ATHLETICS | The men’s tennis season started with an undefeated home stand over the weekend. LMU came back to defeat San Francisco, 4-3, on the first day of conference play, before following that up with a 5-2 decisive win over Santa Clara on Sunday. The team will resume play in February with home games on Feb. 1 and Feb. 8.
The Loyola Marymount University women’s basketball team won its first road game over the Pepperdine in three years on Saturday, as the team pulled off an impressive 84-77 win in Malibu, led by Chelsey Gipson. The Lions will be back on the road next week to take on Portland on Thursday and Gonzaga on Saturday.
LMU senior Lanna Kozlowski finished her last collegiate race at Burns Aquatics Center by dominating the field in the 1650 ‘mile’ event as part of the two-day 2020 West Coast Conference Cup competition between LMU, San Diego and Pepperdine. Kozlowski touched the wall in 17:50.00 more than 25 seconds ahead of second-place finisher Anna Luckenbach of San Diego. Up next for the Lions is a trip to St. George, Utah, to compete against Dixie State University on Saturday, Jan. 25 for one last competition before heading into the Pacific Collegiate Swim Conference Championships on Feb. 12-15 at East Los Angeles College.
The LMU women’s water polo season is officially underway. The No. 12 Lions dropped the season-opener against No. 5 Hawaii, then rallied for a win against No. T-23 Marist in the second game of the day. On Sunday, the Lions put together a strong fourth quarter, but was unable to erase the early deficit in Sunday’s exhibition loss against Fresno State. LMU entered the fourth quarter trailing, 8-3, but despite three unanswered goals, lost the game, 8-6. LMU will next compete in the Lancer Joust for two games on Jan. 25.
Jordan Bell and Erik Johansson each had career nights in the first edition of the PCH Cup of the season. Despite Bell’s first career double-double and Johansson’s 19-point outburst, Pepperdine took the game from the Lions, 75-67. Despite Eli Scott’s 11th career double-double on Saturday, and fourth of the season, LMU cooled off after intermission and could not retain their first half lead. The Lions (7-12, 1-4 WCC) lost their fourth-straight game, falling 61-53 at San Francisco. The Lions will return home for two games this week, hosting Portland and Saint Mary’s on Thursday and Saturday, respectively.
The Loyola Marymount University beach volleyball team has been ranked No. 8 in the nation, according to Dig Magazine’s preseason poll, following its 2020 schedule release. LMU will kick off its season on Feb. 20 against UCLA on the road. The Lions will play Pepperdine for their first WCC match on Feb. 29 against Pepperdine. Mid-season, the team will head to Santa Cruz to participate in the Santa Cruz Boardwalk/WCC Invite, where the Lions went 4-0 last season.
Nine Lions men’s and women’s cross country student-athletes received 2019 West Coast Conference All-Academic accolades, the conference announced Wednesday. Kyle Friedler, Ethan Frisone, Weston Hart and Max Smith earned WCC All-Academic Honorable Mention on the men’s side. Rosie Cruz, Kyla Danforth, Raina Hines, Ann Kelly and Hannah Wohlenberg received WCC All-Academic Honorable Mention for the Lion women.
The 5th annual LMU Celebration of Women in Athletics sponsored by Alliance of Women Philanthropists has been announced for Tuesday, Feb. 25th, 2020. The event will take place at 5 p.m. in the Event Gallery at the LMU Playa Vista Campus. There will be a cocktail reception, silent auction, guest speakers, raffle and more. Proceeds from the event will go directly to supporting the nearly 230 female student-athletes that compete for LMU.
