DETROIT (3/31/2021) -- A key MAAC match-up will take place this weekend in upstate New York as the University of Detroit Mercy men's lacrosse team visits Jesuit-rival Canisius on Friday, Apr. 2. 

Game time has been changed to a 3:00 p.m. start at the Demske Sports Complex and will be streamed live on ESPN3.

Detroit Mercy is coming off an 11-9 win over Siena at home last week to move to 2-2 overall and 2-1 in the MAAC, while Canisius last played two weeks ago and posted a 12-10 road win over the Saints as the Golden Griffins are 2-1 on the year and 1-1 in the league. 

The Titan defense registered 11 caused turnovers last week and now lead the conference and rank second in the country with 10.5 caused turnovers per game. Detroit Mercy is also second in the MAAC and 12th overall with 34.7 ground balls per game, while senior Alex Jarzembowski has the team second in the conference and seventh in the NCAA in faceoff winning percentage at .674.

The offense is led by senior Brett Erskine, who tops the team with 13 points, eight goals and five assists and enters the game just two points away from 100. 

OUR MAAC WORLD

• Detroit Mercy is 36-30 in regular-season league play since joining the MAAC in 2010, including 12-4 since 2019. 
• 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.

JESUIT PRIDE

• Detroit Mercy and Canisius are two of eight Jesuit schools playing D I lacrosse.
• The others are Fairfield, Georgetown, Holy Cross, Loyola (Md.), Marquette and St. Joseph's.
• The Titans have played four of the schools in Canisius (6-6), Marquette (1-8), Georgetown (0-1) and Saint Joseph's (0-1).

ALL-TIME VS. CANISIUS

• The Titans and Golden Griffins have played some great games as the all-time series is tied, 6-6, with Canisius winning four of the last five. 
• Three of the games have been decided by one goal - two in overtime - while three more have been by two goals and a total of eight games have been by a margin of four or less. 
• One of those famed match-ups was the 2018 MAAC Championship, won by Canisius, 10-9, in overtime. 
• The Titans are 3-2 all-time against Canisius at the Demske Sports Complex, but the venue has seen some great Titan wins with the squad's first-ever postseason victory when they defeated second-seeded Marist in the MAAC Championship semifinals in its first-ever playoff game in 2011 as well as Detroit Mercy's MAAC Championship in 2013 when the red, white and blue beat top-seeded Marist again in the semifinals and Siena in overtime in the title game. 

MAAC HONORS

• Detroit Mercy had five Titans tabbed preseason All-MAAC in the conference's preseason poll in senior Brett Erskine at attack, graduate seniors Alex Akins and Sam McClain at defense, senior Paul Manuszak at LSM and graduate senior Alex Jarzembowski at faceoff specialist. 

AKINS NOMINATED FOR SENIOR CLASS AWARD

• Graduate senior Alex Akins is among 20 candidates chosen for this year's Senior CLASS Award®.
• He is one of two MAAC players on the list joining Manhattan's Luke Hanson. 
• 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.
• Akins 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. 

THE BIG LOGAN

• After stopping 13 shots in the victory over Siena, senior Logan Shamblin is now the all-time wins leader in school history with 21 passing former teammate Jason Weber '17.
• He made a season-high 14 saves in the victory over St. Bonaventure. 
• 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 that season 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. 
• In his career, he ranks fifth among active players in saves (428), seventh in minutes played (134,610), ninth in saves per game (10.97) and 25th in goals-against average (11.37). 
• He now has 25 games with double-digit saves and seven with 15 or more in his career, while the nine goals allowed against the Saints was the 17th time in his career he has allowed less than 10 scores. 

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 .580 tallying 603 victories - both first in Titan history - and is second in school history with 205 ground balls and 3.87 ground balls per game.
• He has taken 1,040 career faceoffs - sixth-most among active players in DI and the most in school history - and his 603 wins are the sixth-most among active players, while his faceoff winning percentage is 15th, total ground balls is 18th and ground balls per game is 29th.
• This season, he is second in the MAAC and seventh in the country winning .674 (62-of-92) of his battles with 21 ground balls and a goal. 
• He followed his 15-of-28 effort in the opener at Marist by going 15-of-21 against St. Bonaventure and at Manhattan and 17-of-22 versus Siena, and has now won double-digit faceoffs in 36 career games, including 16 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, Jarzembowski 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.
• With his goal against Siena, he now has 10 career markers on just 25 career shots. 

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 in the season opener at Marist. 
• He has scored a goal in every game this season with two in each of his last two games as he leads the team with 13 points, eight goals and five assists.
• He now ranks sixth in school history with 98 points and is seventh with 36 assists and 62 goals. 
• Erskine is also one of the most accurate shooters in school history at 42.8 %, including 70.3 % on shots on goal. 
• Last season, he 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.

FEAR THE LONG HAIRED LSM

• Senior Paul Manuszak - the reigning MAAC LSM of the Year in 2019 and chosen Preseason All-MAAC this year - had one of his best games with a career-best four caused turnovers and picking up seven ground balls in the win over St. Bonaventure. He added seven more ground balls and a caused turnover last week against Siena. 
• He has a team-high eight caused turnovers and 22 ground balls to go with a goal. He is also currently second in the MAAC and 11th in the nation with 2.00 caused turnovers per game and fourth in the league and 32nd in the nation with 5.5 ground balls per game. 
• Manuszak now has 34 caused turnovers - 10th in school history - and 142 ground balls - eighth in the record book - in his career to go with 10 goals and 14 points. 
• He ranks 30th in DI among active players with 3.56 ground balls per game and 38th with 142 GB's. 
• In 2019, he tallied career highs in every category with nine points, six goals, three assists, 17 caused turnovers and 72 ground balls. 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.

LOKEN FOR TWO

• Sophomore Kyle Loken scored one goal as a rookie in five games last season, but his offense has come alive in the last two weeks with a pair of markers at Manhattan and against Siena, including the last two goals in the 11-9 victory over the Saints. 
• He now has four goals and an assist on the season to go with two caused turnovers and 10 ground balls. 

WELCOME TO THE TITANS

• Junior Jack Watsic, sophomore Luke Majick and freshman Will Edell have each made an impact early on in the season. 
• Watsic actually scored the first goal of 2021 and finished with two goals in the season opener at Marist.
• Edell posted two goals in each of the first two games and added another goal at Manhattan and a pair of assists last week versus Siena and is now third on the team with five goals and tied for second with seven points. He is also second in the MAAC with three man-up goals.  
• Majick had a goal at Marist and led the team with four points on two goals and two assists against St. Bonaventure as he has four goals and three assists on the season.

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, but so far, he is up to the challenge.
• Birney is currently tied for second with seven points and is second with six goals.
• He had a goal and an assist at Marist and tallied his second career hat trick with three goals against St. Bonaventure, while scoring two versus Siena.  
• 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. 

SAM I AM DEFENSE

• Graduate senior Sam McClain - a preseason All-MAAC selection and Second Team All-MAAC in 2019 - has four caused turnovers and five GB's on the year. 
• Last year, he topped the team with eight caused turnovers, while in 2019, he had 14 caused turnovers - third on the team - and 30 ground balls - tied for fifth on the squad.

NIGH THE GROUND BALL GUY

• Senior Ollie Nigh is one of the best coming off the wing on faceoffs as well as a top short stick defensive midfielder.
• Last week, he posted a career-high three caused turnovers with six ground balls against Siena.  
• He played in all five games in 2020 and was tied for second on the team with 22 ground balls and that was after a 2019 campaign that saw him register seven points on six goals and an assist along with 37 ground balls, third on the team. 
• On the year, he has five caused turnovers and 13 ground balls. 

STEPPING UP

• Junior AJ Van Voorhis already has three goals and an assist on the season,
• He had four goals and four assists last year and eight goals with 10 helpers as a freshman.
• On the defensive side, sophomore Own Bruinius, who did not see any games last season, already has five caused turnovers and five ground balls.