Detroit Game Notes

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. (5/2/2014) -- The University of Detroit Mercy women's lacrosse team will play against the Jacksonville Dolphins Sunday afternoon for the Atlantic Sun Championship after the Titans defeated Elon Friday in the Atlantic Sun Semifinals. Game time for Sunday is set for 12:00 p.m. ET and it will be streamed live on ESPN3.
 
Gameday 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. 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.
 
ESPN3
The game between Detroit and Jacksonville will be shown online at ESPN3. It will be the first time in the history of the UDM women's lacrosse program that the team will be on ESPN. The links for ESPN3 and live stats are available on Women's Lacrosse Gameday Central. 
 
Last Time Out
Detroit (5-12, 3-2 Atlantic Sun) defeated the Elon Phoenix 15-11 in the Atlantic Sun Semifinals on Friday to advance to the A-Sun Championship game for the second straight year. UDM goalkeeper Lexie McCormick made 16 saves in net thwarting Elon time and time again. Tessa Keuler netted five goals and added two assists to lead the Titan offense, while Annie Mendoza also poured in five goals. Kylie Birney and Erin Campbell each added two goals apiece and Kelsi Pritchard rounded out the Titan scoring. Michaela Schwartz provided two assists and Campbell also added a helper. Elon scored the first two goals of the game and the Titans rattled off five straight to go up 5-2. Elon added two more in the first half but Detroit went into halftime up with a 10-4 lead. The Phoenix never scored more than two consecutive goals in the second half as Detroit held on for the 15-11 victory and a berth in the championship.
 
Niner
For Campbell, her career-high seven goals and nine points against Kennesaw State last Saturday marked the first time a Titan has posted nine or more points since Anna Eidem hit the mark on April 20, 2012 at Presbyterian. In this now the sixth year of UDM women's lacrosse, Campbell became just the eighth Titan in the history of the program to record nine or more points in a single game.
 
The Ship
Jacksonville (13-5, 5-0 Atlantic Sun) and Detroit will match up in the Atlantic Sun Final for the second straight year. JU downed the Titans 22-8 in 2013 in that championship and won over the Titans by an 18-5 score earlier this year in Detroit back on April 6. The winner of the 2014 Atlantic Sun Championship will earn the league's automatic bid into the NCAA Tournament. The A-Sun winner will found out its opponent and next game location on May 4 at 9:00 p.m. ET on the NCAA.com Selection Show.
 
Jacksonville
Jacksonville (13-5, 5-0 Atlantic Sun) finished as the No. 1 seed in the Atlantic Sun for the second straight season and has not lost a conference game in two years. The Dolphins advanced to the championship with a 20-4 win over Stetson on Friday in the A-Sun Semifinals. JU comes in riding a six-game win streak and have not lost since a 13-2 defeat at Stony Brook on April 4. The Dolphins boast the 2014 A-Sun Player of the Year in Morgan Derner and A-Sun Defensive Player of the Year in Brittney Orashen and six first team All-Atlantic Sun members. Derner leads the team with 40 goals and 15 assists for 55 points on the year while Taylor McCord has 32 goals and 23 assists for 55 points. Orashen leads the team with 27 caused turnovers and 47 draw controls while Asia Moore has played all 17 games in net making 104 saves. 
 
Birney Barrage
Sophomore co-captain Kylie Birney is second on the team in goals this season with 26 on the year including goals in each of the last six games. Birney scored 18 goals as a freshman in 16 games a year ago and her brother Mike, a junior on the UDM men's lacrosse team, finished third on this year's team with 18 goals. While Kylie Birney might not be able to match her brother's 114 mph shot, as a sophomore, he too, stepped up to lead the team with 31 goals and tied for first with 40 points after three goals in his freshman campaign. The 2013 campaign, Mike Birney's sophomore year, for the UDM men ended with a conference championship and the first-ever NCAA Tournament appearance in school history and a chance to play at the No. 2 team in the country from Notre Dame in the opening round of the tournament.
 
Welcome Back
Junior attack Annie Mendoza and junior defender Morgan Lear both missed all of the 2013 season due to knee injuries and have come back to the lineup in a big way this season. Mendoza scored five goals against Elon Friday and four against Kennesaw State last Saturday and has 15 of her 23 goals in the last six games. Lear has returned to the backfield to post 13 caused turnovers and pick up 22 ground balls as well as being a mainstay helping the Titans clear the ball up the field in transition. Both have provided leadership to a team with 12 underclassmen including six freshmen.
 
All-Academic Recognition
Junior Tessa Keuler, Kylie Birney, and Michaela Schwartz were each named to the Atlantic Sun All-Academic Women's Lacrosse Team on Tuesday. The Atlantic Sun introduced the new sport-by-sport Academic All-Conference teams in the 2011-12 academic year to recognize student-athletes who embody the conference's mission of Building Winners for Life. All the members of the team boast a 3.30 cumulative grade point average (GPA) or better, participated in at least half of their team's games this year, and have at least one year at the member institution. For Keuler, it is her second straight year with the honor while it's the first for both Birney and Schwartz.
 
But Wait, There is More! All-League Recognition
A total of seven Titans earned Atlantic Sun recognition from the league as attack Erin Campbell and midfielder Kylie Birney garnered All-Atlantic Sun First Team honors. Junior goalkeeper Lexie McCormick, junior defenders Amanda Guthrie and Morgan Lear, and freshman midfielder Kelsi Pritchard were recognized with Second Team accolades, while Pritchard and freshman midfielder Lauren Sharkey both made the Atlantic Sun All-Freshmen Team. Pritchard was the lone unanimous choice among freshmen on the All-Freshmen Team
 
Senior Role Call
Fifth year senior Erin Campbell and graduate student Vittoria Wallace were recognized prior to the start of the Stetson game on April 19 on Senior Day at Titan Field. Campbell has been with the Titans for five years suffering through nagging injuries the first years before becoming an offensive team leader in each of the last two seasons. Wallace joined Detroit in January just in time for the 2014 season and has been a senior leader since day one. Friends, family, teammates, and administrators will join the two seniors in a short ceremony scheduled to take place prior to the start of the game.
 
Century Club Members Only
Erin Campbell and Tessa Keuler reached the 100-point mark in their careers with their multi-point efforts at Howard earlier this year. They joined an exclusive list of Emily Boissonneault (272 points), Anna Eidem (234 points), Zaynib Hamze (136 points), and Corina Mahorn (135 points) as the only UDM women's lacrosse players to tally 100 or more career points. Campbell, a senior who has seen time in 55 career games, has 121 points with 96 goals and 25 assists and is just four goals away from 100 in her career. Keuler has 62 goals and 51 assists for 113 points in 53 games as a junior.
 
Between the Pipes
Titan junior goalkeeper Lexie McCormick is just six saves away from 500 in her Titan career. With 494 in 53 career games, she already is the school's all-time leader in saves as she set the mark earlier this season against Marquette on March 2 as she hit 347 career saves. McCormick, the 2013 Atlantic Sun Defensive Player of the Year, ended 2013 in the top ten in the nation in three categories finishing No. 2 in total saves (175), sixth in saves per game (9.21 per contest and 10th in ground balls per game (2.89). She was also 23rd in save percentage (.445). Her single-game career-high in saves came in 2013 as she made 19 stops against Jacksonville on April 14 in Jacksonville. McCormick is also the school's all-time career leader in goaltender victories as she currently has 18. 
 
NCAA Stats
The NCAA releases weekly statistical updates on Monday and this week's rankings saw junior goalkeeper Lexie McCormick rank fifth in ground balls with 3.44 per contest and she was also fifth in total saves with 159. She is sixth in saves per game with 9.94 per game and 19th in save percentage with a mark of .468. She is also 79th in goals-against average at a clip of 12.41.Tessa Keuler is ranked 85th in assists per game with one per game and 87th in total assists with 16. Defender Morgan Miller is 75th in caused turnovers with 1.29 per game and Amanda Guthrie is 96th with 1.19 a contest. The Titans as a team are 21st in ground balls with 17.69 per game and 28th in caused turnovers with 9.25 per contest.
 
Remembering 2013
The Titans finished 5-14 overall in 2013 but were 3-1 in the Atlantic Sun and entered the A-Sun Championship as the No. 2 seed falling to the top seed Jacksonville in the first ever Atlantic Sun Championship game. The Titans swept the A-Sun individual awards handed out on Wednesday as graduated senior Zaynib 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, and three players were named to the All-Conference Freshmen Team.
 
Welcome Back
The Titans returned two of its top three scorers in 2014 in senior Erin Campbell (39 goals, 50 points) and junior Tessa Keuler (40 points). Also returning on this year's squad was McCormick and junior defenders Amanda Guthrie (team-high 55 ground balls) and on-the-field leader Taylor Marshall along with sophomore returners Morgan Miller (named to All-Conference Freshman team in 2013) and Ally Shrader (19 games played as a freshman). Also returning were sophomores Kylie Birney and Michaela Schwartz (both named to All-Conference Freshman team in 2013), Jenna Payne, and Ty Dykes. Redshirt junior Morgan Lear (24 ground balls in 2012) also returned to the squad after missing all of last season with an injury and made her debut in the Atlantic Sun Conference in 2014.
 
Newcomers
Eight newcomers joined the Titans this year including graduate student Vittoria Wallace who came to Detroit in January 2014 after transferring from Oakland University where she played club lacrosse her previous three academic years. Redshirt junior Annie Mendoza also made her debut in 2014 as a Titan after transferring to Detroit for the 2012-13 academic year but missed the entire 2013 season due to an injury. Six freshmen in Miklain Huntsman, Kelsi Pritchard, Julie Castner, Annelise Niermann, Lauren Sharkey, and Jaclyn Snyder were also new to the team this year. Assistant Coach Jake Marmul also made his Titan debut in 2014 after serving in the same role with the University of Notre Dame women's lacrosse team last year.
 
2014 Preseason Coaches Poll
Detroit grabbed 28 points and was pegged to finish second behind Jacksonville and its 36 votes prior to the start of the season.  Stetson was third with 25 points. Campbell, Guthrie and McCormick were picked to represent the Titans on the Preseason All-Atlantic Sun Team. Lear and Mendoza were named to the A-Sun Newcomer Watch List.
 
Home Cooking
The Titans had just five home games in 2013 compared to 11 on the road. Detroit had nine home contests this year including an in-state match-up with the first-year varsity program Michigan Wolverines on April 16. With nine home games for the Titans, it was the largest home schedule Detroit has ever had in its history with the second largest in 2011 when UDM had eight home games.
 
State of the Atlantic Sun
2014 will be the second year of women's lacrosse action in the Atlantic Sun Conference. The Conference will feature six teams including Detroit, Elon, Howard, Kennesaw State, Jacksonville, and Stetson. Elon will be leaving the A-Sun for the Colonial Athletic Association in 2015 but Furman, Mercer, and Old Dominion will join the A-Sun. In 2016, the A-Sun will be nine teams strong as Central Michigan will join the league.
 
Where to From Here
A Titan win over Jacksonville in the Atlantic Sun Championship and the team will find out its next opponent in the NCAA Tournament on Sunday, May 4 at 9:00 p.m. ET during the NCAA.com Women's Lacrosse Selection Show.
 
Social Media
Titan fans don't forget to follow #DetroitsCollegeTeam on Twitter and Instagram at @DetroitTitans and remember to like the Titans on Facebook at Detroit Titans. You can also follow the women's lacrosse team on Twitter @DetroitWL and on Facebook at Detroit Titan Women's Lacrosse.