DETROIT. (3/10/2021) -- The University of Detroit Mercy men's lacrosse team will return home to start conference play as the Titans battle the Bonnies of St. Bonaventure on Saturday.

Game time is set for 3:00 p.m. as it is part of a lacrosse doubleheader with the women hosting Youngstown State at Noon. John Locy will have the call on ESPN3 (originally scheduled for ESPN+) and the contest will also feature live stats. 

Fans are urged to take notice of the updated fan policy as each member of the Titan team will be allowed to have two members on its "guest list". The fans are confined to the home team only and not for visiting teams/outside fans. For more info, click here.

This is the second career meeting between the two schools as St. Bonaventure is one of the newest teams in Division I lacrosse as the Bonnies are in their third year of play. In 2019, the Titans went on the road to upstate New York and downed the Bonnies, 16-8, while last year's game that was set to be played in the Motor City on March 14 was canceled as the pandemic was just starting. 

Detroit Mercy started the season with a 15-11 setback at Marist last week in what was considered a non-conference game. Senior Brett Erskine led the way tying his career-high with six goals.

St. Bonaventure began the season with a 13-6 win at Quinnipiac in a non-conference game, the first win in school history for the program that dropped its first 19 games. 

AT TITAN FIELD

• The Titans are 21-21 all-time in home games at Titan Field, with five wins in their last seven games on campus.

OUR MAAC WORLD

• Detroit Mercy is 34-29 in regular-season league play since joining the MAAC in 2010.
• The Titans set their all-time win mark for conference games in a season in 2018 at 5-1 and tied that win mark with five wins in 2019.

HOME OPENERS

• Detroit Mercy is 4-8 all-time in home openers (games played at Titan Field) with its last win in 2019, 6-4, over Monmouth. 

CONFERENCE OPENERS

• The Titans are 7-3 all-time in MAAC openers and 8-2 all-time in MAAC home openers.
• Detroit Mercy is starting the MAAC with St. Bonaventure for the third-straight year after beating the Bonnies, 16-8, on the road in 2019, while last year's meeting was canceled.

MAAC HONORS

• The University of Detroit Mercy men's lacrosse team had five Titans tabbed preseason All-MAAC as the conference announced its preseason poll. 
• Senior Brett Erskine was named preseason All-League at attack, while graduate seniors Alex Akins and Sam McClain were selected All-League at defense, senior Paul Manuszak All-MAAC at LSM and graduate senior Alex Jarzembowski at faceoff specialist. 
• Erskine currently ranks ninth in school history with 85 points and eighth with 54 goals and 31 assists. Last season, he started all five games and led the team with 18 points and eight assists, while placing second with 10 goals, while in 2019, he was third on the team with 32 points and second with 22 goals and 10 assists. 
• Akins is already a three-time All-MAAC performer, including first-team in 2018, as he ranks sixth in school history with 44 caused turnovers. The three-year captain played in all 15 games with 14 starts in 2019 and led the team with a career-high 18 caused turnovers and was seventh with a career-best 27 ground balls. 
• McClain was tabbed Second Team All-MAAC in 2019 as he registered 14 caused turnovers - third on the team - and 30 ground balls - tied for fifth on the squad. Last season, he led the team with eight caused turnovers, while tallying 13 ground balls and scoring a goal.
• Manuszak was the league's LSM of the Year in 2019 as he posted career highs in every category with nine points, six goals, three assists, 17 caused turnovers and 72 ground balls. He was second on the squad in caused turnovers and ground balls and was fifth in the conference and 45th in DI with 4.80 ground balls per game. Last year, he topped the team with 31 ground balls, while placing second with five caused turnovers.
• Jarzembowski has earned Second Team All-MAAC twice. In 2019, he set school records with 213 wins and a 60.0% winning percentage, good for second in the MAAC and 18th in Division I, while his 82 ground balls led the Titans and was second in the conference and 29th in the nation. Last season, he was on a record-setting pace again winning 91-of-151 (60.3%) of his faceoffs.

AKINS NOMINATED FOR SENIOR CLASS AWARD

• Graduate senior Alex Akins is among 20 candidates chosen for this year's Senior CLASS Award®.
• 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.
• He is a three-time team captain who has guided the Titans to some of their best years with back-to-back winning campaigns, a school record for wins and conference wins and a trip to the MAAC Championship title game.
• A four-year starter, he has earned All-MAAC three times and is a two-time MAAC All-Tournament Team selection as one of the top defensemen in the league. He is sixth in school history with 45 caused turnovers
• Off the field, he is a five-year member of the Detroit Mercy Athletic Director's honor roll, a four-year member of the MAAC Academic honor roll, a three-time All-MAAC Academic Team honoree and was selected a USILA Scholar All-American last year. 

NOTHING BUT JARZ

• Senior Alex Jarzembowski already has his name on top of the Titan record book in every faceoff category.
• He owns a career winning percentage of .570 tallying 556 victories - both first in Titan history - and is second in school history with 189 ground balls and 3.78 ground balls per game.
• After going 15-of-28 in the opener at Marist, he has now won double-digit faceoffs in 33 career games, including 13 games with 15 or more faceoffs wins and five with 20 or more. He owns the top to single-game marks with a school-record 27 wins at Bellarmine in 2019. 
• Last year, he was 91-of-151 (60.3%) and was tied for second on the team with 22 ground balls, while scoring three goals on the year on just eight shots.
• In 2019, he posted a school-record with 213 wins and a 60.0 winning percentage, good for second in the MAAC and 18th in Division I. His 82 ground balls led the Titans and was second in the conference and 29th in Division I as well as third in school history.
• He won 52.1% (77-of-139) in 2018 and 57.4 % (74-of-129) in 2017. 

THE BIG LOGAN

• Senior Logan Shamblin is back to lead the Titan defense and the netminder has already earned a major award in the MAAC Defensive Player of the Year as a sophomore in 2019.
• He started all 15 games in net and recorded his second-straight winning season with eight wins, while finishing third in the MAAC with a career-best 11.47 saves per game, fifth in school history. His 172 saves was also a career-best and fifth in the record books, and he also tallied a .512 save percentage and an 11.93 goals against mark along with six caused turnovers and 32 ground balls, fifth on the squad. 
• He now has 23 games with double-digit saves and seven with 15 or more in his career. 
• Shamblin entered the year with 19 career wins, one shy of the school record held by former teammate Jason Weber.

ERSKINE TIES CAREER MARK

• Senior Brett Erskine led the Titans by tying his career-high in points for the third time with six points and also registering his sixth career hat trick with three goals at Marist. 
• He now ranks seventh in school history with 91 points and 34 assists and eighth with 57 goals. 
• Erskine is also one of the most accurate shooters in school history at 45.6 percent, including 73.6 percent on shots on goal. 

FEAR THE LSM

• Senior Paul Manuszak - the reigning MAAC LSM of the Year in 2019 and chosen Preseason All-MAAC this year - has 29 caused turnovers and 124 ground balls in his career to go with 10 goals and 14 points. 
• He started the season by tying his career-high for the fifth time with three caused turnovers, while picking up four ground balls and scoring a goal at Marist. 
• In 2019, he tallied career highs in every category with nine points, six goals, three assists, 17 caused turnovers and 72 ground balls in 2019. He was also second on the squad in caused turnovers and ground balls and was fifth in the conference and 45th in DI with 4.80 ground balls per game. 
• His 72 GB's and 4.80 per game were both fifth in school history.

WELCOME TO THE TITANS

• Junior Jack Watsic and freshman Will Edell each made an impact in the season opener scoring a pair of goals.
• Watsic actually scored the first goal of 2021, while Edell netted both of his markers in the second period with his second tying the game at 5-5.
• Sophomore transfer also tallied his first Titan marker in the game.

BIRNEY 3.0

• Sophomore Ryan Birney has some big shoes to fill following the footsteps of his two older brothers who played for the Titans and were All-MAAC players in Mike and Sean as well as an older sister who played on the women's team and was All-League in Kylie. 
• As a freshman, he tied for third on the team with nine points and eight goals, while adding five ground balls and a caused turnover. He had his first hat trick in the final game of 2020 with three goals against Robert Morris. 
• In the opener, he had a goal and an assist and his goal will be on the season highlight reel as he was off-balanced, but fired a shot to beat the goalie to knot it at 9-9 late in the third. 

BORN AND RAISED IN MICHIGAN

• While the Titans do recruit nationally - witnessed by 10 states plus Canada on their 44-man roster - there is no arguing that Detroit Mercy loves to keep players in their home state as 25 of its 44 players (56.8%) hail from the Great Lakes State.
• The next on the list is Minnesota with four (4), Indiana (3), Maryland (2), Canada (2), Ohio (2), Colorado (1), Illinois (1), Nevada (1), Pennsylvania (1), Texas (1) and Vermont (1). 

ACADEMIC PRIDE

• The University of Detroit Mercy men's lacrosse saw 30 student-athletes named to the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC) Academic Honor Roll in 2020. 
• Detroit Mercy also topped the MAAC with 21 student-athletes named to the All-Academic Team, the ninth-straight year that the Titans either led or tied for the most in the league.