May 6, 2009

Complete Release in PDF Format

Tournament Central

The ninth-ranked LMU women's water polo team earned the Western Water Polo Association's automatic bid to the 2009 National Collegiate Women's Water Polo championship and have been seeded fifth in the tournament hosted by the University of Maryland, College Park at the Campus Recreation Center. The Lions will open the tournament against fourth-seed and fourth-ranked Hawaii on Friday, May 8 at 6:45 p.m. (3:45 PT)

INSIDE THE LIONS
LMU claimed its seventh WWPA Championship in nine years with a convincing 8-4 win over host Santa Clara in the title game on April 26. The seven conference titles is the most by any team in LMU history. Men's water polo and baseball have six each. The Lions enter the 2009 NCAA Championship at 25-7 overall and a perfect 13-0 against WWPA foes. The Lions have played 18 games against teams in the top-20, with all seven of the Lions' setbacks this season coming to teams ranked in the top-10. To the surprise of no one, senior Nicole Hughes has used her final season to solidify her status as the most prolific scorer in LMU history and in the process she earned WWPA Player of the Year and WWPA Tournament MVP honors. She leads the team and the WWPA with 121 goals after 32 games. Junior transfer Anne Scott was named the WWPA Newcomer of the Year, and now ranks second on the team with 52 on the season. Sophomore Mary Ann Campos is third on the team with 38 goals while freshman Kimberly Benedetti, who was one of three first-year player to earn a spot on the WWPA All-Freshman team, is fourth with 37. Sophomore Diana Romero ranked fifth on the team with 31 goals and was named second-team All-WWPA and second-team WWPA All-Tournament thanks to her 32 steals and 12 field blocks. Joining Benedetti on the All-Freshman team was Casey Flacks. She has come on strong at the end of the season, earning first-team WWPA All-Tournament and ranked second on the team in assists with 30 and steals with 48. Freshman Elise Ponce, a member of the All-Freshman team, and junior Eliana Arellano, split time in net for the Lions. The freshman made a team-high 148 saves, including 19 in the win over Long Beach State while the junior Arellano came on strong at the WWPA Tournament, playing in 10 of the 12 quarters, including the entire games in the semifinal and final wins. She allowed just 3.3 goals per game at the touranemnt and is tops in the WWPA with a goals against average of 6.76. She has moved to third all-time in LMU history with 368 career saves.

2009 CHAMPIONSHIP
LMU is the fifth seed and will face fourth seed Hawaii in the first round of the tournament on Friday, May 8. The Hawaii-LMU match-up will be the final game of the first day at the Campus Recreation Center. The No. 1 seed awarded to Southern California (24-1) and the No. 2 seed was awarded to Stanford (24-3). Stanford will face No. 7 seed Marist (18-13) on May 8 in the first game of the championship at 1:30 p.m. The next game will feature No. 3 seed, UCLA (22-6) and No. 6 seed Michigan (33-8) at 3:15 p.m. USC (24-1) will face No. 8 seed Cal Lutheran (19-12) in the third game of the day at 5 p.m. The Lions' faced three of the top-four seeds and Michigan earlier this season. LMU defeated Michigan at the UCSD Triton Invitational on Feb. 8, 8-6. LMU then went 0-3 against UCLA (Feb. 14, 14-7), USC (Apr. 2, 14-9) and Hawaii (Mar. 23, 8-7). LMU did not face Stanford, Marist or Cal Lutheran this season. LMU has never played Marist or Cal Lutheran in program history. All game times listed are Eastern.

LIONS AT THE NCAA
This will be the Lions' seventh trip to the National Collegiate Women's Water Polo Championship and the third time since it was expanded to eight teams in 2005. The Lions best finish in the tournament came in 2004 when they placed second, defeating Stanford in the semifinals but then falling in the title game to USC. It was the first time any LMU team played in a NCAA title game. The Lions are 7-7 all-time at the tournament.

RECORD PUSH
Senior Nicole Hughes entered the 2009 season with a chance at some lofty numbers. Entering the final three games of 2009, she has blown away the scoring records at LMU. She broke the record for goals in a career by scoring seven goals in the Lions' 11-7 win over Sonoma State on Mar. 15. She then added to her records with a single-game best eight goals in the Lions 14-5 win over Princeton, also on Mar. 15, and then did it again in the 14-11 win over No. 16 Cal State Bakersfield on Apr. 4. With 14 goals at the WWPA Championships to earn MVP honors, she now has a season-record 121 goals in 2009. She is putting the icing on a four-year stint that will leave no doubt to her status as LMU's most prolific scorer in school history. She broke Lucy Windes eight-year old record of 239 career goals, and is the first Lion to pass 300 career goals with 312 heading into the NCAA tournament. Scoring isn't the only thing she is climbing the records on. She past assistant coach Cara Colton for 8th in assists with 52 and is first in shot attempts with 608. On the season, she leads the team in goals (121), third in assists (21), tops in kickouts drawn (78) and tops in steals (54). Honors for Hughes this season: WWPA Player of the Year, WWPA Tournament MVP, First-Team All-WWPA, First-Team WWPA All-Tournament, two-time WWPA Player of the Week, LMU Athlete of the Year and LMU Strength and Conditioning Athlete of the Year.

DOUBLE DUTY
Junior college transfer Anne Scott, who is in her first season with the Lions after transferring from American River Community College, has made quite the impact for the Lions, not just in water polo but in swimming as well. While the Lions played the UC Irvine Invitational Feb. 21-22, Scott missed the first two games while swimming at the Pacific Coast Swim Conference Championships. She helped the Lions to a second place finish while being named the PCSC Swimmer of the Year. For the water polo team, she was named First-Team WWPA All-Conference and WWPA Newcomer of the Year. She is second on the team in goals with 52, first on the team in assists with 31 and third on the team in steals with 47. She also earned WWPA Player of the Week honors on April 15 for scoring four goals against UCSD.

GETTING INTO THE ACT
The Lions put up lofty numbers at the Cal State Bakersfield tournament, setting a season-high in goals in each of the four games. They scored 14 in the overtime win over CSUB, they scored 15 against Whittier, 17 against Chapman and then a season-high 19 against CSUSB. The high powered offense, led by Nicole Hughes, has 346 goals and is 33 from the all-time record. This year's number is second all-time. Freshman Casey Flacks has been putting up impressive numbers in her first season, ranking second with 30 assists this season (ninth in LMU history), earning WWPA All-Freshman and WWPA First-Team All-Tournament honors. Goalie Eliana Arellano also had a rare moment on the offensive end. In the win over Chapman, she started in goal, made 10 saves, had an assist and scored a goal. WWPA All-Freshman Team member Kimberly Benedetti was a big reason for the Lions win against CSUB, scoring a career-best five goals, giving her 37 this season. Sophomore Mary Anne Campos, with 38 goals this season, has moved into 13th all-time with 76 career goals while fellow sophomore and second-team All-WWPA selection Diana Romero has been tough to deal with for opponents at two-meter defense, earning 32 steals and 12 field blocks to go with her 31 goals. Romero has 70 steals in her young career.

20 WINS
For the ninth straight season, the Loyola Marymount women's water polo team has earned at least 20 win in a season. The streak started with a 23-7 mark in 2001, and since they have win totals of 21 (2002), 24 (2003), 25 (2004), 30 (2005), 25 (2006), 27 (2007) and 20 (2008).

SEVENTH TITLE
LMU won its seventh WWPA title with an 8-4 win over Santa Clara on April 26. The Lions advanced to their ninth straight WWPA title game with a 10-4 win over No. 9 seed Cal State Monterey Bay and a 13-6 win over No. 5 seed Sonoma State in the semifinals. For the tournament, senior Nicole Hughes was named MVP thanks to 14 goals in the three games, netting no fewer than four in each of the games. Freshman Casey Flacks, who scored a goal with three assists and eight steals, was also named to the first-team WWPA All-Tournament team with Hughes. Sophomore Diana Romero was named second-team thanks to three goals and five steals. Here are the capsules from the WWPAs:

Quarterfinals:	1	2	3	4	Final
#9 CSUMB	0	0	3	1	4
#1 LMU	4	3	3	0	10
Goals: CSUMB - Katie Sowel, Sarah Ford, Kellie Koomdyk, Nikki Smart. LMU - Nicole Hughes 6, Anne Scott 3, Mary Ann Campos.
Saves: CSUMB - Kristen Prosser 2, Shelby Carrillo 8. LMU - Eliana Arellano 4, Elise Ponce 5.
Semifinals:	1	2	3	4	Final
#5 SSU	2	2	0	2	6
#1 LMU	1	7	3	2	13
Goals: SSU - Laurel Stricklin 3, Sarah Watt 2, Samantha Mullins. LMU - Nicole Hughes 4, Mary Ann Campos 3, Diana Romero 2, Hana Gosney, Casey Flacks, Kimberly Benedetti, Anne Scott.
Saves: SSU - Lysa Lombard 6. LMU - Eliana Arellano 7.
Finals:	1	2	3	4	Final
#3 SCU	1	2	1	0	4
#1 LMU	2	3	2	1	8
Goals: SCU - Marina Allen, Amy Lamb, Kendal Hildebrand, Claire Linney. LMU - Nicole Hughes 4, Anne Scott 2, Diana Romero, Mary Ann Campos.
Saves: SCU - Wren Write 9. LMU - Eliana Arellano 2.

WINNING THE WWPA
The Lions went a perfect 3-0 against the WWPA Tournament with wins over Cal State Monterey Bay, Sonoma State and Santa Clara. LMU has won seven of the last nine WWPA titles and is 31-4 all-time in the WWPA touranment. Here is a look at the Lions, year-by-year, in the WWPA Championships:
2009 - 3-0 - Won WWPA title
2008 - 2-1 - Lost in finals to UCD
2007 - 3-0 - Won WWPA title
2006 - 2-1 - Lost in finals to UCD
2005 - 3-0 - Won WWPA title
2004 - 3-0 - Won WWPA title
2003 - 3-0 - Won WWPA title
2002 - 3-0 - Won WWPA title
2001 - 3-0 - Won WWPA title
2000 - 3-1 - Lost in semis to UCSD
1999 - 3-1 - Lost in semis to UC Davis
Totals: 31-4 overall

ALL-WWPA
Senior Nicole Hughes became the seventh Lion since 2001 to be named WWPA Player of the Year. She joins Lucy Wines (2001), Devon Courtney (2002), Teresa Guidi (2003), Devon Wright (2004), Rachel Riddell (2006) and Stacia Peterson (2007) on the list. Junior Anne Scott is the second Lion in the three-year history of the WWPA Newcomer of the Year to earn that award, joining Kaylee Caster from 2007. Hughes and Scott are the 21st and 22nd players from LMU since 2001 to earn first-team All-WWPA honors. Joining them this year with WWPA honors was Diana Romero, a second-team All-WWPA selection. Freshman Kimberely Benedetti, Casey Flacks and Elise Pounce all earned WWPA All-Freshman team honors.

BURNS CENTER
Since it opened in the fall of 2000 as the home of Loyola Marymount University aquatics, the Burns Recreation and Aquatics Center has become one of the premier facilities for aquatics in the nation. Its resume is impressive. The Burns Center has seen the Lions claim 14 championships, earn 155 wins and has been host to two NCAA championships in just seven seasons. The Burns Aquatics Center has helped the men's and women's water polo team claim six and seven conference titles each, respectively, and then the women's swim team winning their first title in 2008. In addition to hosting the two NCAA Men's Water Polo National Championship in 2002 and 2005, LMU has also hosted four Western Water Polo Association Championships - two for the men (2001, 2005) and two for the women (2003, 2008). The Lions have won three of them, both for the men and then in 2003 for the women. The Lions have thrived in the state-of-the-art facility, earning a record of 155-48 in eight seasons. The men's team went 5-3 in 2008 and have compiled a record of 63-30 (.677) during its stay at the Center.As for the women's team, they won their first 21 games at the Burns Aquatics Center and have posted a 92-18 record (.836) in nine seasons, going a perfect 14-0 in its first season in 2001. In 2007 they won 11 straight at the Burns Center to go 11-1 and then posted a 12-5 mark in 2008. This season they went 8-2.

THE COACH
In the past 12 years, Head Coach John Loughran has been going about his business in developing the Loyola Marymount water polo programs (both the men and women) into one of the nation's best. Loughran has won 13 conference titles in his time at LMU, taking seven in nine years for the women's team and six in the last eight years for the men (2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2007, 2009 for women; 2001, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2007, 2008 for men). He has posted an overall record of 201-158 (.551) for the men's team in 12 seasons and a record of 255-107 (.704) with the women's water polo program. The recent success has been yet another step in the accolades Loughran has brought to the program. He has earned four WWPA Coach of the Year honors and has coached seven WWPA Players of the Year in Nicole Hughes (2009), Stacia Peterson (2007), Rachel Riddell (2005), Devon Wright (2004), Teresa Guidi (2003), Devon Courtney (2002) and Lucy Windes (2001). In addition, Loughran has had 17 All-Americans, 43 All-WWPA selections and 13 All-NCAA Tournament selections.

- GO LIONS -