Sept. 24, 2010

Sandwiched between the top two regular season tournaments of the college water polo season, 10th-ranked LMU will travel to No. 2 UCLA on Saturday evening (7 p.m.) in a non-conference contest under the lights at Spieker Aquatics Center. The Lions enter the game at 6-4 on the season and 5-0 against Western Water Polo Association foes.

Lions' Multimedia Game Center
Get complete indepth information on the Lions' second week of the 2010 season:
Lions All-Access Preview • Interactive Release • Internactive Yearbook

INSIDE THE LIONS
The 10th-ranked Lions are coming off a 10th-place finish at the first of two tournaments that feature the best in the nation, the NorCal Open. The Lions are 6-4 on the season, all four losses are against the nation's top-10 and three coming by a combined four goals. 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 107 saves in nine games worth of action (11.9 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 6.00 goals per game. Senior Ikaika Aki provides big help in front of the net for Stevens, opening the season with 13 field blocks, 17 steals and spear-heading the offense with a team-best 15 assists. He adds six goals in the process and has also earn a WWPA Player of the Week honor, earning it on Sept. 8. Senior Tibor Forai leads the Lions with 22 goals, while junior Edgaras Asajavicius is second on the team with 18 goals. Forai now ranks 5th all-time with 165 career goals while Aki has moved to 7th and 4th with 79 assists and 131 steals, respectively.

SOCAL
Following the single game weekend against UCLA, the Lions will finish a tough stretch of their 2010 schedule when they travel to the second of the two regular-season tournaments that feature the nation's best, this time the SoCal Invitational. It will be in familiar territory as UCLA will host the tournament on Oct. 2-3. The Lions will be back at the Spieker Aquatics Center for the opening day of play, taking on No. 6 Pacific at 9:50 a.m. The other side of the group will be #2 UCLA taking on #17 Princeton at 8:30 a.m. The winners play at 3:10 p.m., while the losers will face each other at 1:50 p.m. Also in the tournament will be No. 1 USC, No. 3 Cal, No. 4 Stanford, No. 5 UC Santa Barbara, No. 6 UC Irvine, No. 8 Long Beach St., No. 9 Pepperdine, Co-No. 12 St. Francis and Concorida, No. 14 UC San Diego, No. 15 Santa Clara and Redlands. For complete schedule and results visit the SoCal Invitational Website.