This is the moment the LMU beach volleyball team has been working for all season. From the start of the fall, to now, they have tapped into their mental and physical game to get them ready for the moment that it all comes down to. The NCAA tournament. 
 
Lion of all four years, Isabelle Reffel from Vallentuna, Sweden touched on what will make it possible for this team to have a significant run.
"This year we really talked about coming out strong with swagger, really showing that we deserve to be there and that we deserve to win this thing. The biggest difference about this year is that we really believe in ourselves."
Reffel, now in her senior year, has experienced it all with the Lions throughout her collegiate beach volleyball career. All but winning a national title, and that would complete the journey that she has been in here. 
 
Reffel season long partener on the sand sophomore Magdalena Rabitsch Klagenfurt, Austria has a fresh perspective on the bluff, as she transferred in this season to join the winning culture that LMU beach volleyball cultivates every year. 
 
Rabitsch did actually make it to the NCAA tournament with her previous school, but she spoke to the difference that she experienced at LMU. 
 
"So last year our goal was to make it to the NCAA championship, and now the goal is to win the national championship. I'm super excited and grateful to have this opportunity to go in and battle out and I think we are prepared." Rabitsch went on to say, "from the fall before every practice we say this is the moment we're waiting for, so I can actually say I have done everything the last few months for this week so yeah, I feel ready." 
 
The Lions won the West Coast Conference Championship for what is now the sixth time in a row to qualify for the NCAA tournament. During the conference tournament, this pair went 3-0 to help secure the title for their team. They have also been extremely resilient throughout the season to stay consistent, winning 35 games during the regular season and only falling four times.  
 
The pair each had something to say about what made that kind of successful record possible. 

"I think establishing this relationship on and off the court throughout the whole semester has helped us achieve that," said Rabitsch. Then Reffel added saying, "We have our talks in the beginning of the year of what we want and what our values should be for the season. I think we really stuck to those and we're really good at communicating."

It also seems that it is off the court, and personal development that gets these players ready to hit, set, and dive their way to wins. The entire beach volleyball team works on their mental game, as much as they work their physical game. Rabitsch touched on how before each practice they sit in circles on the ground and meditate, they do a few exercises and a few routines that they do all the time. One of the practices is to start by being grateful for something, then visualizing, then focusing, followed by training their minds. Their mental exercises are paired with meeting with their sports psychologist once a week as a team.  

All this preparation led the Lions to a clean win in their first round of the NCAA tournament to Florida Atlantic University, 3-0. 

Now they face the University of Southern California. This won't be easy. But as Reffel mentioned, every team they will play in the tournament, they have won against already. The Lions second game of the regular season was a victory over USC 4-1, and they feel ready to do it again.