As the 2024-25 academic year comes to a close, so do the final matches for LMU’s spring sports. The women’s water polo team will begin competition in the NCAA Championships against University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) on Friday, May 9, while the baseball team wraps up their regular season against Pepperdine University on Saturday, May 17. As spring sports finish up and fall sports begin looking forward to next semester, there is a lot to celebrate from LMU Athletics’ 2024-25 season. From history-making wins to record-shattering achievements, the stars came out to shine on the Bluff all year long. Let’s dive deeper into the standout teams and players of the 2024-25 season:
Women’s soccer
The first official game of LMU’s fall 2024 season was a women’s soccer match against University of California, Santa Barbara on Thursday, August 15. The Lions came out of the gate hot, winning 2-0 and setting the tone for what would be a monumental turnaround season.
In just his third season in charge, head coach Chris Chamides led the Lions to an 11-5-2 final record on the year, their first winning season since 2017. This led to Chamides taking home the West Coast Conference (WCC) Coach of the Year award in the process.
Senior forward Kylie Dobbs, who led the team in 11 goals and 4 assists, was named to the All-WCC First Team. Graduate student Jennessa Groves found herself on the All-WCC Second Team after a career-high 9 goals in the season. Stellar seasons from these two, along with breakout performances across the team, helped the Lions to one of their most successful seasons ever — which included a historic win against top-ranked Pepperdine in Malibu on Saturday, October 19. Just three years ago, in 2021, the Lions didn’t win a game all season. Now, they go into the 2025 season with a newfound confidence and the mentality that they can win any game, serving as a true testament to the turnaround of this program.
Women’s volleyball
The 2024 LMU women’s volleyball team had a historic season, with 25 wins on the year. That is the most wins the team has had in a single season since the squad went 26-7 in 2003. The Lions capped their historic regular season off with a WCC title and a berth to the NCAA Tournament as a seven-seed. There, they won their opening round match against the University of Washington before losing to the 2-seed Stanford University Cardinals.
Despite the disappointment of the loss, LMU exceeded their expectations of the year, and it came as no surprise when the awards started rolling in at the top of 2025. The WCC All-Conference Teams practically looked just like the Lions roster. Senior Sam Hastings, graduate student Paige Flickinger, senior Mia Schafer, and senior Sophia Meyers were all named to the All-Conference First Team after dominant seasons. Graduate student Jiana Lawson made the second team, graduate student Kalani Hayes was an honorable mention and Marlee Arrington made her way onto the all-freshman team. In just his second season as head coach, Trent Kersten joined Chamides as yet another WCC Coach of the Year for the Lions in 2024. Kersten’s recognition was the first in program history since head coach Steve Stratos won the award in 1996.
Women’s beach volleyball
LMU beach volleyball had their most successful season in program history and one of, if not the most, successful seasons in the school’s entire athletic history. The Lions went 38-7 on the year, reached as high as No. 2 in the regular season rankings, won several matches against top-ranked teams and capped it off with their sixth straight WCC title, all of which are now program records.
As a result, LMU was an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament and ultimately ranked the fourth overall seed by the committee headed in. On Friday, May 2, LMU began their run at the championship with a 3-0 sweep of Florida Atlantic University. This win set up a highly anticipated rematch against the University of Southern California (USC). Earlier in the year, the Lions defeated USC in the Outrigger Duke Kahanamoku Classic to earn the program’s first win against USC, who was No.1 at the time. Before that, LMU and USC had faced off in the NCAA tournament in 2023 and 2024, where both of the Lions’ seasons ended at the hands of the Trojans in heartbreaking fashion.
The 2025 Lions came into the quarterfinal match on Saturday, May 3, with vengeance on their minds. They were determined to write a different story this season and defeated USC, 3-1, to advance to the semifinals later that same day. It was a legendary win for the squad, but the top seed in the nation, UCLA, awaited them next, so the celebration would have to wait. Just hours later, in a nationally televised game, after going down two sets to zero, the Lions stormed back to defeat the number one ranked Bruins and advance to the first National Championship game in program history.
Players, staff and fans stormed the beach as the Lions scored the clinching point to send home UCLA in a moment of pure jubilation. The next morning, facing powerhouse program Texas Christian University (TCU) for all the marbles, the Lions battled their hearts out but came up just short, losing 3-2.
It wasn’t the outcome the team wanted, but heads were held high as the Lions walked off the courts in the Gulf Shores of Alabama. Heads were raised even higher when they made their return home to campus later that night, where students, friends and family gathered outside their home courts to show the team some much-deserved love.
This team joins an elite club, becoming the second LMU sport ever to make it to a national championship game in University history — the first ever being the 2004 women’s water polo team. Earlier this week, head coach John Mayer became the first LMU coach to win the elusive AVCA Head Coach of the Year award, further adding to the legacy of this 2025 women’s beach volleyball team.
This is the opinion of Evan Smith (’26), a journalism major from Los Angeles. Send comments and feedback to editor@theloyolan.com. Follow @LALoyolan on Instagram, and subscribe to our weekly newsletter.
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