Jan. 15, 2004

Los Angeles, CA (Jan. 15) - Loyola Marymount University women's tennis coach Jamie Sanchez had the goal to give his young squad experience playing the best competition in the nation. Mission accomplished for the 29-year head coach as the Lions will play 15 ranked opponents in the 2004 season.

In the preseason ITA Rankings, who post the top-75 teams in the weekly poll, put the Lions at 60th in the nation. The national ranking for the Lions, who have five new players to their eight-person roster, will be tested right out of the gate when they play at 11th-ranked UCLA on Wednesday, Jan. 28 to start the 2004 season.

"In setting up our schedule this year I wanted to throw our young team right into playing the best," said Sanchez. "One of our top goals this year was to challenge our young team every day of practice and every time we play a match. We want to establish the mind set that we can play anyone."

Starting out of the gate against the 11th-ranked team in the country is just the start. After playing in the Cal State Los Angeles Tournament on Feb. 6-8, the Lions will travel to the east coast and take on eighth-ranked William & Mary on Feb. 14 and Temple, who advanced to the NCAA Tournament last year, on Feb. 15.

LMU will continue its torrid pace at 28th-ranked San Diego State on Feb. 18, then host second-ranked Stanford on Feb. 20 and 61st-ranked UC Irvine on Feb. 25. The home stand will continue with Cal State Fullerton on Feb. 27 and then Furman on March 4. After a road date with 20th-ranked Fresno State, the Lions will host ninth-ranked North Carolina on March 6 and the Marquette on March 8.

Wait, there is more. The Lions will then travel to 58th-ranked Long Beach State on March 13 before hosting third-ranked California on March 19. The Lions will then host Princeton (March 20), Santa Clara (March 27) and Sacramento State (March 28) while splitting the homestand with USC (March 25).

April will start with four straight at home, including 65th-ranked Brown (April 1), West Coast Conference foe Saint Mary's (April 3), 74th-ranked Cal State Northridge (April 15) and 75th-ranked UC Santa Barbara (April 17). The Lions will close the regular season at rival and 42nd-ranked Pepperdine on April 20.

The WCC Tournament will be held on April 22-23 at Santa Clara.

"We have a tough, tough schedule," said Sanchez. "This is who we are going to have to beat if we are going to meet the goals we have set."

- GO LIONS -