DETROIT (8/25/2021) -- The University of Detroit Mercy men's soccer team opens its 35th season on Thursday, making the short trek to Ann Arbor to battle in-state foe University of Michigan from the U-M Soccer Stadium. The non-league match is set to begin at 4 p.m. ET and is slated to be streamed live on Big Ten Network Plus.
It's the season-opening weekend for men's soccer across the country and the Titans play their first seven matches away from Titan Field to begin the 2021 fall schedule. Detroit Mercy plays twice in the first weekend of regular-season action, also visiting Chicago State for a Sunday match with the start time set for 1 p.m. ET and 12 p.m. locally in Chicago.
The Titans, which went 2-5 in a shortened 2021 spring campaign, enter their 12th full season under head coach
Nicholas Deren '99.
Season Preview
The Titans return the majority of their roster from the 2021 spring season, including six of eight players who found the back of the net last season. Horizon League All-Freshman Team member
Samory Powder had a team-high two goals in the seven Titan matches last year and enters his sophomore campaign. Senior defender
Jake Poorman, who tied for the team lead with four points, also returns for the Titans, as does senior defender
Ryan Halloran, who led the squad with three assists. Senior midfielder
Demetri Pliakos had three points (one goal, one assist) last season for the red, white and blue and has 12 career points entering the fall 2021 campaign. Senior
Kyle Bandyk has 14 career points (six goals and two assists) entering the season after totaling one goal for the Titans last season.
Senior midfielder
Trevor Deon led the team in minutes played (642) last season in the seven matches and also returns as a vital member of the midfield. Senior
Ryan Pierson has five career points (two goals, one assist) for the Titans, starting six of seven matches last year, while junior
Rocco Galati returns after playing in all seven matches and recording one assist last season. Also returning for the Titans in midfielder is senior
Daniel Iyok, who missed the entire 2021 spring season, but has played in 37 career matches for the red, white and blue.
Sophomore defenders
Luke Winters (ninth on team in minutes played) and
Jackson Towers both earned starting nods during their first seasons in the red, white and blue and provide depth on the back line. The Titans have one GK, junior
Reggie Spencer, who has earned field time after the departure of
Devin Mendez, but redshirt freshmen keepers
Jonathan Kliewer and
Kyle Toutanji expect to battle for playing time.
The Titans have a slew of talented newcomers in nine freshmen and one transfer that enter the mix in 2021. Detroit Mercy has 11 players that are either in their fourth of fifth seasons with the program and eight more student-athletes who are in their third year with the squad, giving the team both experience and youth.
Detroit Mercy knocked off Northern Kentucky, who would go on to be the HL regular-season champions, in the 2021 spring opener and also defeated IUPUI at home last season. The Titans had two other overtime losses and dropped three one-goal matches overall in the shortened seven-game schedule last year. The Titans went 7-11-1 and 4-3-1 in Horizon League play in 2019, earning the No. 3 seed in the HL tournament before falling to Milwaukee in a snow-filled match from Titan Field in mid-November.
"This team has a good blend to it," Deren said. "We have a lot of older players who have taken their Covid year and come back to play with us as well as some new kids who are learning for the first time. That's been interesting to see, nonetheless, because the demands of this level and even the transfers, they don't understand and they are starting to get that understanding now because of our older players. They are getting them through this transition period."
All-Time Series vs. Michigan
The Titans and Michigan are meeting for the 18th time in men's soccer (all since the 2000 season). Detroit Mercy has one win and three draws with the Big Ten Wolverines, earning a 2-1 victory over Michigan during the 2015 season in Ann Arbor. The Titans earned a draw the season prior in 2014 and last played during the 2019 season, when Michigan picked up a 1-0 victory on Oct. 9, 2019.
It's the eighth-straight meeting and 15th overall between the two schools in Ann Arbor. Five of the last seven meetings between the two in-state foes have been decided by one goal or less.
Scouting Michigan
The Wolverines, receiving votes in the preseason coaches poll, went 6-4-1 in the shortened 2021 spring campaign, falling in the second round of the Big Ten tournament to Penn State. Michigan finished 11-5-6 during its last full season in 2019, earning a trip to the NCAA Tournament and defeating 2019 HL champ Wright State in penalty kicks, 5-4, during the first round of the tournament before falling to Wake Forest. Chaka Daley enters his 10th season at the helm of the Michigan men's soccer program and has 78 victories across those seasons entering 2021.
Second-leading scorer Marc Ybarra (team-high six assists, 10 points) returns for the Wolverines. Marc is the younger brother of former Titan standout and President's Award winner Matt Ybarra '14, who played for the Titans from 2011-14 and totaled 20 points (three goals, 14 assists). Matt Ybarra was Academic All-American, Scholar All-Region and two-time All-Horizon League during his standout career for the Titans.
Also returning for the Wolverines is Kevin Buca, who has three goals and three assists in spring 2021 and Bryce Blevins, who tallied three goals in 11 games last season. Goalkeeper Owen Finnerty also returns after starting 10 of 11 games last season and recording six wins, four shutouts and a 70.6% save percentage.
#HLMSOC Preseason Poll
The Titans were selected to finish in eighth out of 11 teams in the HL preseason poll, it was announced on Tuesday. Detroit Mercy received 40 points in the poll. Four different teams earned first-place votes with Oakland earning seven of the 11 to earn the top spot in the poll with 113 points. OU was followed by Milwaukee (102 points), UIC (93), Northern Kentucky (87) and Wright State (82) to round out the top-five.
Up Next
Detroit Mercy returns to the pitch on Sunday, visiting Chicago State in a 1 p.m. ET and 12 p.m. local CT time match in Chicago. The Titans then head to the Dayton Classic in Ohio for games against Incarnate Word (Thursday, Sept. 2) and host Dayton (Monday, Sept. 6). Both match times are slated for 5 p.m. ET starts.
