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By Pauline Vu Daily Bruin Senior Staff

The Lions' pride has been stomped on for the past four years and tonight the five seniors on the Loyola Marymount men's volleyball team have one last chance to redeem themselves after years of UCLA domination.

"We would love to beat UCLA," LMU senior setter Stephan Dunne said. "Especially being seniors and this being the last time we'll play them."

No. 9 LMU will come to Pauley Pavilion to make its 60th bid for its first-ever win over UCLA - but it won't be easy. The No. 4 Bruins (22-3 overall, 12-3 MPSF) are on an 11- match winning streak while the Lions (9-9, 6-9) have just lost three in a row. Although two of those losses came to No. 2 Long Beach State and top-ranked Pepperdine, the most recent was an upset loss to No. 14 UCSB.

"They played real well and made no mistakes," Dunne said of UCSB. "We didn't rise to the occasion."

The Lion seniors have been close to taking a match from the Bruin team, which also starts five seniors. The last time the teams played on Feb. 2, UCLA swept LMU, though by close scores of 15-11, 15-12, 15-12. Last year was even closer, when the Lions took both matches to five games.

"Everybody respects Loyola a lot," UCLA head coach Al Scates said. "They keep voting them in the top 10 even though their record's around .500. LMU lost a lot of close games."

Tonight's match also has playoff implications. UCLA has already secured an MPSF berth, but the Lions need to win two of their final four games to earn one of the league's two at-large berths.

This will be tough since the four teams left on LMU's schedule are UCLA, Pepperdine, No. 3 USC, and UCI, the only team that LMU figures to be a lock.

"It's going to come down to having to beat one of three past national champions," Dunne said. "That's why the Santa Barbara loss was so tough. We were supposed to win that."

Although UCLA has a playoff spot, the Bruins must keep winning to determine their placement in the MPSF playoffs.

"We have to win to get a good seed," UCLA senior opposite Evan Thatcher said. "We need all wins from here on out."

But the Lions don't intend to just roll over.

"Momentum has been going down of late, but our confidence is high, especially going into the last four games," Dunne said.

The Bruins will be challenged by the Lion servers, as LMU has four players who get back on the very edge of the court and serve a deep float serve that has troubled opposing teams.

"They're the only team that has four guys who get back and hit it as hard as they can," Scates said. "It moves pretty radically, drops fast. They've had good results with it."

The Lions also have senior outside hitter Reid Priddy, a starter on last summer's Pan-American Games team who is second in the nation with 7.44 kills per game.

"I'd say he's one of the top five players in the country," UCLA assistant coach Brian Rofer said. "He's probably the best all-around player. If he has a great game and the rest of the team plays average, they can still win."

Despite Priddy's talent, LMU's record is still mediocre at best. "You can only carry a team so much," Rofer said.

Looming behind the fact that the current LMU seniors have never beaten the UCLA seniors is the fact no LMU team has ever beaten a UCLA team - the Bruins' overall record against the Lions is 59-0. This figure holds no special meaning for either team, but all the same, it is a distinct mark.

"It's a terrible record to look at. It will lead to a downfall for us one of these days," Bruin senior setter Brandon Taliaferro said before Tuesday's practice. "It's going to be broken some day. Maybe tomorrow, maybe 60 games down the road."

He smiled and added, "Hopefully not tomorrow."