Dec. 2, 2001

Palo Alto, CA - The Loyola Marymount University men's water polo team ended their first ever NCAA Final Four play with a 14-6 victory over Umass at Stanford's Avery Stadium Sunday afternoon to finish third in the tournament.

The Minutemen were able to draw the first score of the game on a 6-on-5 conversion as Evan Lutz put the 1-0 score on the board.

The Lions, however, retaliated scoring five straight goals to end the first quarter with a 5-1 lead. Lions goals came from Kyle Witt, Kevin Witt, Tamas Szego, and two from LMU's leading overall scorer Stephen Lipinski.

The Lions continued their scoring rampage in the second quarter increasing their lead to 11-5 at the halftime. Ky. Witt posted and Szego each posted two goals for the Lions along with Kevin Witt's single second-quarter tally. Umass's goals came from Carlos Ramos, Mike Foley, and two from Adam Moore to bring the halftime score within six goals for the Minutemen.

Rain and wind became a factor in the second half of the game as the two teams combined for only four more scores. LMU's Lipinski scored the only goal in the third quarter to increase the Lions' lead to 12-5.

UMass was only able to get one goal off in the second half as Ramos rallied to get back into the game. LMU, however, answered back twice as Kevin and Kyle Witt ended the scoring and the game is a 14-6 victory.

Kyle Witt and P.J. Rosenquist are two LMU seniors who played in their final collegiate water polo game. Witt noted "I couldn't think of a better way to end my career. My team really came through for us today" on the Lions' victory.

Head Coach John Loughran said "the team showed up ready to play the entire 28 minutes today, and they were ready to win. We had an impressive comeback, especially after suffering the loss yesterday [to UCLA]."