Gameday Central
Game Notes vs. Canisius
Coach Holtz Previews Canisius

DETROIT (3/21/2014) -- The Titans are seven games into their season, but the next six will be the most crucial as the University of Detroit Mercy men's lacrosse team opens MAAC play on the road at Canisius on Sunday. Game time is set for Noon at the Demske Sports Complex.

Titan fans can follow every UDM game this season through the men's lacrosse GAMEDAY CENTRAL page 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.

If fans are wondering about the unusual Sunday contest, the game was moved off of Saturday as Canisius is the co-host of the NCAA Division I men's basketball second and third round games that will be played on Thursday and Saturday in Buffalo.

Detroit enters the conference season at 3-4 as the Titans dropped a high scoring 15-10 contest their last time out against Marquette. Junior Mike Birney led the way with five points on the strength of four goals, while junior Shayne Adams tallied five points with a career-high three assists.

Senior Alex Maini still leads the team with 26 points on 12 goals and 14 assists, while Adams tops the squad with 16 goals and is second on the team at 20 points. Since taking over in net, freshman Jason Weber has posted 63 saves, a .606 save percentage and a 10.25 goals against average in four games, while sophomore Paul Bitetti and junior Joe Gifford pace the defense with 19 and 10 caused turnovers, respectively.

Canisius is 3-3 on the season as the Golden Griffins opened league play with a 5-4 triumph over Monmouth at home last week. Canisius has played two ranked teams falling to No. 5 Denver (14-3) and to No. 15 Cornell (19-6) on the road, while also getting tripped up in overtime by Hobart (11-10).

After the game, UDM will return home for three-straight weeks as Quinnipiac (Mar. 29), Marist (Apr. 5) and Siena (Apr. 12) all come to the Motor City.

THE OPENING FACEOFF
The second season has arrived for the Detroit Titans as MAAC play will begin this weekend in familiar territory for the University of Detroit Mercy with the red, white and blue facing Canisius at the Demske Sports Complex. Game time is set for Noon at the same facility that saw the Titans win the 2013 MAAC Championship.

JESUIT FAMILY
Detroit and Canisius are two of eight Jesuit Universities that currently field Division I lacrosse programs.

Besides the Titans and Golden Griffins, other Jesuit Division I lacrosse schools are: Holy Cross, Fairfield, Georgetown, Loyola (MD), Marquette and Saint Joseph's.

UDM is 3-6 all-time against Jesuit programs with a 3-2 mark versus MAAC-rival Canisius, while falling twice to Marquette and once to Georgetown and Saint Joseph's.

AGAINST THE MAAC
Detroit is 12-14 in conference play since joining the MAAC in 2010. UDM opened its MAAC history with a 2-6 mark in 2010 and was 4-2 in 2011 and 3-3 the last two seasons, tying for second place in 2010 and 2011 and taking fourth place last year.

UDM is also 11-15 all-time against current members of the MAAC - which includes conference tournament games.

ABOUT CANISIUS
Canisius is 3-3 on the season as the Golden Griffins opened league play with a 5-4 triumph over Monmouth at home last week. Canisius has played two ranked teams falling to No. 5 Denver (14-3) and to No. 15 Cornell (19-6) on the road, while also getting tripped up in overtime by Hobart (11-10).  The Golden Griffins were picked to finish in a tie for fourth in the preseason MAAC Coaches' Poll.

Preseason All-Conference selection Tim Edwards leads the team with 13 points on six goals and seven assists. The midfielder is also the faceoff specialist and has posted a MAAC-best .684 winning percentage (65-of-95) with 46 ground balls, second in league play.

Vince Gravino is second on the team with 11 points on seven goals and four assists, while Billy Jacobbi has a team-high eight goals and nine points. Preseason All-MAAC honoree at defense Adam Donner also has a team-best seven caused turnovers.

Alex Govenettio has started all six games in net and has a .551 save percentage and an 8.93 goals against average.

A SECOND HOME IN BUFFALO
The Titans have just six true road wins in their history, but one place that has been kind to Detroit has been the Demske Sports Complex. Counting MAAC Tournament games, UDM is 4-2 all-time in Buffalo, the site of their 2013 MAAC Championship.

Last season, the fourth-seeded Titans defeated top-seeded Marist, 7-6, and then had a thrilling come-from behind overtime win over No. 3 Siena, 11-10, while in 2011, Detroit advanced to its first-ever MAAC Championship game with a 9-8 victory over the No. 2 Marist before falling to the No. 1 Saints in the title game, 12-3.

UDM also had a close 9-8 setback to Canisius in 2010, where its bid for a tie went off the post in the closing seconds, and tallied the most goals it has ever scored in a conference contest with 17 – second most in school history - in a 17-12 win over the Golden Griffins in 2012.

MAN-UP DOMINATION
The Titans have taken advantages of penalties so far scoring on 20-of-30 (66.7%) extra-man opportunities - including 5-of-8 against Marquette, 4-of-5 against Bellarmine and 3-of-4 at VMI - and are now 18 for their last 24.

The 66.7% currently ranks second in the nation behind only No. 8/9 Notre Dame's 68.4% (13-for-19).

KEEP IT UP
Junior Shayne Adams ran his streak to 39-straight games recording at least one point as he tallied five with a career-best three assists against Marquette.

He now has 107 points on 91 goals and 16 assists during this spurt. 

The streak is currently the fifth longest in the nation by an active player in Division I.
# -  Name, School, Yr.,  Pos. G-A-P
48 - Jordan Wolf, Duke, Sr. A 112-74-186
44 - Kieran McArdle, St. John's, Sr.  A  92-114-206
42 - Miles Thompson, Albany, Sr. A 1218-71-192
40 - Ryan Walsh, Colgate, Jr. A  91-42-133
39 - Shayne Adams, Detroit, Sr.  A  91-16-107

MAINI FIGHTING TO KEEP SCHOOL RECORD
Senior Alex Maini is the Titan career leader in points and he added to that with two goals and an assist against Marquette to come into the game with 128 total points. He currently holds the school record by 18 points over current teammate Shayne Adams' 110. 

Maini is also second in school history with 76 goals, trailing Adams by 18, while Maini also owns the school assist record as his third helper at RMU gave him 44 at that point to pass former teammate Scott Harris (2009-12) on his way to his current mark of 52.

He is currently ninth in the nation in shot percentage (.522), 13th in assists per game (2.00) and 27th in points per game (3.71), ranking second in the MAAC assists and shot percentage and third in points. 

OH CANADA
Junior Shayne Adams put together quite a show in the first half at Robert Morris as he scored five goals in the first 30 minutes.

The five markers were two away from his school record of seven he set against Mercer in 2011, and with his three goals last week,  

Adams now has 16 hat tricks in his career, the most among Titan players.

RELOADING THE DEFENSE
The Titans knew they had to build their defense back up after the graduation of a number of key starters and players from last year's NCAA Tournament team and after seven games, it looks like Detroit has the right pieces to do just that.

Detroit is third in the country in saves per game (15.57) and sixth with 10.14 caused turnovers per game.

UDM totaled 17 caused turnovers against Bellarmine, tied for the fourth most in school history and the most since posting 20 against VMI last season.

The Titans started the year with 11 caused turnovers against Mercer and Michigan.

BITETTI'S TAKING IT AWAY
Sophomore defenseman Paul Bitetti leads the team with 19 caused turnovers and is averaging 3.17 per game, tops in the NCAA.

Bitetti has at least four caused turnovers in three of the six games he has played with a career-high five against Bellarmine.

HICKS COMES UP BIG
Sophomore faceoff specialist Damien Hicks tied his career high for the third time - and the second this year - with seven ground balls at Wagner.

He was 8-of-14 versus the Seahawks. Against Robert Morris, he was a career-best 14-of-19, the most since Brandon Davenport (2010-13) had 14 at Canisius in 2012.

ON TOP OF THE MAAC
As of the latest NCAA stats released on Monday, the Titans lead the MAAC in points per game (16.14), assists per game (6.71), man-up offense (.667), caused turnovers per game (10.14), while ranking second in shot percentage (.274) and saves per game (15.57).

Senior Alex Maini is second in the league in assists per game (2.00) and shot percentage (.522) and third in points and junior Shayne Adams is third in goals per game (2.29) and fourth in points (2.86).

SPREADING THE BALL AROUND
Detroit has six players in double figures in points so far and 10 players have posted at least one goal through six games.

WEBER NAMED MAAC ROOKIE OF THE WEEK
With 33 saves in two games, freshman goalie Jason Weber was tabbed the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference's (MAAC) Rookie Of The Week on March 10.

Weber earned the award after coming up with his second win of the season splitting a pair of games against Bellarmine and at Wagner. Along with his 33 saves, he posted a .623 save percentage and a 10.00 goals against average with seven ground balls.

He tallied 18 saves in the road victory at Wagner – tying for the third most in program history and just two away from the school record – including a key save with 30 seconds left that help set up Detroit's game winning shot. Weber started the week by making 15 stops against RV/RV Bellarmine.

In four games as a starter, Weber has two wins with 63 saves, a 10.25 goals against average and a .606 save percentage, while collecting 12 ground balls.

Weber made 16 saves - six in the fourth period - and allowed just six goals, including none in the final 22 minutes of action, in a win at VMI and had 15 saves against
RV/RV Bellarmine earlier in the season.

A MASTER OF HIS PROFESSION
Senior Tom Masterson has seven goals and 11 assists through seven games and has now scored a point in 17-straight games.

During this spurt, he has posted 20 goals and 22 assists for 42 points.

Masterson is coming off a season in which he ended the year with career highs in goals (13), assists (13) and points (26).

BIRNEY GOES BOOM
Junior Mike Birney has 13 goals on the season and posted his seventh career hat trick with four goals against Marquette. He also added an assist to tie his career high with five points.

Birney has now posted multi-goal outbursts in 11 of his last 15 games and 12 of his last 17 dating back to last season.

Birney earned All-MAAC Second Team and was the Most Outstanding Player at the 2013 MAAC Championship, where he recorded eight goals and had a pair of game winners and a career-high five in the title game.

He scored a goal in 14 of UDM's 15 games last season, including 12 in a row to end the campaign, and had multiple goals on nine occasions with five hat tricks and that career performance of five in the MAAC Championship comeback against Siena.

MORE BIRNEY BITES
Junior Mike Birney had just 12 goals and 19 points in his first 19 collegiate games, but in his last 14, the All-MAAC midfielder has recorded 31 goals and 37 points.

THE BEAT OF HIS DRUM
Junior Scott Drummond was one of the unsung heroes in last year's run to the MAAC Championship and NCAA Tournament appearance and he started the season with a bang tying his career high with five points and three assists against Mercer. He then added a goal and two helpers against Michigan.

He saw his streak of 14-straight games with at least one point come to an end at Robert Morris, but has one point in 18 of his last 19 games dating back to last season.

He is currently fourth on the team in points (17) and goals (8), and is second with nine total assists.

STANDING TALL IN SHOOTING BARRAGE
The Titans have been outshot, 292-241, on the year, but did come up with a couple of big wins while being outgunned.

At Wagner, Detroit was outshot, 45-29, but came back to post the game winner with one second left on the clock.

The 16-shot margin is tied for the most UDM has ever overcome for a win behind the 39-23 advantage that Marist had in the Titans' 9-8 triumph in the MAAC Semifinals in 2011.

It is only the fifth time in school history that UDM won a game despite being outshot.

In the season opener against Mercer, UDM was outshoot, 38-29, yet Detroit was able to withstand that for a win.