· UC Irvine won the Big West Championship, their fifth as a program, first since 2013, and first under head coach Yossi Raz who takes the team to the NCAA Tournament for a second time (2018). A scoreless draw with to a penalty shootout vs. UC Davis, and after a miss in the shootout's second round, Luke Pruter saved UCD's fourth and ninth shots while UC Irvine made each of their final seven to win, 8-7.
· The Anteaters enter the tournament on a five-match unbeaten streak (4-0-1) outscoring opponents 9-2. The team had the best start to a season under coach Raz going 3-0-1including wins vs. No. 8 Creighton and at Summit champ, Omaha. UCI has nine game-winning goals from nine different players including an own goal to beat No. 13 Cal State Fullerton, and is disciplined with 11.68 fouls per match and 38 cards.
· Luke Pruter is approaching the program's top 10 in saves with 140 for his career, one shy of Scott Zinser in 10th. Pruter's eight shutouts led the Big West and is sixth in the nation among his ranks as seventh nationally in minutes played and 42nd in goals-against-average at 0.88
· UC Irvine's defense is its strength with Pruter and All-Big West First-Teamers in front of him, Ricardo Ibarra and Mathias Winum. Ibarra has played 78 career matches and over 5,000 career minutes. The stingy 'Eaters have allowed just 17 goals and 65 shots on target total
· Big West Championship MVP was Oscar Cervantes who played all 200 championship minutes and every minute of the past four matches. The fifth-year has three game-winning goals in his career to lead all active Anteaters, and his goal vs. UC Riverside was #8 on SportsCenter's Top 10

NCAA First Round at LMU - 7:00 PM
· The 'Eaters and Lions have met 30 times with UCI on top all-time, 17-11-2. Recently, the schools have met every year since 2014 with UCI 4-3-1 in those matches. LMU has won the last two and are 1-0-1 in the last two at home. These two squared off in an exhibition earlier this year which was an apparently chippy affair with a number of fouls and cautions, but a first-half UCI goal made it a 1-0 win. This is LMU's ninth NCAA berth and first since the 2020-21 season going just 2-6-2 all-time winning First Round matches vs. CSUN in 2002 and 2004, but have yet to make it past the Second Round
· The Lions enter with a 7-4-6 record which doesn't turn many heads, but wins over ranked teams Virginia, Oregon State, and Portland helped their resume, however they have stumbled down the stretch with 1 win in their last 5. The programs had seven common opponents with UCI 3-3-2 in those matches including the next opponent for Thursday's advancing team, UCLA, who beat the Anteaters handily in Anteater Stadium in September while falling to LMU one month ago at UCLA.
· LMU is led by former Anteater Kyle Schmid who was part of UC Irvine first team into the NCAA postseason in 2008. His hard-nosed squad is third in the nation in cautions and seventh in fouls per match. Massimo Pomponi is a force in net with 59 saves and a GAA of 0.97 leading the strong defense. The attack has as many goals as UCI this year, 19, with Ryan Kingsford running the show with four goals, three assists, and 32 shots flanked by Tyger Smalls (4 G) and Lewis Clutton's (3 G) contributions
· UCI has had a measure of success this time of year reaching at least the second round in all six NCAA trips and an overall 4-6-1 record. UCI was a national seed four times and won against teams like Stanford, North Carolina, and Cal Poly to reach their three Sweet Sixteens. The two previous trips UCI was at-large in the first round downing UNLV in 2014 and advancing on PKs in 2018 over Grand Canyon