Jan. 10, 2012

2012 Schedule

LOS ANGELES - As LMU women's water polo has grown into a national contender each season, its schedule has become traditionally loaded with the nation's best. The 2012 season will be no different as the Lions will begin ranked 11th nationally.

"Over the years we have been playing a tough schedule and this season will be more of the same," said Head Coach Kyle Witt, who enters his third season at the helm of the Lions. "In putting together this schedule, we looked at how it will best help us in getting ready for our conference championships and getting back to the top spot of our league. That is our goal in everything we do."

The tough tests will start right off the bat in the first weekend. The Lions will open with a Western Water Polo Association foe Cal State Monterey Bay and Pomona-Pitzer on the road at Monterey Bay on Jan. 27 before facing preseason No. 1 Stanford and No. 2 Cal on Jan. 28 with about three hours rest.

"We have two very tough tests right off with the two top teams within a couple hours of each other," said Witt. "And we will continue to have tough tests all season that are designed to get us ready to make a run at our conference title."

The Lions will play in four regular season tournaments, including their own LMU Invitational March 16-17. The Lions will also play in the Triton Invitational (Feb. 11-12), the Anteater Invitational hosted by UC Irvine (Feb. 25-26) and the Roadrunner Invitational II hosted by CSU Bakersfield (March 31-April 1).

All four will put the Lions up against more ranked teams.

LMU's first home game of the season will be against No. 6 UC Irvine on Saturday, Feb. 18. The Lions will then host No. 15 UC San Diego on Saturday, March 10 for their 2012 Centennial Game.

Following the Roadrunner Invite, the Lions will take on the two SoCal teams tied for third in the national poll. They will travel to No. 3 USC on April 14 and then return home for No. 3 UCLA on April 15.

The Lions will face Azusa Pacific on April 19 for Senior Day before closing out the regular season hosting No. 14 Long Beach State on April 21.

The 2012 WWPA Championships will be hosted by UC San Diego on April 27-29.