tournament continues through Sunday. "Our seniors are a major strength to our team this season and will have a huge impact in how we progress," said Loughran, who is in his 12th season at LMU. "Their leadership is outstanding." With the leadership in place, the Lions have continued to go about business in taking small steps to get better each day despite lofty expectations from those outside the program.
"Our goals are to have a successful regular season, put ourselves in position for a good seeding for the conference championship tournament and to win the conference championship," said Loughran. "With the level of competitiveness that this NCAA and WWPA season is going to have, it is probably premature to place high expectations on us since we haven't played with our full group yet." The expectations Loughran talks about is a preseason national ranking of No. 8 by the American Collegiate Water Polo Coaches and the overwhelming nod by the WWPA coaches as the preseason favorite to win the conference for a sixth time. The Lions were given 12 of the 14 first place votes and earned 168 of a maximum 169 points in the annual WWPA Preseason Coaches Poll. "We have good experience and leadership on this year's team. In addition we have some key newcomers that have the ability to fill important roles," said Loughran. "However, our approach needs to be the same as it is every year. Focus on getting better each day and work on filling each role to make us better as a group." The approach seems to be working as the Lions won their fifth WWPA title in seven years in 2007 despite a 13-17 overall record. The Lions played 28 of its 30 games against ranked opponents with 15 of the Lions' 17 setbacks coming against teams ranked in the nation's top-10, including the longest game in LMU history as they fell in a rematch to No. 9 Long Beach State, 8-7 in six overtimes. "Last season was one that our young team learned a lot of lessons and we went through many growing pains," said Loughran. "But they never stopped working hard all season. They were one of the hardest working teams we have had and it translated into a title last year and puts us in the position to continue where we left off." The Lions return five starters and 11 letterwinners from last year's team, only losing starters Shaun Flood (18 goals, 14 steals) and Rory Kelly (18 goals, 38 steals). Among the returning starters are all three of LMU's All-Americans in Milovic (DR, 6-1, 190, Villa Park, CA), and sophomores Tibor Forai (DR, 6-2, 190, Novi Sad, Serbia) and Andy Stevens (GK, 6-3, 205, Orange, CA). Milovic and Forai will be two of six players returning who played all 30 games last season. Milovic, who was named LMU's Most Improved Athlete of the Year, became an all-around leader for the Lions in 2007, earning first-team All-WWPA honors and honorable mention All-America honors. He played all 30 games and finished with 29 goals (second on the team), 18 steals and 11 assists. While Milovic was the steady leadership, Forai developed into the Lions' scoring threat as a true freshman. He finished the season with a team-high 50 goals, earning MVP honors in the WWPA tournament, second-team All-WWPA honors and third-team All-America honors. While his offense turned heads, it was his defense that flew under the radar. He finished with 30 steals, good for second on the team. Speaking of defense, many considered Stevens to be the best goalie in the NCAA tournament a year ago. As a redshirt freshman, Stevens was named the WWPA Newcomer of the Year and was an honorable mention All-American. He finished the season in the top-8 nationally in saves (297) and saves per game (10.2 saves per game). In addition to Milovic and Forai, fellow 30-game starters returning for the Lions are junior Brian Benedetti (2m, 6-5, 215, Mountain View, CA), Hummel (UTL, 6-3, 215, Bellevue, WA), Lormant (UTL, 6-4, 210, Laguna Niguel, CA) and sophomore Andrew Aki (DR, 6-0, 180, Honolulu, HI). Also returning who earned starts but missed games due to injury are junior Ryan Fair (DR, 6-2, 195, Laguna Beach, CA) and Heafner (UTL, 6-2, 215, Belleville, IL). "We have a good core group of returning players," said Loughran. "The strength of our program over the years has been player development and team chemistry. I think that has enabled us to play consistently at the championship level. The athletes we get are committed to the program and committed to getting better. This group of players definitely understands that." Hummel, Lormant and Benedetti were a force for the Lions in the middle, drawing a combined 111 of the Lions' 191 kickouts a year ago. Lormant, an All-WWPA second-team selection, was third on the team with 25 goals and drew 33 kickouts. Hummel was next with 23 goals while leading the team with 50 ejections drawn. Benedetti, drew 28 ejections and scored 13 goals. As a redshirt freshman, Aki came off the bench and played big minutes for the Lions in his first season of collegiate water polo. He scored 15 goals and had a team-best 23 assists. As for Fair, he played in 29 games and scored 16 goals while Heafner missed seven games and still scored 18 goals, including the game winner against UC Davis in the WWPA championship. Heafner was named the Student-Athlete of the Year at LMU as he scored eight of his goals in the last seven games of the season. Also returning for the Lions are redshirt junior Andrew MacDonnell (DR, 6-0, 190, San Jose, CA), sophomore Daniel Smith (UTL, 6-3, 195, Thousand Oaks, CA), and redshirt freshmen Charlie Horton (UTL, 6-3, 200, Mercer Island, WA), Michael Lim (DR, 5-7, 150, Honolulu, HI), Albert Samuels (DR, 6-1, 175, Villa Park, CA), and Max Schlegel (DR, 5-9, 180, Annapolis, MD). In addition to a steady group returning, the Lions have added a group of newcomers who could bring an instant impact to the Lions. Leading the way is 6-4 freshman Edgaras Asajavicius (DR, 6-4, 190, Vilnius, Lithuania) from Lithuania. With tons of international experience and as a lefty, Asajavicius has the tools to balance Forai on the offense and make the Lions even tougher. Also joining the Lions this season are Patrick Hibler (DR, 6-2, 190, Los Angeles, CA), Michail Lapida (UTL, 6-4, 230, Vilnius, Lithuania), Robert Pusic (UTL, 6-2, 180, Arcadia, CA), Joseph Svec (GK, 6-0, 170, Honolulu, HI), Connor Toomey (2M, 6-6, 210, Millbrae, CA) and Colin Walters (DR, 5-11, 200, Bellevue, WA). Testing the combination of experience and new players will be another challenging schedule that will feature the same top-20 heavy line-up. Home games at the Burns Aquatics Center will feature USC and Pepperdine in the home openers (Sept. 12 and 13), Long Beach State (Sept. 27), UC Santa Cruz (Oct. 2), Harvard (Oct. 4), UC Irvine (Oct. 16), Brown (Oct. 18), UC San Diego (Oct. 25), Air Force and Chapman (Nov. 9). In addition, the Lions will co-host the prestigious SoCal Invitational with Pepperdine on Oct. 11-12. The annual tournament is by invite only and traditionally features the top-16 teams in the nation. "Our schedule once again features the best in the nation, teams we will have to beat to win the conference and teams we will face to get to the next level," said Loughran. The Lions will also face on the road UCSD, UCLA, Santa Clara, UC Davis and Long Beach State. - GO LIONS - |
