Oct. 27, 2005

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Just Briefly
The longest home stretch of the season for the 11th-ranked Loyola Marymount University men's water polo team continues this week with just a single game, the return visit of Western Water Polo Association rival UC San Diego on Saturday, Oct. 29 at the Burns Recreation and Aquatics Center. The game is set to start at 2:00 p.m. The two water polo rivals have been in the thick of the WWPA title chase the last five years and have made it a tradition in facing each other in a home-and-home series each season. The Lions fell to the Tritons 7-5 in La Jolla on Sept. 23.

The Lions
The Lions enter the weekend with an overall record of 13-13 after falling to No. 7 UC Irvine on Thursday, 8-7, and then defeating Whiiter 10-5 at the Burns Recreation and Aquatics Center. The Lions played just three home games in their first 25 matches on the year. The game against UCSD will be the first time all year the Lions have played back-to-back home games. The Lions are 2-2 at home this season and are 43-19 all-time at the Burns Center. Senior Endre Rex-Kiss continues his scoring ways, leading the Lions with 56 goals, ranking him sixth nationally. He had three goals in the Lions' win over Whittier and now has 245 in his LMU career. Junior Brian McShane got into the scoring track over the weekend, scoring four the last two games to give him 22 on the year. His 43 drawn kickouts makes him one of the best at two-meter as he has drawn 128 in his career at LMU. Junior goalie Ian Elliott has moved to third in the nation with 202 saves on the season. His 6.9 goals against average has helped the Lions rank ninth in the nation.

UCSD
The 6th-ranked UC San Diego men's water polo team (20-6) continues its schedule away from home against UC Irvine on October 28th at 7:00 p.m. in Irvine, Calif. UCSD then takes on Western Water Polo Association rival Loyola Marymount on Saturday, October 29th at 2:00 p.m.The Tritons lost to Pepperdine 11-9 and UCLA 6-5 on the road last week. Against the Waves, UCSD was tied at 3-3 after the fi rst period. Pepperdine outscored the Tritons by one goal in periods two and three, making the difference in the match. UCSD led UCLA for most of the game. The Tritons built a 5-3 advantage in the third period before being outscored 2-0 in the fourth period in losing by one goal. Jonathan Hopkins leads the team with 65 goals and 49 assists. Brandon Borso has netted 49 goals and has added 29 assists. Ty Lackey is third on the team with 40 goals. Adnan Jerkovic has 33 scores and 28 assists, while Colin McElroy leads the Tritons with 193 saves. In the National stats leaders, Hopkins is second in the nation in goals scored while teammate Borso is 10th. McElroy is fourth in the nation in saves and UCSD leads the nation with 11.7 goals scored per game.

The Series
This will be the 30th meeting between UC San Diego and LMU. The Tritons owned the series in its beginnings, winning the first 18 meetings. However, the Lions have fought back to earn four wins, including two in WWPA championship games. Since the teams first met in the WWPA championship in 2000, the games have been decided by 1.5 goals per meeting, with the largest margin of victory being an 8-4 win by LMU in La Jolla a year ago. In the first meeting this season, LMU fell to 5th-ranked UC San Diego by a 7-5 score on Oct. 29 in front of 1,091 fans at the Canyonview Aquatic Center on the UCSD campus. UCSD (12-2) jumped out to a 3-0 lead through the start of the second frame and build the lead to 6-1 before the Lions (5-6) responded. The Lions scored the games next four goals to get within one before the Triton's ended the rally.

Meant to Be Broken
With three goals against UCSD, Endre Rex-Kiss moved into second all-time program history with 213 goals. His team high 56 goals this season give him 245 in his career. He replaced Kyle Witt (2002) who had 210. Ryan Eisberg finished his career with 301 total points (played during two-point goal era) to lead all goal scorers. In addition, his 10 assists at the East Meets West Tournament made him the all-time assists leader in LMU history with 104. He is also fourth all-time with 126 steals and tied for second in games played with 119.

Stopper
Junior goalie Ian Elliott showed why he is one of the nation's best by leading the Lions to another WWPA title. He continues that trend this season with 202 saves while allowing just 171 goals (6.91 goals against average). He has played in 99 of the 104 quarters this season and was named to the East Meets West All-Tournament team. He is ranked third in the nation with 202 saves, giving him a program record 714 in his career.

Last Week
The 11th-ranked Loyola Marymount University men's water polo team scored three goals in each of the final three periods for a 10-5 win over Whittier in Western Water Polo Association action on Saturday afternoon at the Burns Recreation and Aquatics Center. Senior Endre Rex-Kiss and junior Brian McShane each had three goals in the win. With the game tied at 1-1 after the first period, the Lions scored three goals in the second period to take a 4-3 lead in at the break. Goalie Ian Elliott and the rest of the Lions' defense tightened in the second half, allowing just two Poet goals to pull away. LMU improves to 13-13 on the season. It was the second win on the day for the Lions as they posted an 18-6 win in an exhibition game against Los Angeles Valley College. The heartbreakers continue for the Loyola Marymount University men's water polo team. Down four in the final period, the Lions score three unanswered to pull within one but can't find the equalizer as they fall to No. 7 UC Irvine, 8-7, on Thursday night in Irvine. Down just one at the break, 4-3, the Lions saw UC Irvine go on a 3-0 run in the third period and then stretch the unanswered stretch to four when the Anteaters' Andrew Dunn scored with 4:54 remaining to take an 8-4 lead. After Dunn's goal, the Lions' Matt Reynolds scored his third goal of the game with 4:33 remaining to cut the deficit to 8-5. Mark Milovic sliced the margin to 8-6 on a goal with 2:23 left and Ben Easton scored a power-play goal with 1:10. However, the Lions could not capitalize on their final two offensive series to fall to 12-13 on the season. UC Irvine improves to 10-8.

Back-to-Back
Brian McShane's two second-half goals and goalkeeper Ian Elliott's six fourth-quarter saves helped lift Loyola Marymount to a 6-3 victory over Redlands in the championship game of the 2004 Western Water Polo Association tournament at Schaal Aquatics Center Saturday, Nov. 20. The win gives the Lions their second consecutive conference championship and third in four years.

Award Winners
In case you missed it, the Loyola Marymount University men's water polo team added individual awards to their second straight Western Water Polo Association Championship. Junior Endre Rex-Kiss highlighted the honors, taking home WWPA Player of the Year honors. In addition to his MVP honor, Rex-Kiss was named first-team All-WWPA. Joining him on that list for the second straight season was goalie Ian Elliott. The sophomore earned first-team honors in net his freshman season a year ago. Making their first trip to the All-WWPA lists is senior Sean Wimer, whose 27 goals was third on the team, was named second-team and sophomore transfer Brian McShane was named honorable mention.

The Coach
In the past eight 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. In the men's water polo win over UC San Diego on Oct. 15, Loughran recorded his 200th career win as a men's water polo coach at the collegiate level. Loughran now has 147 wins at LMU to go with the 75 he earned while at Queens College in New York. Loughran has won eight conference titles in his time at LMU, taking five straight for the women's team and three in the last four years for the men. He has led the Lions to back-to-back conference titles, earning a win over UC San Diego in 2003 and Redlands in 2004. He has posted an overall record of 147-118 (.558) for the men's team in eight seasons, ranking him as the program's all-time winningest coach. He has also earned a record of 169-77 (.686) with the women's water polo program.

Burns Recreation and Aquatics Center
Since it opened in the fall of 2000 as the home of LMU aquatics, the Burns Recreation and Aquatics Center has seen eight championships and the two water polo teams combine for 95 wins in just five short seasons. The Burns Recreation and Aquatics Center opened in August of 2000. The Lions have thrived in the state-of-the-art facility, earning a record of 95-28 in five seasons. The men's team went 6-3 in 2004 and have compiled a record of 43-19 (.688) during its stay at the Center. Overall, the two teams have combined for eight conference titles while the facility has been called home.