Women's Lacrosse Gameday Central
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JACKSONVILLE, Fla. (4/27/2013) -- The Atlantic Sun Conference will have its first-ever championship game played Sunday afternoon at 1pm as the University of Detroit Mercy women's lacrosse team will match-up against the Jacksonville Dolphins looking for a conference championship and a berth in the NCAA Tournament to be awarded to the victor.
 
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.
 
How We Got Here
The Titans are the No. 2 seed in the tournament after a 3-1 conference record and taking down the No. 3 seed from Stetson in the semifinal game on Friday. Detroit won by a 21-7 score as senior Zaynib Hamze tallied seven goals and eight points overall to lead the offense as eight different Titans scored in the victory. Detroit scored 20 or more goals for the second straight game and finished with a 42-12 shooting advantage, led 31-14 in ground balls, 19-11 in draw controls, and was 16-of-17 overall in clears.
 
Take Me To Your Leaders
Senior co-captains Hamze and Megan Callahan helped lead the Titans into the Atlantic Sun Championship game in Friday's big win over Stetson. Hamze had a career game and Callahan tallied her second career hat trick with three goals. She tied a team-high with five draw controls and caused a pair of turnovers. Hamze scored a single-game career-high seven goals, and had eight points overall as she added an assist. She also had five draw controls, four ground balls, and four caused turnovers. With the first ground ball she grabbed, she became the school's all-time career leader topping the old mark of 193 and now has 197. Hamze leads this year's Titan offense with 43 goals and 15 assists for 58 points and Callahan has 17 goals as a midfielder  who played defense last season whose other career three-goal game came against Stetson earlier this season on Apr. 12.
 
Multi-Point Games All-Around
Hamze and Callahan were just two of the six players on the UDM offense who had a multi-point effort against Stetson. Senior Lindsey Saunders had a career-best four goals and added an assist while sophomore Tessa Keuler had two goals and four assists. Erin Campbell had two goals and an assist and freshmen Michaela Schwartz had a goal and an assist.
 
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.
 
Titans Headed to the 'Ship
Detroit will play in the inaugural Atlantic Sun Championship hoping for a victory and a berth in the NCAA Tournament. The Titans will be playing in their second-ever conference championship but first with postseason opportunities. In the first year of women's lacrosse at Detroit, the National Lacrosse Conference was formed and the Titans advanced to the championship game against Longwood as Detroit fell by a 19-8 score. A bid to the NCAA Tournament was not at stake and the Titans will look to make school history and also become the first lacrosse program (men's or women's) at Detroit to make an NCAA Tournament appearance.
 
Conference Honors
The Titans swept the A-Sun individual awards handed out on Wednesday as Hamze was named the Player of the Year and Lexie 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, Britany Busch, and Taylor Marshall. More honors were earned as Saunders, Callahan, and Amanda Guthrie took home second team honors. Freshmen Schwartz, Kylie 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.
 
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.
 
Jacksonville Dolphins
Jacksonville is the No. 1 seed and host of the 2013 Atlantic Sun Tournament. The Dolphins are in the first year of a two-year bid to host the A-Sun Tournament and will also welcome conference members next year. The Dolphins are 12-5 overall this season and went 4-0 in conference games. Jacksonville took care of No. 4 seed Kennesaw State on Friday in the semifinals with a 23-3 win. The Dolphins are ranked No. 1 in the NCAA in caused turnovers (12.63), ground balls (24.69), and have the second-ranked scoring offense with 15.38 goals per game. Amanda Hurley leads the team with 38 goals but Taylor McCord is the overall points leader with 28 goals and 26 assists for 54 points. Goalkeeper Karli Tobin has started all 17 games this year making 90 saves. JU lost two of its first four games of the season and have also been on the losing end in three of the last five facing stiff competition as every loss came against a ranked team. The Dolphins opened the season with a 21-8 loss to Syracuse (currently #5) and fell 15-4 at Florida (currently #2) in the early stretch. In the last five, JU has played at North Carolina (currently #3) falling 16-4 and also lost in overtime at Navy (currently #15) by a 13-12 score. The team's other loss came on March 13 as Duke (currently #7) came to Jacksonville and left with a 10-7 win. 
 
Detroit vs. Jacksonville
These two teams met back on Apr. 14 in Jacksonville and the Dolphins took away a 16-2 victory. It marks the only conference loss for the Titans this year. Campbell and Birney scored for Detroit in a game that also featured a weather delay due to lightning. 10 first half goals from Jacksonville and one from the Titans made a hole that was too big to overcome. UDM goalkeeper McCormick set a career-high with 19 saves and Detroit will need another solid effort from the A-Sun Defensive Player of the Year. Overall, the Dolphins are 6-0 all-time against the Titans. 
 
NCAA Tournament on the Line
A win for Detroit on Sunday over Jacksonville and the Titans will make their first-ever NCAA Tournament appearance. Sunday, May 5 will be the NCAA Selection Show in which all teams who are tournament-bound will find out who and where they will play.