Final Stats

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LA JOLLA, Calif. --Head Coach John Loughran knew going into the 2014 season he wanted to challenge his young team to get a measure on what areas to focus on as the season progress. So, he purposefully chose the toughest schedule he could get in the opening UC San Diego Triton Invitational.

The Lions opened with four top-eight teams in the preseason national poll and Loughran likes the direction the program is headed.

"We came away with something every game," said Loughran. "We came into this tournament with the understanding we were facing the toughest schedule we could have and our goal was to really focus on what we need to do to get better and to put ourselves in the position to challenge for a conference title. I feel we came away from those four games with a feeling that if we continue to develop the way we have, we will be in a good position come November."

The Lions fell to No. 8 UC Irvine, No. 5 Pacific, No. 6 Long Beach St., and No. 3 UCLA to start the season. They led Pacific at the half and outside a four-goal run in the second period against Long Beach State, played the 49ers even for the other there quarters.

"We had good performances overall all weekend," said Loughran. "We developed are roles well and as we learn we will be in the position to win some of these games in the future. Liam Jennis played well and keeps improving. Vuk Cvetkovic played well coming off last year's injury and Emanuel Di Stasio played well all weekend.

"We also had a chance to play a lot of guys, especially in that last game. WE had played three really tough battles heading into that game and UCLA was just playing their third coming off two blow-outs. So our guys had to deal with some adversity and they showed growth in being able to handle that."

The Lions will continue top-10 play on the road when they travel to face rival Pepperdine in the Wells Fargo PCH Cup battle on Friday, Sept. 12 at 3 pm.