BALTIMORE - (1/10/2019) -- Less than a month away from the start of the 2019 lacrosse season and the preseason polls are starting to come in as the Inside Lacrosse Faceoff Yearbook's MAAC predictions were released today.

Detroit Mercy was picked to finish second behind Monmouth, while Quinnipiac was third and defending champion Canisius fourth.

Three Titans made the preseason All-Conference team in senior Matthew Vangalen and junior Alex Akins and Alex Jarzembowski.

Vangalen is a two-time All-MAAC honoree who tallied a school-record 51 points on a career-high 31 goals with 20 assists last season. He was seventh in the MAAC in points per game (3.19), assists per game (1.25) and goals per game (1.94), while tying for first with three game-winning goals.

The Titan captain scored a goal in 12 games on the year with eight multi-goal efforts and five hat tricks and will begin his senior campaign fourth all-time in scoring with 98 points, fifth with 41 assists and sixth with 57 goals. 

Akins - another Titan captain and two-time All-MAAC award winner -  was fifth on the squad with 11 caused turnovers and seventh picking up a career-high 23 ground balls. 

He is a key cog on the Titan defense that produced  8.56 caused turnovers per game to not only lead the MAAC, but also rank eighth in the country, as well as ranking second in the conference and 19th in the nation in scoring defense at 9.38 goals per game.

Jarzembowski earned All-MAAC as a specialist last season after winning 52.1 percent of his faceoffs and registering a career-best 46 ground balls, third on the team. The 163 total wins was also a school record as was the 313 face-off attempted. 

In MAAC play, he boasted a .553 winning percentage (77-of-139) with 27 ground balls and through two seasons, he is the Titan career leader in faceoff winning percentage at .536 (237-of-442), while his 237 wins are third in the record book.

The Titans will open their 11th varsity season on Feb. 2 when the red, white and blue host Jacksonville at Total Sports Complex in Washington Township. Game time is set for Noon and limited tickets will be on sale ONLINE only and more information on that will be distributed in the near future.