DETROIT (8/30/2018) -- The University of Detroit Mercy men's soccer team continues its season-opening five-game road swing with a pair of road matches in Pennsylvania. The Titans visit Robert Morris on Friday, before taking on Duquesne in Pittsburgh on Sunday.

Friday's match is set for 4 p.m. ET from the North Athletic Complex from Moon Township, Pa. and is slated to be lived stream on NEC Front Row. Detroit Mercy's contest on Sunday against the Dukes is set for 3 p.m. ET from Rooney Field in Pittsburgh and may be seen on ESPN-Plus.
 

Games 3 & 4  |  Detroit Mercy (0-2) vs. Robert Morris (0-1-1) & Duquesne (0-1)
Dates / Time	Friday, Aug. 31 // 4 PM ET
	Sunday, Sept. 2 // 3 PM ET
Location/Tickets	Moon Township, Pa. (North Athletic Complex)
	Pittsburgh, Pa. (Rooney Field)
Live Stats	Friday // Sunday
Live Stream/Video	Friday: NEC Front Row // Sunday: ESPN+
Social Media	Twitter (In-game Tweets): @UDMSoccer  |  Facebook     Instagram  |  Tweet #DetroitsCollegeTeam
All-Time Series	Titans trail, 0-0-1 // Last Meeting: Titans 0, RMU 0 (9/8/13)
	Titans lead, 1-0-1 // Last Meeting: Titans 3, Duquesne 2 (9/18/10)

Titan News & Notes
• Sophomore midfielder Daniel Iyok scored his first collegiate goal to give the Titans a 1-0 lead in the season-opener at Cal.
• Detroit Mercy opens the 2018 season with five-straight games on the road and eight of nine away from Titan Field.
• Senior defender Grant Harrison was Second Team All-HL in 2017 and leads active Titan players with 35 starts on the back line.
• The Titans have experience on the back line with defenders Harrison (35 starts), Garret Weaver (33), Justin Schueneman (26) and Justin Murray (18) having started a collective 112 matches across their Detroit Mercy careers.
• Weaver started all 19 games a year ago and led the Titans in minutes played (1,787).
• Detroit Mercy has two seniors on the roster in 2018 and 17 of the 30 players are first or second-year student-athletes.
• Freshman goalkeeper Devin Mendez made his collegiate debut at Cal and has started both games in net for the Titans.
• Sophomore Kyle Bandyk was a All-HL Freshman Team and All-Tournament Team member for the red, white and blue a year ago.
• The Titans went 7-8-4 last season en route to an appearance in the semifinals of the Horizon League Championship tournament.
• Head coach Nicholas Deren '99 enters his ninth season and has 56 victories in his Titan head coaching career.
• Detroit Mercy has won or earned a share of two regular-season Horizon League titles in the past seven seasons (2012, 2014 - share).
• The Titans' home opener is not until Sept. 15, when Detroit Mercy hosts Metro Series rival Oakland.

2018 Outlook
The Titans return six starters and 14 letter-winners from a squad that went 7-8-4 and reached the semifinals of the Horizon League Championship in 2017. Detroit Mercy opens the 2018 campaign at Cal before playing a Sunday match against Saint Mary's, a team the Titans tied last season on the road.

Twenty (20) players are back overall for Detroit Mercy, while the Titans also welcome 10 new players to the squad for 2018.

Much of the back line returns including Second Team All-Horizon League senior defender Grant Harrison. Junior defenders Garret Weaver and Justin Schueneman also return as does redshirt sophomore defender Justin Murray, who missed last season due to an injury. Weaver and Harrison each started all 19 matches for the Titans in 2018, while Schueneman made 16 starts for Detroit Mercy last year. Murray started 16 games as a true freshman in 2016.

Horizon League All-Freshman Team and All-Tournament Team recipient Kyle Bandyk (19 starts, two goals) and junior forward Jake Reitzloff (18 games, five assists) each return to the help lead the offense for Detroit Mercy. Sophomore forward Demetri Pliakos (12 games, one assist), junior midfielder Max Becker (18 games, three points), junior forward Aleks Vushaj (14 games, one goal), sophomore forward Mohamad Miri (14 games) and sophomore midfielder Daniel Iyok (10 games) should all see increased roles during the 2018 season.

With the graduation of two-year starter Robbie Beckwell, four goalkeepers will vie for playing time in net for the Titans in junior Sami Nouri redshirt freshman Devin Mendez and freshmen Evan Mazurek and Reggie Spencer.

All-Time Series
Detroit Mercy is meeting Robert Morris for the second time in men's soccer and first since the 2013 season. The Titans and Colonials played to a 0-0 draw on Sept. 8, 2013 in their only previous meeting. The red, white and blue have played Duquesne two times previously, but not since the 2010 season. The Titans earned a 3-2 road victory against the Dukes in 2010 and hold a 1-0-1 record all-time against Duquesne.

Scouting Robert Morris
The Colonials are 0-1-1 on the season with a 3-0 loss coming against Canisius at home in their season opener before tying St. Bonaventure 0-0 on the road last Sunday. Robert Morris was 4-11-3 last season and 2-3-3 at home during the 2017 season.

Robert Morris is scoreless on the 2018 campaign, but has fired 27 shots, including nine looks on net during the first two games. Senior Zac Sherman is the leading returning scorer for the Colonials as he scored three goals in 2017. Junior Christian Coridon added two goals last season for RMU. Senior GK Winter Fondi started and played in every minute in 2017 for Robert Morris and has made 14 saves in two starts so far in 2018. He has an 82.4 save percentage.

Scouting Duquesne
The Dukes are 0-1 on the young season, falling 1-0 in their season opener at Marshall on Sept. 24. Duquesne plays a 2-0 Northern Kentucky squad on Friday prior to taking on the Titans on Sunday. The Dukes went 3-13-1 last season and 3-5 at home in 2017. The Dukes fell in two preseason matches at Pittsburgh (1-0) and against Bowling Green (3-1) at home.

One of the Dukes leading scorers from last season, junior forward Zach Hall, returns after recording three goals and two assists in 2017. He led the Dukes in shots (49) and shots on goal (22) last season. Both goalkeepers who saw time last year return in juniors Robbie McKelvey (1.55 GAA, 66 saves) and Scott Rissler (10 saves). McKelvey made four saves and allowed just one goal in the season opener at Marshall.

Preseason Poll
The Titans were selected to finish eighth in the Horizon League Men's Soccer Preseason Poll. Detroit Mercy received 22 points overall. The reigning league champion, UIC, received six of the nine first-place votes and was voted to finish first in the poll. Green Bay, Wright State and Milwaukee each received one first place vote and followed UIC in the poll in second, third and fourth, respectively.

Last season, Detroit Mercy finished sixth overall at 4-4-1 in the regular-season standings before advancing past third-seeded Milwaukee in the quarterfinals of the Horizon League Championship after a 5-4 penalty kick shootout. Detroit Mercy fell to Green Bay, the 2017 regular-season champs, in the semifinals of the tournament by a 3-1 margin in Chicago.

Up Next
The Titans return to the road next weekend for their Horizon League opener, visiting IUPUI in Indianapolis on Saturday, Sept. 8. Kick off for the match is set to begin at 7 p.m. and is slated to be streamed live on ESPN3.com and the WatchESPN Applications.