Los Angeles, CA (Nov. 18) - The Loyola Marymount University men's water polo team earned a 9-6 win over UC Davis in the first semifinal of the 2005 Western Water Polo Association Men's Championship on Friday morning to advance to their sixth straight championship game on Saturday at 3 p.m.

The Lions, who are the second-seed and are hosting this year's tournament at the Burns Recreation and Aquatics Center will face top-seed UC San Diego in the title game. The Tritons defeated Redlands, 9-3, to advance to the championship.

Holding on to a one-goal lead heading into the final quarter, junior goalie Ian Elliott made five of his 12 saves in the final frame to lift the Lions into yet another WWPA title game. After making a pair of key saves to start the frame, junior Cutberto Hernandez and sophomore Shaun Flood rewarded the goalie with back-to-back goals to secure the win.

The Lions improve to 17-15 while UC Davis falls to 16-14. The Lions converted on 4-of-8 during the 6-on-5 attack while the Aggies went 2-for-5, scoring both goals on four-meter penalty shots. Hernandez, Flood, and senior Endre Rex-Kiss scored two goals a piece to pace the Lions. UC Davis was led by Trevor Long's two penalty shot goals.

LMU jumped on the board first when junior Matt Reynolds scored just under a minute into the game to make it 1-0. Two minutes later Ben Easton made it 2-0 from just outside two-meter. UC Davis, however, came right back with three unanswered goals from Long, Danny Driscoll and Nick Arrigo to make it 3-2 at the end of one.

With their first possession of the second quarter, Rex-Kiss scored around the four-meter mark to make it 3-3 just 45 seconds into the second frame. The teams continued to trade goals before Rex-Kiss scored on the extra-man attack with just 1:02 remaining to tie the contest at 5-5 heading into the break.

Another quick goal to start the quarter gave the Lions a 6-5 lead when Hernandez scored on the 6-on-5 59 seconds into the fourth quarter. For over two minutes the score remained 6-5 before the Aggies' Patrick Jacobson tied it with 3:51 remaining in the third quarter. On the next possession junior Brian McShane scored his only goal of the game at two meters with 3:28 remaining to give LMU a 7-6 lead, one Elliott and the Lions' defense would not let go of. They held the Aggies scoreless in the final period.

As for the Tritons, they advance to the championship game for the fifth time in six years thanks to three goals from Jonathan Hopkins and a pair from Chris Eicholz. UC San Diego jumped out to a 4-1 lead at the break and then opened the game with three goals in the third.

The Tritons scored the games first three goals to never trail. Then with the game at 5-2, UCSD scored four unanswered to put the game away in the final two quarters. - GO LIONS -