Women's water polo season comes to a close

The women's water polo team concluded their season with a disappointing loss to Michigan today, falling by a score of 11-7 in the fifth place game of the NCAA Tournament. The No. 5 Lions opened up the tournament with an 11-7 loss to No. 4 Hawaii before taking care of Cal Lutheran yesterday, 12-6. The Lions end a successful season with a 26-9 record.

Senior Nicole Hughes wrapped up her LMU career by scoring three goals in the contest, giving her a program best 129 goals this season and 320 goals in her career.

After finding themselves down 3-2 midway through the second period, the Lions fought back on two goals by junior Anne Scott to take a 4-3 lead entering the half. This momentum carried into the second half, where LMU scored the first three goals to extend their lead to 7-3. Sophomore Mary Ann Campos scored her lone goal of the game and Hughes contributed two of her three goals during the Lions 5-0 run.

"I was really happy with our third quarter. We went 3-for-6 from the field and did a good job defensively," said Head Coach John Loughran in a story released by the Athletics Department after the game. "I felt if we could score the first goal of the fourth quarter we could stop any of their momentum and hold them off. It didn't happen, we seemed to lose a little focus and could never get back on track."

The Lions, however, wouldn't score the rest of the contest, and Michigan was able to come within two goals before the fourth quarter began. Two minutes into the final period, Michigan tied the score at seven, and less than one minute later took the lead and never looked back. The Lions season ended with a disappointing 6-0 quarter in favor of Michigan.

"I told the team after the game that this does not define our season. We had some great development and an outstanding conference tournament," said Loughran. "Our team, which is fairly young, had some solid improvement throughout the year. This is a great group and we gained some great experience. I think we lacked just enough experience in this type of atmosphere that it might of hurt us this weekend. This hard lesson will help us down the road."

Along with Hughes, senior Kellen Fletcher also played her final game as a Lion. LMU went an impressive 13-0 in conference play this season.