Cristian Pang Named ACWPC Division III National Player of the Year, Lonzo Wins Coach of Year
CLAREMONT, Calif. - Senior attacker Cristian Pang earned the Division III National Player of the Year award, and Head Coach Greg Lonzo earned Division III National Coach of the Year honors from the Association of Collegiate Water Polo Coaches, the organization announced today.
Pang led CMS with 53 goals on the year, as the Stags earned the USA Water Polo Division III national championship, the first national title in the program's history. He also added 31 assists for 84 points, and converted on 48 percent of his shot attempts.
Pang had a goal in a 6-5 win over Redlands in the national championship, as well as a field block on a potential tying Redlands goal in the closing seconds, before running out the clock with the ball in his hands. He also tallied two goals and two assists against Augustana in the national semifinals, and scored twice in a 9-4 win over Redlands in the SCIAC Postseason Tournament championship game, while adding two steals defensively.
In the regular season, Pang had five goals in a game twice, in wins over Biola and Caltech, and also had four goals and two assists in a 15-11 loss to No. 12 UC San Diego. He had 120 goals and 68 assists in his three-year career with the Stags.
Lonzo is in his 16th year coaching the CMS water polo programs, and has led the Stags to four SCIAC titles. His career record in SCIAC competitions is now 134-49 (.732) after the Stags went 11-1 this fall. He earns the National Coach of the Year for the second time after also capturing it in 2013. CMS also finished the 2015 team as the No. 1 ranked team in Division III in Lonzo's tenure, but the SCIAC champion played in the NCAA Water Polo Championship play-in round in that era, with the Stags falling to USC.
Lonzo has helped CMS reach the USA Water Polo Division III national championship in three of the four years of the tournament's existence, the only program that can make that claim. The Stags fell narrowly to Whittier 5-3 in the inaugural year in 2019, and then after a one-year break for the pandemic, CMS again was the runner-up in overtime to Pomona-Pitzer in 2021. Redlands took the title last season, and the Stags became the fourth different winner this year in the four-year history of the tournament.
CMS ended the regular season as SCIAC co-champions, only sharing the title when it fell in sudden death overtime at Redlands in the regular season finale. It was the only loss the Stags suffered all season to a non-Division I opponents, and CMS avenged it with a 9-4 win over Redlands in the SCIAC Postseason Tournament championship, and then again 6-5 in the USA Water Polo national championship game to take three of the four meetings between the teams on the year.