Los Angeles, CA - For eight days the Loyola Marymount men's water polo team has been sitting waiting with another Western Water Polo Association Championship in their pocket to find out who they will face in the upcoming 39th Annual National Collegiate Men's Water Polo Championship. The wait is finally over as the Lions learned they will open the NCAA tournament against No. 1 seed USC at 12:00 p.m. on Saturday, Dec. 1 at the Avery Aquatic Center on the campus of Stanford University.

The Lions earned the automatic bid from the WWPA thanks to their 7-6 win over UC Davis in the WWPA Championship final at Air Force on Nov. 18. LMU enters the tournament at 13-15 overall and claimed the No. 4 seed in this years NCAA Men's Water Polo Championship. They will open with the Trojans, who won the MPSF championship and its automatic bed with a 10-6 over UC Irvine.

USC enters the tournament at 18-2 overall with two wins coming against the Lions. LMU to the top ranked Trojans 9-4 on Sept. 9 and then 11-3 in the winner's bracket of the SoCal Invitational on Oct. 13.

Rounding out the final four of collegiate men's water polo is No. 2 seed and defending champion Cal (26-4) and No. 3 seed Navy (29-5), who earned the automatic bid from the Collegiate Water Polo Association. Cal and the Midshipmen will play at 1:30 p.m..

This is the Lions fifth trip to the NCAA Championship, going 4-4 in their previous appearances. Three of the first four tournament trips have been at Stanford for the Lions. They have finished third every year.

LMU made their first trip in 2001, falling to UCLA 7-5 in the semifinals and then rebounding for a 14-6 win over UMass in the consolation final. Two years later in 2003, the Lions fell to Stanford 14-8 in the semifinals and defeated Navy the following day, 10-7. In 2004 the Lions fell to Stanford yet again, this time 14-6. They rebounded for a 6-5 win over Princeton.

Their last trip to the finals was at Bucknell but the opponent was the same as they fell to Stanford in the closest semifinal in LMU history, falling 7-6 as an attempt to tie the game hit the post in the final seconds. The Lions defeated St. Francis in the third place game, 10-6.