The Loyola Marymount beach volleyball team took home the West Coast Conference Championship title Saturday afternoon, beating Pepperdine twice in a row to earn the conference championship. This is the first beach volleyball title in school history, along with LMU’s first-ever victories over PCH Cup rivals Pepperdine. The Lions will await the NCAA Tournament selection show on Sunday, April 28.
Several teams on campus will also have a shot at conference titles this weekend. After closing out the regular season with a 15-8 home win over Concordia, LMU women’s water polo team earned the third seed for the GCC Championships in Fresno this Friday through Sunday. The winner of tournament will earn an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament in May. LMU, led by reigning GCC Player of the Week Hana Vilanova, will open the tournament Friday at 1:30 p.m. against No. 25 Cal Baptist.
After winning three straight matches at home last week, the women’s tennis team has its eye set on the WCC Women’s Tennis Championships in Claremont this Thursday through Saturday. The Lions opened their busy week with a 4-2 win over Long Beach State on Wednesday, then defeated Santa Clara 4-1 for a Friday conference win, before closing out the year with a Senior Day sweep over San Francisco. As the fifth seed, LMU will open play at 10 a.m. on Thursday from Biszantz Family Tennis Center.
At the same venue, LMU will be competing in the WCC Men’s Tennis Championships beginning at 1 p.m. The Lions split their final road trip of the regular season last week, falling to Santa Clara on Friday afternoon and defeating San Francisco 4-0 on Saturday.
The LMU golf team heads up to Stockton for three rounds at the WCC Men’s Golf Championships on Thursday through Saturday. The Lions will tee off with the first round at 8:25 a.m. on Thursday and play one round each day from The Reserve at Spanos Park.
LMU’s rowing teams are headed to the WIRA Championships in Lake Natoma this Saturday and Sunday. This will serve at LMU’s final competition before West Coast Conference championships on May 18.
Winning another series, the LMU softball team took two of three games at Santa Clara over the weekend. The Lions lost their first game 4-3, but responded by winning their second and third games 10-5 and 11-7, respectively. It’s back to Smith Field for the final time this weekend, as LMU hosts St. Mary’s at noon and 2 p.m. on Saturday, and closes out the weekend with a noon game on Sunday. The Lions will recognize their senior class prior to Sunday’s game.
The first-place baseball team returns to Page Stadium for a midweek game against Long Beach State. The game will be the Final Taco Tuesday of the season for students, with first pitch scheduled for 6 p.m. Over the weekend, the PCH Cup resumes with the Lions headed to Malibu for a three-game set Friday through Sunday. Last week’s contests started with an extra-inning thriller with the Lions walking off for the victory over UC Riverside. At St. Mary’s, LMU won the middle game of the three-game set, thanks to early offense.
The Loyola Marymount University men’s basketball team has signed 6-6 multi-skilled guard, Lazar Zivanovic, from Sabac, Serbia for the 2019-20 season. Zivanovic has a wealth of experience at the international level, representing Crvena Zvezda (Red Star) basketball club at the youth level.
The Loyola Marymount men’s and women’s track & field teams ran a limited squad at the Rafer Johnson/Jackie Joyner Kersee Invitational at UCLA on Saturday, April 13. The hightlight of the event for LMU, among all the solid run times, was senior Solomon Demeku-Ousman’s performance in the 3000 meter Steeplechase. Competing in his first steeple of the year and his first since 2017, he won the event by the narrowest of margins. Demeku-Ousman posted a time of 9:27.40 besting the 9:27.81 time of UCLA’s Munir Kabbara. Over this weekend, LMU competed in the Mt. SAC Relays and the Bryan Clay Invitationals April 18 and 19, and will be at the UC Irvine Steve Scott Invitational this weekend.
