DETROIT (8/22/2018) -- The University of Detroit Mercy women's soccer team will be back at it this week with a pair of games, including its 2018 home opener on Sunday.
The Titans will begin the weekend with a quick trip to Eastern Michigan in a 5 p.m. start and will then host Central Michigan on Titan Field on Sunday at 4 p.m. Students will also get free pizza for attending the home opener against CMU (starting at 3:30 p.m. for students with valid ID and while supplies last) and all fans will receive schedule posters and magnets.
The game against the Eagles will feature live stats but no live broadcast, while the battle with the Chippewas will have live stats and will be on ESPN+.
The home game on Sunday is the lone contest at Titan Field in the first part of the season as the Titans start the year with five of their first six games on the road.
AGAINST EASTERN MICHIGAN
- The Titans have won three in a row and five of the last six against Eastern Michigan, including a 3-0 victory last season at Titan Field, as Detroit Mercy now leads the all-time series, 9-8-4.
- In the game last year, Kelli Doyle scored a goal and Marina Manzo posted three saves.
- The 21 games in the series is currently the third most games in school history against a non-conference foe trailing only the 26 games against Butler and Loyola, but most of those were conference match-ups when they were in the Horizon League.
AGAINST CENTRAL MICHIGAN
- Central Michigan comes into the contest at 1-1 with a 3-1 setback at No. 14 Notre Dame and a 4-1 home victory over Southern Utah. Two-time All-MAC selection and CMU all-time leading scorer Lexi Palefas already has three goals on the year (hat trick vs. Southern Utah) and has 36 goals and 77 points in her career.
- Detroit Mercy has lost six in a row and has not defeated Central Michigan in the last nine meetings (0-6-3) as the Chippewas hold an 8-2-5 advantage over the Titans. In the last nine meetings, the red, white and blue have notched just three goals.
- The Titans won the first-ever meeting at home, 2-1, in 1998 and last recorded a win in 2004, 2-1, on the road.
- Last season, Central Michigan tallied a 2-0 triumph at home.
ALL-TIME VS. MAC
- The Titans will start their 2018 campaign with three games against the MAC and will have four games against the conference on the year.
- Detroit Mercy will visit Western Michigan and Eastern Michigan before its home opener against Central Michigan. In early September, the red, white and blue will travel to Toledo.
- The red, white and blue are 39-36-10 all-time against MAC schools.
2018 PREVIEW
QUICK RECAP OF 2017
- The Titans finished 2017 at 4-13-1, 1-8 in the Horizon League, but their season was marred by close losses and injuries.
- Detroit Mercy dropped nine games by one goal, including seven Horizon League contests.
- The nine one-goal losses were the most since it had 10 one-goal setbacks in 2006 and that was the result of an offense that posted 50 points on 18 goals and 14 assists, the third lowest offensive output in team history.
- Along the way, the Titans lost one of their top goal scorers in Rachel Russo to a knee injury and defenseman Olivia Parra to a head injury.
HOME OPENERS
- Detroit Mercy is 13-8-4 all-time in home openers, but is 0-2-2 in the last four years in the first game at Titan Field. The last home-opening win was a 3-0 thrashing of Bowling Green in 2013.
THE MANZO WATCH
- Senior Marina Manzo is back in net as she is one of the top goalkeepers in the Horizon League. The 2016 HL Goalkeeper of the Year, Manzo is on a pace to etch her name among the top netminders in school history.
- Last year, she started all 18 games on the season and made 86 saves on the year – second in the Horizon League – with five shutouts and also
- ranked third in the HL in saves per game (4.78), fourth in shutouts and was fifth in save percentage (.782).
- She had nine games with five or more saves, including a season-high nine twice at Pittsburgh and at Northern Arizona, and allowed a goal or less in 11 games,
- She is currently fourth in school history with 274 saves, second in goals against average (1.28), fourth with 17 shutouts, fifth in wins (24) and save percentage (.781) and seventh in saves per game (4.49).
RUSSO FOR THREE
- In just her second collegiate game last season, sophomore Rachel Russo scored three second-half goals in a 3-0 road win at Purdue Fort Wayne.
- The hat trick was the first by a Titan since Alyssa Riley did it against Marygrove in 2013, and the first Titan freshman to net a hat trick since Tanya Tiselj had three in 1999 versus Bowling Green.
- Russo was also the third Detroit Mercy freshmen to record a hat trick joining Tiselj and Cindy Fix (1993).
DOYLE READY TO BUILD
- Kelli Doyle earned Horizon League All-Freshman accolades last year and will look to improve in her second season.
- She started all 17 games she appeared in as a forward and was second on the team with nine points and tied for second with four goals. She found the back of the net on her first collegiate shot against Lawrence Tech – just the third game of the season – and added markers in the non-conference against Bowling Green and Eastern Michigan.
- She had a season-high two points on a goal and an assist on the road at Cleveland State.
YOUNG AT HEART
- The Titans started two true freshmen and five sophomores in the season opener at Western Michigan.
- Experience was also short coming off the bench as out of the five Titan reserves, two were true freshmen (Nasreen Kobeissi and Emily Lorkowski), one a sophomore (Ana Ginez) making her collegiate debut and another the other two student-athletes who have played a combined 20 games in junior Megan Pace and sophomore Sophie Mapes.
HONOR THY CAPTAINS
- Seniors Molly Kane and Carly Fiorido will serve as captains for the Titans this season.
- Fiorido has started all 56 games in which she has appeared in the backline and earned the Defensive Award and Team MVP last season.
- Kane has been a steady offensive and defensive player for the Titans and has started all 54 games she has played in at the midfield.
STILL TOGETHER
- The Titans will once again be in the steady hands of a veteran coaching staff as head coach Mike Lupenec - the only coach in program history - is back to lead the 26th varsity team.
- He is the only coach in school history and has guided the Titans to a 225-219-38 overall mark with conference championships in 1995, 1996 and 2004. The 2004 team also won a game in the NCAA Tournament.
- Lupenec has been voted league Coach of the Year by his peers three times (2000, 2005, 2012).
- His assistant coach Jamie Huff has been at his side for 17 seasons, while goaltending coach Mike Sheehy is in his eighth season.
- Even graduate assistant coach Jennifer Borawski '16 was a former player and now in her second year with the program.
IN MICHIGAN WE TRUST
- Detroit Mercy likes the home-grown talent of the Great Lakes State as 25 of the 30 Titans hail from Michigan.
- The five other Titans are from our neighbor to the North with four from Ontario and one from Quebec.
