Oct. 30, 2008

The Loyola Marymount Univesity men's water polo team moved up one spot in the latest national poll to No. 5 in the nation, equalling the program's highest ranking in school history. The move up in the poll comes as the Lions head north for a pair of key match-ups with Western Water Polo Association foes No. 14 Santa Clara and No. 11 UC Davis. The Lions open with the Broncos on Friday at 7 p.m. in Davis, Calif., before taking on the Aggies on Saturday at 12 noon.

INSIDE THE LIONS
LMU played just one game last week, defeating No. 7 UC San Diego 10-9 on Oct. 25. The Lions improved their record to 13-8 overall and are 4-0 against WWPA foes, three of them coming to rival UCSD with goals in the final seconds of regulation. On the season 19 of the Lions' 21 games have come against the top-20 and 15 of those 21 have against the top-10. All eight of LMU's setbacks this season have been to teams in the top-10 and seven of the eight have come to teams in the top five, two to current No. 1 USC, two to current No. 2 Stanford and two to current No. 6 Pepperdine. Freshman Edgaras Asajavicius leads the Lions in goals with 34. Senior Tim Hummel continues to have a break-out final season as he is second with 27 goals while leading the team with 53 kickouts. Following Hummel in goals scored is sophomore Tibor Forai with 26. The Lions offensive attack has been balanced as seven players have scored 15 or more goals. In net, sophomore Andy Stevens has also been solid with 187 saves and a goals against average of 7.49.

WWPA HONORS
No player on the Lions' roster is hotter than senior Julien Lormant, whose four goals against UC San Diego on Saturday earned him the WWPA Player of the Week honors for Oct. 29. Lormant has now scored seven goals in two games against ranked opponents and his goal output on Saturday earned the Lions their fifth straight win over the Tritons. Trailing by a pair of goals late in the third, Lormant would score the Lions' last three goals of the game including the game winner with 18 seconds remaining to lift LMU to a 10-9 victory. It is the longest winning streak in the 40 meetings for the Lions against UCSD. All three this season have come down to the end. Tim Hummel scored with eight seconds remaining in LMU's 12-11 win in La Jolla on Sept. 25. The LMU scored the games final five goals including Tibor Forai's tally with 25 seconds left in regulation to send the game to overtime in the Lions' 15-12 win at the SoCal Invitational on Oct. 12. The two program's have combined to win the last eight WWPA titles and are 1-2 in offense and defense in the WWPA. UCSD leads the league in scoring with more than 12 per game while the Lions lead the league in scoring defense, allowing just 7.3 per game.

NATIONAL STATS
The Lions enter the week ranked fourth nationally in defense, allowing just 7.33 goals per game (154 goals). That mark leads WWPA. Andy Stevens is a big reason for that as he ranks 11th nationally and third in the WWPA in saves with 187, 9.59 per game. Offensively, Edgaras Asajavicius is 48th nationally and 18th in the WWPA in goal scoring. The Lions are third in the league and 13th nationally in scoring at 10.14 per game (213 goals).

UP NEXT
For the first time this season the Lions will face last year's regular season 1 and 2 in UC Davis and Santa Clara. Both the Aggies and Broncos earned the No. 1 and No. 2 seed in last year's WWPA Championship and ended up falling to the No. 3 seed Lions. That was the last time each team faced LMU. Santa Clara is 14-8 on the season and 8-2 against WWPA foes while UC Davis, who set the program record for wins last year, is 9-11 overall and 6-2 against the WWPA.

SENIOR LEADERS
Leading the Lions in 2008 are the senior quartet of Julien Lormant, Tim Hummel, Mark Milovic and Tim Heafner. The four enter the week playing in a combined 410 games and accounting for a combined 252 goals. Hummel will play his 117th game against Santa Clara on Saturday while Lormant will be in game No. 113, Milovic in game No. 99 and Heafner in game No. 85. Hummel is now ranked seventh all-time in games played and Lormant is tied for 9th.

LEFT SIDE, RIGHT SIDE
The Lions feature an international flavor in their one-two punch offensively as Tibor Forai and Edgaras Asajavicius are rejoined as Lions in 2008. The two played in development team action in the summer of 2007 and were considered a dangerous combination. Forai with his all-around play on offense and defense as a right-hander scored 50 goals as a freshman and was second on the team in steals. The pair have combined for 60 goals, including a team-high 34 by Asajavicius. The freshman broke out with a three-goal performance in the triple overtime game against USC and had another three goals against the Waves, UC Irvine and UC San Diego. Forai is third on the team in goals with 26 but has missed four games with a broken nose. He leads the team in assists with 19 and has 15 steals.