Women's Lacrosse Gameday Central
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DETROIT (4/25/2013) -- It is championship time and the University of Detroit Mercy women's lacrosse team will play in the Atlantic Sun Semifinals Friday at 3:30 p.m. against the No. 3 seed Stetson. All games will be played at Southern Oaks Stadium in Jacksonville, Fla. at the home of the No. 1 seed. The Titans are the No. 2 seed after finishing 3-1 in the conference.
 
Gameday and Atlantic Sun Conference Championship Central
Titan fans can follow every UDM game this season through Women's Lacrosse Gameday Central located on the Titans Athletic Website that will keep fans one click away from all the action. This page will feature links for live stats (audio and video when applicable) as well as links for all the latest info while also making it easy to find the Titans on social media and to purchase photos and game tickets. Women's Lacrosse Gameday Central also carries all the information on each opponent from who is leading the all-time series to who won the last game. There is also a link to Atlantic Sun Championship Information.
 
Senior Day
The Titans played their final home game of the 2013 regular season on Sunday hosting Kennesaw State in what was the final career home game for seniors Britany Busch, Megan Callahan, Zaynib Hamze, and Lindsey Saunders. 16 first half goals gave the Titans a 16-1 edge at the half as Detroit rolled to a 22-3 win to close conference play. In that game, Kylie Birney had a career-high four goals and Erin Campbell had four goals and an assist for UDM. Tessa Keuler posted three goals and three assists and Hamze had two goals and four assists. Saunders had two goals and an assist, Busch had two goals, Callahan had two goals and Michaela Schwartz had a goal and assist. Jenna Payne also added two goals with an assist.
 
Record Breaker
The 22 goals the Titans scored on Sunday set a school single-game record. Detroit has scored 21 goals three other times in its history but eclipsed the total to up the record. The last time UDM had 21 goals was a 21-10 victory at Howard on Apr. 27, 2012. Prior to that, Detroit had a total of 21 goals on Apr. 1, 2012 against Longwood in a 21-17 win and then on March 28, 2009, the Titans won 21-15 against Presbyterian.
 
Conference Honors
The Titans swept the A-Sun individual awards handed out on Wednesday as Hamze was named the Player of the Year and McCormick garnered the Defensive Player of the Year award. In addition, a total of eight Titans were named to either the All-Conference First or Second Team, three players were named to the All-Conference Freshmen Team, and three more to the Academic All-Conference Team. Hamze and McCormick were joined on the first team by Campbell, Busch, and Taylor Marshall. More honors were earned as Saunders, Callahan, and Amanda Guthrie took home second team honors. Freshmen Schwartz, Birney, and Morgan Miller were all named to the All-Conference Freshmen Team and Busch, Keuler, and McCormick were named to the Academic All-Conference Team on Wednesday. Hamze also earned last week's Player of the Week honor.
 
“Z” Needs One
Hamze needs one ground ball to become the school's all-time career record holder. Hamze currently has 193 ground balls tying her with UDM alum Emily Boissonneault who will play for Team Canada in the 2013 Women's Lacrosse World Cup, run by the Federation of International Lacrosse (FIL) from July 10-20, 2013, in Oshawa, Ontario.
 
The Atlantic Sun
The Atlantic Sun Conference becomes the 13th NCAA Division I conference to sponsor women's lacrosse. Year one in the A-Sun will feature five institutions including first-year programs at Kennesaw State and Stetson. In August 2012, the NCAA announced that the championship field for Division I women's lacrosse was expanding to 26 teams and that the A-Sun champion would receive automatic qualification into the national championship.
 
Detroit in the NCAA Rankings
The NCAA releases weekly statistical rankings on Monday afternoon for the 105 teams in Division I and Detroit is 4th overall in ground balls per game with 19.76 a contest and 22nd in the NCAA with 8.76 caused turnovers per game. Individually, UDM goalkeeper McCormick is second overall in total saves (159), she is seventh in saves per game (9.35), and 18th in save percentage (0.456) and she is 14th in ground balls per game (2.76).  Hamze is ranked 16th in the nation with 2.71 ground balls per game, 25th with 1.65 caused turnovers per contest, 99th with 2.53 draw controls, and she has moved up to 69th in total goals with 36 and 75th with 50 points. Guthrie is also 16th in ground balls (2.71) and 91st in caused turnovers (1.18) and Campbell is 94th overall with 33 goals.
 
Stetson Hatters
Stetson earned the No. 3 seed in the tournament with a 19-7 home win over Kennesaw State on Apr. 14 and then an 18-13 road win at Howard on Apr. 19 finishing 2-2 in A-Sun play. With those two wins the last time out for the Hatters, the team is currently on a two-game winning streak. Danielle Horgan and Maylis Broderick share the team lead in scoring with 25 points while Horgan leads the squad with 20 goals. Two goalkeepers have shared time in the net with Whitney Meyers and Caili Guilday both appearing in the team's 15 games and Guilday earning both Hatter wins.
 
Detroit vs. Stetson
Hamze led the way with five goals in a 19-9 Titan win at Stetson on Apr. 12. Campbell added four markers, and Callahan tallied three. Overall, nine different Titans scored on the afternoon as Keuler netted two goals and Birney, Busch, Saunders, Schwartz, and Ally Shrader all scored once for Detroit in the win. Goalkeeper McCormick earned her third win of the season and 11th of her career and became the school's all-time career leader in wins from the goalkeeper position.
 
Championship On The Line
A win for Detroit on Friday over Stetson and the Titans will play Sunday at 1pm in the A-Sun Championship game. UDM will play the winner of the other semifinal set to take place Friday at 1pm between the No. 1 seed Jacksonville against No. 4 seed Kennesaw State.