FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. – After a widely successful weekend in Las Vegas, the Northern Arizona swimming & diving team headed further west to Southern California, where they will wrap up the week with a dual meet on Saturday versus the University of San Diego. The meet will begin at 12:30 p.m. Flagstaff time on the USD campus and will be the team's final competition before the end of the 2014 calendar year.

"It's a great way to finish off the semester and the week," said head coach Andy Johns. "Having a competition at the end of the week is important after a week of training and practice. We used to swim USD quite a bit and we had a nice series and rivalry with them, so it's nice to renew that. If we can get through this week and come close or even be better than we were in Las Vegas, then we know that we had a really good week of training."

The Lumberjacks have spent the entire week in California since wrapping up the UNLV Invitational on Monday. In the three-day meet, the Lumberjacks placed third in the eight-team field and posted season-best times and scores across the board.

Junior Kendall Brown posted the best individual results among the team's swimmers, placing in the championship final in four events.  In the 400 IM, she finished second overall and also recorded third-place finishes in the 500 and 1,650 freestyles and a seventh-place finish in the 200 butterfly. Among the team's other host of swimming highlights was senior Alexis Juergens' runner-up finish in the 200 fly, junior Eva Pold tying for third in the 400 IM and sophomores Urte Kazakeviciute and Sara Lenhoff placing fourth in the 200 breast and fifth in the 200 back respectively. In all, NAU had 15 different swimmers swim in either the A or B finals of at least one event.

The NAU divers were just as impressive as they were the class of the diving events placing all four of their athletes in the top eight of both the 1-meter and 3-meter competitions. Sophomore Alexa Geiger, recently named the WAC Diver of the Week on Tuesday, won both events while junior Carlye Townsend and freshmen Emma Simmonds and Alyssa Loeffelman all performed exceptionally as well. All four divers set new season-best 1-meter scores while three of them posted high scores on 3-meter.

The UNLV Invitational was a huge step forward as the Lumberjacks are starting to hit their stride with two months remaining before the WAC Championships.

"There were a lot of good performances and the girls should feel more confident than they had going in," Johns said. "It was a great way to head into this week and the meet on Saturday. After a week at home (for the break), we'll have a similar week of training in Tucson, so the confidence helps make the next couple of weeks a little easier. They're seeing results of their hard work."

Saturday's meet will be the first dual meet between the two teams since the 2009-10 season, but the schools are very familiar with each other having met 24 previous times in school history. NAU owns a 21-3 advantage in the all-time series and have won the last eight dual meets.

San Diego has competed in just one dual meet this season, a 143-118 loss to Loyola Marymount, and is hosting its first meet at home since its intrasquad meet on Oct. 18. The Torreros most recently sent four of their swimmers to the AT&T Nationals in Greensboro, N.C. earlier this month where the quartet combined for six lifetime best times.

NAU owns a 2-2 dual record this season with victories over WAC opponents Idaho and New Mexico State.

Live results of Saturday's meet can be accessed through the Meet Mobile app.

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