April 18, 2012

LOS ANGELES - The seventh-ranked LMU women's water polo team has been tabbed the No. 1 seed for the upcoming 2012 Western Water Polo Association Women's Championships, to be held April 27-29 at UC San Diego in La Jolla, Calif. The Lions enter the final week of the regular season at 15-9 overall and a perfect 10-0 against the WWPA.

LMU will close the 2012 regular season at home with a pair of games on the week, starting with Azusa Pacific on Thursday, April 19 at 3 p.m., followed by the Senior Day game against Long Beach State on Saturday, April 21 at 12 noon.

The Lions will recognize five seniors playing in their final home games. Goalie Elise Ponce, Casey Flacks, Whitney Delgado, Aimee Goodwin and Kimberly Benedetti will put a cap to record-setting careers at LMU.

Flacks, who does a little of everything in serving as team captain, leads the team in assists with 44, is second in steals with 34, leads the team in kickouts drawn with 40 and has added 20 goals. Flacks now has 139 assists to shatter the all-time record. Her 215 career kickouts drawn is second and the 171 steals is ranked fourth. Benedetti continues her march atop that record. With 43 goals this season, she has 202 in her career. She is just the fifth player in program history to top 200, ranking her fifth all-time. She needs three goals to reach fourth all-time.

The 2012 WWPA Championships will begin on Friday, April 27 with the Lions playing the winner of the No.8 vs. No. 9 Play-in game, which will feature Colorado State taking on Cal State San Bernardino. They play at 12 noon to start the tournament with the Lions taking on the winner in the final game of the day at 6 p.m.

The championship game will take place at 3 p.m., on Sunday, April 29.

Seedings for the 2012 WWPA Women's Championships are:
1. Loyola Marymount
2. UC San Diego
3. CSU Bakersfield
4. Cal State East Bay
5. Santa Clara
6. Cal State Monterey Bay
7. Sonoma State
8. Colorado State
Cal State San Bernardino

2012 WWPA Championship Schedule
Friday, April 27
#1: No. 8 Colorado State vs. No. 9 CS San Bernardino - 12:00 p.m.
#2: No. 4 CS East Bay vs. No. 5 Santa Clara - 1:30 p.m.
#3: No. 3 CSU Bakersfield vs. No. 6 CS Monterey Bay - 3:00 p.m.
#4: No. 2 UC San Diego vs. No. 7 Sonoma State - 4:30 p.m.
#5: No. 1 LMU vs. Winner of Game #1 - 6:00 p.m.

Saturday, April 28
Game 06: Loser Game #4 vs. Loser Game #1 - 12:00 p.m.
Championship Semifinals:
Game 07: Winner #4 vs. Winner #3 - 1:30 p.m.
Game 08: Winner #5 vs. Winner #2 - 3:00 p.m.
Consolation Semifinals:
Game 09: Loser #2 vs. Loser #5 - 4:30 p.m.
Game 10: Loser #3 vs. Winner #5 - 6:00 p.m.

Sunday, April 29
7th Place Game - Loser #9 vs. Loser #10 - 10:30 a.m.
5th Place Game - Winner #9 vs. Winner #10 - 12 p.m.
3rd Place Game - Loser #7 vs. Loser #8 - 1:30 p.m.
Championship - Winner #7 vs. Winner #8 - 3 p.m.

Winner earns automatic bid to 2012 National Collegiate Women's Water Polo Championship hosted by San Diego St. May 11-13.

- GO LIONS -