2015 #HLMSOC Championship Bracket

DETROIT (11/8/2015) -- The University of Detroit Mercy men's soccer team enters the 2015 Horizon League Men's Soccer Championship riding a recent stretch of success, winning its final three Horizon League matches and four of its last five overall.

The Titans (7-4-8 overall) enter the tournament as the No. 5 seed and will play a First Round matchup at 7 p.m. Monday at No. 4 seed Cleveland State (8-7-2). The Vikings and Detroit each finished with 14 points in regular season standings, but CSU earned the better seed by virtue of its win over top-seeded UIC. The match at Krenzler Field will be broadcasted on ESPN3.com and the Watch ESPN Applications. Tickets are $5 for adults.

Detroit, the No. 10-ranked team in the most recent NSCAA Great Lakes regional rankings, is 4-1 in its past five matches with its lone loss coming against the No. 12-ranked team in the country, Kentucky. The Titans posted shutouts in three of their last four contests.
 

2015 Horizon League Championship - First Round
Detroit (7-4-8) vs. Cleveland State (8-7-2)
Date	Monday, Nov. 9  |  7:00 p.m. ET
Location	Cleveland, Ohio  |  Krenzler Field
Live Stats	CSUVikings.com
Stream / TV	ESPN3.com & Watch ESPN
Social Media	Twitter (In-game tweets): @DetroitTitans  |  @UDMSoccer  |  Facebook     Instagram  |  Tweet #DetroitsCollegeTeam
All-Time Series	Detroit leads, 16-9-2  |  Last Meeting: Detroit 1, Cleveland State 1 (Oct. 3, 2015)

Horizon League Championship History
Detroit is making its second-straight appearance in the Horizon League Championship under head coach Nicholas Deren '99 and fourth overall in the past six seasons. The Titans dropped a 2-0 match in the Horizon League Championship semifinals to Wright State in 2014.

The Titans and Cleveland State have met in the conference tournament five times previously and last met in 2010, Deren's first full season as head coach at UDM. Detroit is 3-2 against the Vikings in the league tournament all-time.

Detroit has one Horizon League Tournament title, winning the conference tournament in 1996. The Titans are 16-23 all-time in league tournaments.

Titan Tidbits
• The Titans rank first in the Horizon League in saves with 93. Senior goalkeeper Nathan Steinwascher is first in the Horizon League in saves (81) and saves per game (4.76). Steinwascher also leads the league with 45 stops in HL-only games. He is fourth in the conference in save percentage (80.2).
• Steinwascher tied Titan Hall of Famer Kal Kaliszewski for the most career shutouts at 19 with his fifth clean sheet of the year in the season finale.
• Tyler Moorman is tied for the Horizon League lead with seven goals.  He is tied with Belmont's Rashad Hyacenth and Oakland's Austin Ricci entering the Horizon League Championship. Moorman's seven goals is the most by a Detroit men's soccer player since Adam Bedell's eight goals in 2013.
• Spiro Pliakos leads the conference in assists with eight and has the most by a Titan since Bedell tallied eight assists in 2010.
• The Titans entered the NSCAA Great Lakes regional rankings last week, sitting at No. 10 in the poll. Detroit is one of three Horizon League squads in the poll with UIC at No. 6 and Northern Kentucky at No. 8. It's the second-straight season that UDM has been included in the poll. Detroit spent four-straight weeks towards the end of 2014 in the regional polls, climbing as high as No. 8 last year.
• Detroit is 7-2-6 in its last 15 matches. The Titans had a nine-match unbeaten streak during the season, which was the longest as a program since 1993.
• The Titans are one draw away from the NCAA single-season record of nine, which is shared by five other teams. It was most recently done by UC-Davis in 2014.
• Detroit has played in 10 overtimes matches this season (1-1-8).
• UDM's shutout against Belmont was its sixth of the season and third in the past four matches.
• Senior defender Jason Leslie is the only player on the squad to start all 19 matches. He has played in all but 22 minutes this season (he came out of the game for the final 22 minutes against Kentucky).
• Detroit's 28 shots against Northern Kentucky is the highest total by a team in a Horizon League match this year.
• The Titans have had three Horizon League Player of the Weeks this season. Nathan Steinwascher is a two-time HL Defensive Player of the Week, earning the award on Sept. 21 and Nov. 2, while Spiro Pliakos was selected as the HL Offensive Player of the Week on Sept. 14.

2015 Horizon League Men's Soccer Championship
Monday, November 9 -- Quarterfinals
Match 1: No. 5 Detroit at No. 4 Cleveland State – 7:00 p.m. ET (ESPN3)
Match 2: No. 6 Wright State at No. 3 Northern Kentucky – 7:00 p.m. ET (ESPN3)

Thursday, November 12 – Semifinals
Match 3: Highest Remaining Seed vs. No. 2 Oakland – 5:30 p.m. ET (ESPN3)
Match 4: Lowest Remaining Seed at No. 1 UIC – 8:00 p.m. ET (ESPN3)

Saturday, November 14 – Finals
Match 5: Winner Match 3 vs. Winner Match 4 – 7:00 p.m. ET (ESPN3)

Stat of the Week
7/8 - Tyler Moorman is tied for the Horizon League lead with seven goals, while Spiro Pliakos ranks first in the conference in assists.

Scouting Cleveland State
The Vikings are coming off a 1-0 season-finale win over regular-season champion UIC and went 6-1-1 in their final eight matches. CSU gave up just one goal in its final six matches of the season, recording five shutouts in the final six contests. The Vikings went 2-3-2 at Krenzler Field during the 2015 season.

Sophomore Jake Lagania leads the Vikings with five goals and five assists for 15 points. He also leads the squad with 37 shots, 22 of them on goal. Junior Sergio Manesio adds three goals for Cleveland State. Junior goalkeeper Aleksandar Drobac has allowed just nine goals in 11 starts for CSU and has a 0.78 goals against average, 82.4 save percentage and five shutouts.

All-Time Series
The Titans and Cleveland State (8-7-2) met during the regular season on Oct. 3 with the two teams playing to a 1-1 draw at Krenzler Field in Cleveland. After a scoreless first half, CSU scored in the 63rd minute before the Titans tied up the game on a Tyler Hughes' bicycle kick in the 73rd minute. Goalkeeper Nathan Steinwascher made six saves in the contest, including two in overtime. Detroit is 16-9-2 all-time against the Vikings.

#HLMSOC Final Standings
1. UIC 6-1-2 -- 20 points
2. Oakland 5-3-1 -- 16 points
3. Northern Kentucky 4-2-3 -- 15 points
4. Cleveland State 4-3-2 -- 14 points
5. Detroit 3-1-5 -- 14 points
6. Wright State 4-4-1 -- 13 points
7. Valparaiso 3-3-3 -- 12 points
8. Green Bay 2-5-2 -- 8 points
    Milwaukee 2-5-2 -- 8 points
10. Belmont 1-7-1 -- 4 points

Steinwascher Chosen as Candidate for Senior Class Award
Senior goalkeeper Nathan Steinwascher was chosen as one of 30 candidates for the 2015 Senior Class Award in Divison I men's soccer earlier this season. To be eligible for the award, a student-athlete must be classified as an NCAA Division I senior and have notable achievements in four areas of excellence: community, classroom, character and competition. The complete list of candidates follows this release. Steinwascher is the only Horizon League soccer student-athlete -- men's or women's -- to be among the 2015 candidates for the award.

The Sterling Heights, Mich. native has already completed his undergraduate degree in Accounting with a 3.63 GPA. He's currently enrolled in an MBA program and holds a 3.46 GPA.

Head Coach
Detroit men's soccer head coach Nicholas Deren '99 returns for his sixth full season in 2015. He has earned two regular season titles in the past four seasons with the Titans, helping lead Detroit to the outright title in 2012 before leading the team to a share in 2014. He has 46 victories in his head coaching tenure at Detroit, including 22 in Horizon League play.

Record Books
Senior goalkeeper Nathan Steinwascher entered his senior season in the top-three in several statistical categories. Steinwascher is third all-time in total saves at 337 and is 22 behind Titan Hall of Famer Kal Kaliszewski for second in saves. Steinwascher's 19 career shutouts tied Titan Hall of Famer Kal Kaliszewski (1993-96) for the most in Detroit men's soccer history.

Steinwascher also entered 2015 second in career goals against average (1.29) and third in save percentage (77.6) and is among the NCAA active career leader in several statistical categories. He is No. 2 on the active career saves list behind IUPUI's Eduardo Cortes. He became the third goalkeeper in Detroit men's soccer history to reach the 300-save plateau for his career earlier this year.

Spiro Pliakos, in just his sophomore season, is quickly moving up the record books in assists. The forward leads the squad with eight helpers this season and has 15 career assists, which puts him in a tie for 14th in Detroit men's soccer history.