The Lions did what Pepperdine did to them a week prior - score the games first four goals. Playing for the second time in a week, the Lions jumped out to a 4-0 lead but could not hold it as Pepperdine rallied for an 8-6 win at Raleigh Runnels Memorial Pool on Saturday afternoon.

Rex-Kiss opened the scoring with 3:48 remaining in the first and Hernandez scored back-to-back goals at 2:46 and 1:38, respectively. Of the first five, three came conversions from defense to offense as the Lions speed gave them offensive advantages. The Lions scored the games first five goals as both Rex-Kiss and junior Cutberto Hernandez did all the scoring to that point. In the first game on the week, senior Endre Rex-Kiss scored a career-best six goals. The Lions then fell in a rematch with Pepperdine, 8-6, on Saturday. LMU opened its home schedule with a win, defeating Santa Clara 10-1 on Friday. Last week the Lions record evened to 3-3 on the year thanks to a split in a pair of games.

In the 12 games, LMU has played in three overtime games at the SoCal. In three years of play at SoCal, the Lions are 5-7, going 3-1 last year. The winner of LMU-UC Irvine will play the winner of UCLA-Bucknell at 1:50 p.m. Group A and Group D will play at UC Irvine on Saturday. The 16-team, two-day event will be held at two pools, UCI's and Corona del Mar HS Pool. The two teams have already met once this season, on Sept. The Lions open with UC Irvine at 9:10 a.m. The Lions, whose first appearance to SoCal was in 2002, will play in Group A as the third seed.

The first is the SoCal Invitational, and it is this weekend. The SoCal and NorCal Invitationals each year put the best in college water polo in a two-day, 16-team tournament.

The Lions will open the tournament as the third seed in Group A and will face the second seed, host UC Irvine at 9:10 a.m. The 16-team field features 14 teams ranked in the nation's top-20. The Lions will travel to UC Irvine this weekend for the first of the tournament, the SoCal Invitational. Each year the ninth-ranked Loyola Marymount University men's water polo team participates in a pair of tournaments that feature the best in collegiate water polo.

Locked Together by Michelle Abbott