ATHLETICS | The Loyola Marymount University men’s and women’s cross country teams took to the course this past weekend at the 35th annual Mark Covert Classic at Carbon Canyon Regional Park in Brea, California. The Lion men earned a second-place finish behind Cal State Fullerton in the collegiate races. The women’s team placed third, behind Cal State Fullerton and the University of San Diego in the college races. The Lions cross country teams return to the course on Saturday, Sept. 7, for the Biola Invitational in Fullerton, California. The Lions will be running their B squads at the Biola meet while other members of the team will take the race off and focus on the following weekend in Spokane, Washington, where they will preview the West Region course.
Volleyball season opened this weekend with at Arizona’s Cactus Cup. The Lions went 2-1 winning their first and last matches, but falling to a ranked Arizona team on Friday evening. The opening match went five sets, with LMU coming away with a 25-23 fifth-set victory to clinch the game over Samford. Despite losing 3-0 in their next contest, LMU battled with top-25 Arizona throughout. LMU closed out the weekend beating Appalachian State 3-1 on Saturday. Mary Shroll and Rose Booth were named to the Cactus Cup All-Tournament Team. The Lions hit the road again next weekend, traveling to Houston for the Rice University Tournament.
LMU men’s soccer officially opened their season with the first of five consecutive home games last Friday, scoring in the 68th minute from Jack Sauls to tie the game, 1-1. LMU went toe-to-toe with Virginia Tech the remainder of the match but in the 89th minute the Hokies found the back of the net pushing them to a 2-1 victory over the Lions. The Lions gave Virginia Tech all they could handle and more, edging the Hokies in shots (15-9) and corners (6-2). The Lions put together a second half surge that included eight shots but couldn’t capitalize on the opportunities. The Lions are back in action a week when they take on Oral Roberts at Sullivan Field on Friday at 7 p.m., and again on Sunday for a 1 p.m. game with Loyola-Chicago.
The women’s soccer program had a pair of tough defeats at home over the weekend in their 2019 home debuts. Despite earning all five second half corner kicks, and eight of the 10 of the corners of the match, it was San Jose State who found the back of the net to spoil LMU’s home opener. The Spartans scored in the 68th minute to break a scoreless tie with LMU and take the result on Thursday. On Sunday, LMU fended off 13 first-half corner kicks by No. 7 Penn State, to keep the game within reach. The visitors did get one first half shot to go in, a 25th minute finish, to set the score at 1-0 through the remainder of the first half. Penn State added two more after intermission to take the game, 3-0. The Lions close out this three-game home stretch on Friday at 4 p.m. against Drexel University, the opening leg of the doubleheader before the men’s team plays.
The Western Water Polo Association has released the Preseason Head Coaches Poll, the conference announced on Wednesday. LMU has been picked by the league’s eight head coaches to finish the season in third place. The Lions entered the 2018 WWPA championships at the three-seed and knocked off fifth-seeded Air Force in the 3rd place game, 10-7, last season. The Lions open the season at the UC San Diego Triton Invitational. LMU’s first game will be played on Sept. 7 at 12:30 p.m. against No. 4 California.
The Loyola Marymount Lions baseball team, fresh off the heels of their first West Coast Conference Tournament championship, completed their staff for the upcoming season with the promotion of Ryan Erickson to volunteer assistant coach and the addition of Richie Escalera to director of operations. Erickson completed his third season on the Lions staff in 2019 and helped guide the Lions to a 34-25 overall record and first appearance in the NCAA tournament since 2000. Additionally, LMU baseball and Marucci Sports, the No. 1 provider of bats at the Major League level, announced a new partnership this week. As part of the partnership, Marucci will provide the Lions with BBCOR bats, custom wood bats, fielding gloves and other assorted items.
Women’s basketball Coach Charity Elliott announced that Emily Ben-Jumbo has been promoted as assistant coach, while Daisy Feder has been promoted to director of operations. Ben-Jumbo, an LMU alumna, came back to her alma mater in 2018 as the women’s basketball director of operations. Ben-Jumbo graduated from LMU in 2015 and appeared in 119 games over her career, tied for third most all-time in program history. Feder came to LMU as the program’s graduate assistant in 2018, while pursuing a master’s degree in education studies. A 2013 graduate of UC San Diego, Feder spent her first four years playing under Elliott and was name conference Player of the Year for 2012-13. Following her time at UCSD, Feder spent five seasons in Israel and led her team to winning the Israeli Cup in 2015-16.
A pair of LMU seniors from the 2018-19 team signed professional contracts to continue their basketball careers. James Batemon will play for in Latvia for BK Ogre in the LBL and Petr Herman will return to his home country and start his pro career with EGOE Basket Brno of the Czech Republic’s NBL. As seniors, Batemon and Herman led LMU to 22 wins, the third most in program history, and a return to the postseason for just the third time since 1989-90. Batemon capped his career as a member of the All-WCC First Team and scored 1091 points in two seasons at LMU to move into top 30 all-time at LMU. Herman finished his career with 56 career blocked shots, which is 18th all-time in program history. His 110 career games played as a Lion is tied for 20th in school history. Batemon graduated with a psychology degree and Herman earned his degree in economics.
