Oct. 13, 2010

Weekly Release in PDF Format

After over a month and nine games on the road, the LMU men's water polo team finally return home to host three games against Western Water Polo Association foes at the Burns Aquatics Center. The Lions will host just their second home game of the season when 16th-ranked Pomona-Pitzer visits the Burns Center on Thursday, Oct. 14 at 3 p.m. The mini-homestand will conclude with a doubleheader on Saturday as the Lions host Air Force at 9 a.m., and then Chapman at 12:30 p.m.

INSIDE THE LIONS
The 10th-ranked Lions are coming off a greuling stretch of seven straight games against ranked opponents, a streak that will continue with No. 16 Pomona-Pitzer on Thursday. Ironically, the last non-ranked opponent was the Sagehens, who were not ranked during their Sept. 18 meeting. Since then, Pomona-Pitzer has caught fire with a pair of ranked wins. In the Lions' 15 games on the season, 13 have been against ranked opponents. On the season they are 8-7 and 6-1 against the WWPA. The Lions earned Head Coach John Loughran his 300th career win with a 7-6 victory over No. 9 Pepperdine on Sept. 11. Senior goalie Andy Stevens has 155 saves in 14 games worth of action (11.07 per game). After being one of the nation's leaders all 2009 in defense, allowing just 6.13 per game, the Lions enter the game against UCLA allowing 6.40 goals per game. Senior Ikaika Aki provides big help in front of the net for Stevens, adding 19 field blocks, 26 steals and spear-heading the offense with a team-best 18 assists. He adds 10 goals in the process and has also earn a WWPA Player of the Week honor, earning it on Sept. 8. Senior Tibor Forai and junior Edgaras Asajavicius are tired for the team lead in goals with 28. Forai now ranks 5th all-time with 171 career goals while Asajavicius is 14th with 123. Aki has moved to 6th and 3rd with 82 assists and 140 steals, respectively. Forai is 8th with 73 career assists.

THE WWPA
The Lions have opened the season at 6-0 against teams from the WWPA, defeating Pomona-Pitzer and Santa Clara last weekend, running their unbeaten streak to 37 games against the conference. They went 14-0 in 2009, 11-0 in 2008 and won their last six in 2007 to win back-to-back-to-back titles. The last setback was to Santa Clara on Oct. 26, 2007, 8-7 in overtime. The streak ended at 37 with a 7-6 setback to UC San Diego in the final game of the SoCal Invitational on Oct. 3, 2010. The Lions have won seven WWPA titles in nine seasons.

THE COACH
Just three weeks after LMU won its seventh Western Water Polo Association championship in nine years and playing its seventh NCAA tournament in the same time span, Head Coach John Loughran was diagnoised with Acute Promyelocytic Leukemia (APL), a cancer of the blood and bone marrow. So on Christmas Day 2009, Loughran found himself in a hospital. Like so many of his teams, a complete team effort has Loughran in remission and back on the pool deck for his 14th season. "Going through this, the support of family, friends and Loyola Marymount has been tremendous," said Loughran. "An important aspect of handling this so quickly was the donation of blood and platelets during the critical moments of my illness by numerous individuals, many of whom I know and many that I don't know. One of the new special service projects that this program will undertake is getting the word out about the importance of donating blood and platelets." Loughran has led the men to 11 winning seasons and has guided the program to seven conference titles and seven NCAA appearances in the last nine seasons, including the 2009 WWPA title win over UC San Diego. Adding to his impressive resume, Loughran, who was also the women's head coach when he took the helm of both programs in 1997-98 year, led the Lions to a combined 14 WWPA titles (7 for women, 7 for men) and 14 trips to the NCAA Championship. He has won eight WWPA Coach of the Year honors, four in women's water polo (2001, 2002, 2003, 2004) and four in men's water polo (2001, 2003, 2005, 2008). Additionaly, Loughran has coached 12 different players to 22 All-America honors while having four players earn five WWPA Player of the Year honors from the men's team, including a pair from Andy Stevens (2008, 2009).