March 21, 2006

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Briefly
It will be a very busy week for the fourth-ranked Loyola Marymount women's water polo team as they will play five games, including four in the third annual LMU Women's Water Polo Invitational. The Lions will take on Maryland on Wednesday, March 22 to start the week before hosting the nine-team invitational on Friday and Saturday, March 24-25. All the games will be at the Burns Recreation and Aquatics Center, where LMU holds a 52-9 all-time record at the six-year old facility.

Scouting the Lions
The Lions are 9-3 on the season after splitting a pair of games last week, including a 10-9 win over WWPA rival and 13th-ranked UC San Diego on Friday and an 8-2 setback to No. 3 UCLA. This week's games will mark the first time in 12 contests on the year the Lions will play unranked teams. The Lions, who continue to hold at fourth in the nation, won the Triton Invitational to start the season and took fifth in the Gaucho Invitational, which featured 15 of the country's top-16 teams. The Lions have been getting it done on defense, thanks in large part to All-American goalie Rachel Riddell. The junior is eighth in the nation with 135 saves and is first with 12.72 saves per game. That has led the Lions' defense to a number five overall ranking as opponents average a mere 5.4 goals per contest. In the Lions' fifth-place win over No. 6 Cal, Riddell was impressive, allowing just one goal while making 18 saves. The Lions offense has been spreading out the wealth as junior Katie Hicks leads the team with 20 goals while sophomore Christine Robinson is second with 17 goals. Senior Stacia Peterson, who sits second on LMU's all-time goals list with 161, has been out the last four games with an injured back. Also out is starting two-meter defender Sarah Hamilton and Riddell also missed the UC San Diego game due to an injured elbow.

Up This Week
For the first time in program, LMU will take on Maryland in women's water polo. Maryland is 11-4 entering the week thanks in part to a 5-1 win over No. 18 Princeton on Saturday. It will be a busy week for Maryland as well as they will play eight games in six days on a West Coast trip. They will play Cal Tech and Cal Baptist on Tuesday and then Occidental on Wednesday morning before playing the Lions. The game against Maryland is a preview for the 2006 LMU Invitational, which features nine teams playing 16 games in two days at the Burns Recreation and Aquatics Center. The Lions will get four games against Western Water Polo Association opponents, including Chapman, 20th-ranked CS Bakersfield, Colorado State and CS San Bernardino.

Balanced Attack
The Lions got scoring throughout their balanced line-up in the opening weekend of play as 12 different players scored at the Triton Invitational. The balanced attack was even better at making the most of their opportunities, hitting on 45.7 of their shots in the four games. Stacia Peterson and Christine Robinson each had six goals in the four games while Katie Hicks had five. Peterson, who added a goal at the Gaucho Invitational, moved her career total to 161, second best all-time at LMU, while Hicks, with 20 goals to lead the Lions, moved to 125, fourth in program history. While the goal scorers did their thing, All-American goalie Rachel Riddell did hers, allowing just 2.75 goals per game in the tournament. She has 135 saves while allowing just 56 goals in 11 games this season.

A Record String
The women's water polo program has arguably become the most successful in LMU history as they have claimed five straight conference championships. In the 92-plus year history of LMU athletics, only volleyball and baseball come close to the Lions' dominance with three straight titles. Women's volleyball won three straight titles in 1994, 1995 and 1996 while baseball did it in 1998, 1999 and 2000. Women's water polo team, with titles in 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004 and 2005, have posted five-straight 20-win seasons, six-straight winning seasons and with the 9-3 record so far this season, they have compiled a record of 130-39 (.769) the last five-plus years.

Win Plateau
With the wins in the 2005 NCAA tournament, LMU secured a 30-win season for the first time in program history. The Lions enter 2006 winners of five straight Western Water Polo Association Championships, the most consecutive titles by any program in school history. In addition, the Lions have earned six straight winning seasons and five straight seasons with 20 or more wins. Head Coach John Loughran has helped his team set a program record for wins in a season in five of the last six seasons. Loughran, a four-time WWPA Coach of the Year, led the Lions to its first winning season of 18-16 in 2000 and they have been rolling ever since. They claimed their first 20-win season in 2001 with a 23-7 mark. They followed that with a 21-8 record. They broke the wins mark at 24-9 in 2003 and then did one better in 2004 at 25-6. This season's winning percentage of 81.0 is also a program best. This season the Lions used a 13-game winning streak, tied for best in the program's history, to claim another win record.

The WWPA Title
In her four seasons with the Loyola Marymount University women's water polo team, 2005 senior Jessica Conner had seen the Lions climb to the top of the Western Water Polo Association and stay there. She made sure that tradition would continue as she led the Lions to their fifth straight WWPA championship with an 8-4 win over UC Davis in the final game of the WWPA tournament. As the only four-year senior on the squad a year ago, Conner led the Lions with four goals to claim the 2005 WWPA title at Davis.

WWPA Honors
Junior goalie Rachel Riddell, who took the 2004 season off to play for the Canadian National Team in the Olympics last summer, was named the 2005 Western Water Polo Association Player of the Year. She made 14 saves in both the semifinal win over Santa Clara and in the title game against UC Davis. She allowed just seven goals in three games for the Lions in the tournament. Riddell has helped the Lions to a 4.7 goals against average this season, ranking third in the nation. She was joined on the All-WWPA first-team by Stacia Peterson and Katie Hicks. Earning second-team All-WWPA honors was freshman Christine Robinson. Hicks finished second with 51 goals and Robinson third with 48.

The 2005 Tourney
The 2005 edition of the NCAA tournament had a new look, expanding from four teams to eight in a three-day format. In addition, the three conference automatic qualification bids in the past have expanded to five. The Lions earned the bid from the Western Water Polo Association, one of the three original conferences with automatic bids. The Lions finished the tournament going 2-1, earning wins over Wagner (16-4) and Michigan (10-5) while falling to fourth-ranked Hawaii (12-8) in the opener. LMU took fifth place in the tournament thanks to a six-goal second quarter over Michigan that took place in a span of just three minutes in the second quarter. Junior Stacia Peterson and freshman Rosanna Tomiuk claimed second-team honors following the fifth annual NCAA tournament. Peterson had a record-breaking tournament in 2005, as her five goals in the win over Wagner set the NCAA Tournament single game record. Peterson added four goals in the tough loss to Hawaii and one more in the win over Michigan to give her 10 on the tournament. Her 10 sets the record for goals in a single tournament, breaking the previous record of five. Entering into this year's championships, Peterson had scored five goals in NCAA tournament. She now has a total of 15 in her career, setting a career record in the NCAA tournament.

Multiple All-Americans
Senior Stacia Peterson and junior Rachel Riddell of the Loyola Marymount University women's water polo team were named 2005 All-Americans by the American Water Polo Coaches Association. Peterson set the all-time school record with 75 goals this season while Riddell was named Western Water Polo Association Player of the Year. For the fourth straight year the Lions had multiple selection on the All-America teams as Peterson claims second-team honors and Riddell was an honorable mention selection. It is the second time for both players to be named All-America. Peterson, who was a third-team selection in 2004, finished 13th in the nation with 75 goals, giving her 154 in her three-year career, ranking her second all-time in LMU history in career goals.

International Experience
Three Loyola Marymount women's water polo players took the month of January off, the first month of practice for the collegiate teams, to compete for the Canadian National Team at the 2006 Commonwealth Water Polo Championships held in Perth, Australia, this week. And they made quite an impact. Junior Rachel Riddell and sophomores Christine Robinson and Rosanna Tomiuk continue their active role with the Canadian National Team as they make another international trip to compete across the globe. All three played for the national team over the summer while Riddell and Robinson played for the team in the 2004 Summer Olympics. The trio of Lions have help Canada once again find success as they advance to the championship game against Australia. The field for the Commonwealth Games includes Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Scotland, England, and South Africa. Robinson scored six goals for Canada to reach the semifinals in a 19-0 win over Singapore. She added two more as the Canadians earned a 9-7 win over New Zealand to advance to the finals. She was sixth overall in the tournament with 17 goals. Tomiuk finished tied for 22nd in the field with 10 goals, scoring four against Singapore and three against Scotland. On the defensive side, Riddell led all goalies in the Commonwealth Games with 41 saves. She helped Canada post three shutouts in the tournament.

Head Coach John Loughran
Entering his ninth season at the helm of the women's water polo program, Loughran has achieved unparalleled success for the Lions. In 2005 the women's water program set a school record for wins with a 30-7 overall mark on the season. The team won its fifth straight Western Water Polo Association championship and advanced to their fifth consecutive NCAA Women's Water Polo Championship. The successes in 2004 and 2005 were just another step in the accolades Loughran has brought to the program. He has led the team to five straight 20-win seasons and six straight winning campaigns. He has earned four WWPA Coach of the Year honors and has coached the last five WWPA Players of the Year and has had 12 All-Americans, 23 All-WWPA selections and 12 All-NCAA Tournament selections. His career record reflects his success with the women's program with a career mark of 178-80 (.690). Loughran has also led the men's water polo program to a new level of success. Taking over the program in the 1997 season, Loughran led the Lions to its first WWPA Championship in 2001 and then three straight titles in 2003, 2004 and 2005. With the men's program he has compiled a record of 152-120 in nine seasons. In addition, Loughran has established home "pool" advantage for the water polo programs as the women's team has gone 51-8 at the Burns Recreation and Aquatics Center.