Sept. 18, 2004

LOS ANGELES -- The 11th-ranked Loyola Marymount University men's water polo team split a pair of games in the first day of the Southern California men's water polo tournament held at USC on Saturday.

The Lions fell to 10th-ranked UC Santa Barbara 6-5 in the first game and recovered for a 11-10 win over 19th-ranked Air Force in game two. LMU improves to 5-2 on the season and will play at 9:15 a.m. at Commerce pool against UC Davis. They will close the day at either 3 p.m. of 4:15 p.m. against either Long Beach State or Cal Baptist.

Junior Endre Rex-Kiss had all five goals against UCSB and five more against Air Force to give him 29 in seven games on the year.

In game one the Lions were in an early 3-0 hole after the first quarter and were down 5-2 entering the halftime break. After a scoreless thrid quarter, the Lions went back to what they have done all season - a fourth quarter rally. LMU used a four-goal rally to defeat Navy earlier in the year.

The Lions scored three goals in the third but could not counter as the Gauchos scored a goal for the one-goal win.

In the second game of the day for the Lions, LMU came out the aggressor and jumped out to a 4-1 lead after the first break. Both teams scored two goals each in the second to put the score at 6-3 LMU at halftime.

Thanks to five goals in the third quarter by Air Force, the game entered into the final period tied at 8-8. LMU would hold onto the lead with a three-goal quarter. Matt Reynolds added two goals in the contest as six different Lions socre in the game.

Group A: USC, Loyola Marymount, UC Santa Barbara, Air Force Group B: Stanford, Long Beach State, UC San Diego Group C: UCLA, Pepperdine, CBU Group D: Cal, UC Irvine, Pacific, UC Davis

Saturday (Sept. 18) at USC
9 a.m. - USC 12, Air Force 1
10:15 a.m. - UC Santa Barbara 6, Loyola Marymount 5
11:30 a.m. - Cal 19, UC Davis 7
12:45 p.m. - UC Irvine 13, Pacific 4
3 p.m. - Loyola Marymount 11, Air Force 10
4:15 p.m. - USC 12, UC Santa Barbara 6
5:30 p.m. - UC Davis vs. Pacific
6:45 p.m. - Cal vs. UC Irvine

Saturday (Sept. 18) at Commerce
9 a.m. - UC San Diego 10, Long Beach State 9
10:15 a.m. - Pepperdine 10, CBU 9
1:45 p.m. - Stanford 13, Long Beach State 3
3 p.m. - UCLA 11, Pepperdine 4
6:30 p.m. - B1 (Stanford) vs. B3 (UC San Diego)
7:45 p.m. - C1 (UCLA) vs. C3 (CBU)
Sunday (Sept. 19) at Commerce
8 a.m. - Air Force vs. 4th in D (optional exhibition game)
9:15 a.m. - Loyola Marymount vs. 3rd in D (Game 25)
10:30 a.m. - 3rd in B vs. 3rd in C (Game 26)
3 p.m. - Losers of Games 25 and 26 (11th place match)
4:15 p.m. - Winners of Games 25 and 26 (9th place match)
Sunday (Sept. 19) at USC
8 a.m. - UC Santa Barbara vs. 2nd in D (Game 15)
9:15 a.m. - 2nd in B vs. 2nd in C (Game 16)
10:30 a.m. - USC vs. 1st in D (semifinals-Game 17)
11:45 a.m. - 1st in B vs. 1st in C (semifinals-Game 18)
1 p.m. - 4th in A vs. 4th in D (13th place match)
2:15 p.m. - Losers of games 15 and 16 (7th place match)
3:30 p.m. - Winners of games 15 and 16 (5th place match)
4:45 p.m. - Losers of games 17 and 18 (3rd place match)
6 p.m. - Winners of games 17 and 18 (1st place match)
Game #2
#10 UC Santa Barbara (8-1)	3-2-0-1---6
#11 Loyola Marymount (4-2)	0-2-0-3---5
UCSB Goals: Ross Sinclair 2, Brian Alexander 2, Robert Bauer, Matt Dale LMU Goals: Endre Rex-Kiss 5 UCSB Saves: Jon Bonafede 9 LMU Saves: Ian Elliott 7
Game #5
#11 Loyola Marymount (5-2)	4-2-2-3---11
#18 Air Force (1-7)	1-2-5-2---10
LMU Goals: Endre Rex-Kiss 5, Matt Reynolds 2, Nick Oster, Cutberto Hernandez, Ben Easton, Sean Wimer
Air Force Goals: Josh Jewett 4, Murphey Morgan 2, Mark Herrera, Clark Condict, Matt LeBlanc, Eric Swenson
LMU Saves: Ian Elliott 10
Air Force Saves: Jared Jones 8 (4 quarters), Chris Nitzel 1 (1 quarter)