April 24, 2012

LOS ANGELES - LMU senior Casey Flacks was named the 2012 Western Water Polo Association Player of the Year on Tuesday, as the conference announced its annual award winners for the 2012 season. Flacks highlighted a group of seven Lions to earn postseason honors, its largest group in program history.

Flacks, along with sophomore Alexandra Honny and senior goalie Elise Ponce earned first-team All-WWPA honors. Senior Kimberly Benedetti and junior Erin Manke earned second-team and honorable mention honors, respectively, while Mackenzie Beck and Laura Lopez earned WWPA All-Freshman honors.

The Lions are 17-9 on the season, 10-0 in the WWPA and are ranked seventh in the nation. In the last three seasons, the Lions are 34-1 against conference foes and enter the 2012 WWPA Women's Championships the top seed for the fourth straight season. The tournament begins on Friday, April 27 at UC San Diego.

Flacks is the Lions fourth straight Player of the Year winner and 10th overall since 2001. Ten different players have now won the conference's top honor. Flacks was named the 2012 LMU Student-Athelte of the Year for the second consecutive year and is the program's all-time leader in assists with 141, ranking second all-time with 46 this season.

As for Honny, she has been an offensive force for the Lions this year, with three six-goal games (the most in any one season since Nicole Hughes did it six times in 2009) while going for a team-high 68 goals entering the WWPA tournament. The goal total is ranked fifth all-time and is the most ever by a sophomore.

Anchoring the defense has been Ponce, who has played every minute for the Lions this season and has 254 saves with a goals against average of just under seven. Her save total this season is sixth all-time and she now has 597 career saves, ranked third.

Benedetti is second for the Lions with 52 goals in 2012, giving her 211 in her career. She is the fifth player to reach 200 for a career and ranks fourth all-time. As for Manke, she has 27 goals and 35 assists on the season, giving her 117 and 128 in three seasons. She is ranked 11th and second all-time.

Beck and Lopez burst on the scene for the Lions in 2012, with Beck scoring 23 goals with 11 assists and 13 steals while playing every game on the year. Lopez has scored 11 goals with seven assists and 10 steals.

LMU will face the winner of the No. 8 vs. No. 9 game between Colorado State and Cal State San Bernardino in the final game on Friday at 6 p.m.