April 16, 2004
Los Angeles, CA (April 16) - Playing in the final home game of the regular season, the 7th-ranked Loyola Marymount University women's water polo team closed the home careers of six seniors with a 6-5 win over 14th-ranked UC Santa Barbara at the Burns Recreation and Aquatics Center on Friday afternoon.
As one of the most successful senior classes in senior history, Laura Sunderman, Neisha Hoagland, Devon Wright, Rebecca Peterson, Jamie Kroeze and Teresa Guidi played in their final regular season home game and closed it like they have so many others. The senior class finished with a record of 89-29, a winning percentage of .752. With the win over the Gauchos, the Lions improve to 21-5 overall and mark the fourth straight 20-win season for this senior class.
The Lions had to work for the win over the Gauchos, which has become expected in the series. In the previous two meetings both went to overtime with Friday's game on a similar pace. LMU came out quickly to post a 2-0 lead on a penalty shot goal from sophomore Stacia Peterson and an even-strength goal by Kroeze with 5:34 remaining in the first period.
The Gauchos would get within a goal in the first with 5:02 remaining. Both defenses would stiffen as the final five minutes would go scoreless. The Lions scored the only goal of the second period on a three-meter blast by Guidi to make the score 3-1 at the break. LMU looked to make some headway as they took their biggest lead of the day on a goal from Wright on a 6-on-5 advantage with 6:31 remaining in the third quarter.
UCSB once again answered with back-to-back goals by Jennifer D'Anna to make the score 4-3 in favor of the Lions with 30 seconds remaining in the third period.
LMU once again came out strong and scored the first goal of the period for the fourth time to go up 5-3 with 6:39 remaining on a tally by Peterson, her second. UCSB wasted no time to answer with Erika Clark's second goal of the day with 6:07 remaining. Both teams then traded goals again with under four minutes to play as Wright gave LMU a 6-4 lead with 3:59 remaining and then Clark answered with 3:41 to play to make the score 6-5.
Both goalies then stiffened to make three big saves each as Christy Medigovich stopped to backhands by Wright and LMU's Katie Murray made two doorstep saves to preserve the win.
The Lions and the six seniors will still play at the Burns Recreation Center as LMU will host the 2004 Western Water Polo Association Championships on April 23-25. In four years at Burns the Lions and their six seniors are 38-6 at Burns as they look for their fourth straight WWPA title.
- GO LIONS -
