DETROIT (9/15/2021) -- The Horizon League schedule will officially start for the University of Detroit Mercy women's soccer team as the Titans will head to NKU to battle the Norse on Thursday, Sept. 16.

Game time is set for 7:00 p.m. and will be broadcast live on ESPN+.

Detroit Mercy will be playing their seventh road game of the season as the red, white and blue enter the match-up at 1-6 overall. Senior Julie Ann Piechocki leads the team with three goals, while freshman Erica Leinweber has tallied two goals and two assists. 

The Titans are 17-8-3 all-time in conference openers and 10-14-4 all-time in HL road openers. Detroit Mercy is also 0-7-1 in their last eight conference openers, tying Wright State, 0-0, in 2016 and coming away with their last conference road-opening victory 1-0 at Green Bay in 2012. 

The Titans are 95-85-18 all-time in the Horizon League with a pair of regular-season championships (1996, 2012) and conference tournament championships (1995, 2004). 

Last Time Out
Detroit Mercy has had a week to prepare for the HL opener as it last played last Thursday, dropping an 8-0 decision at Notre Dame. 

The lone win of the season came with a 1-0 victory at home over Saginaw Valley State. 

All-Time Series
Detroit Mercy is 0-6-1 all-time against NKU and 0-1-1 on the road in the series. Both games at NKU have gone to overtime.

Points for Piechocki
The Titan active leader in goals (12), assists (8) and points (32), senior midfielder Julie Ann Piechocki has found the back of the net often during her Detroit Mercy career. Piechocki had two game-winning goals in Titan victories during the shortened 2021 spring season and has four game-winning goals in her career, at least one in each season entering fall 2021. 

She has led the squad in scoring in each of the past three seasons, totaling five goals, six assists and 16 points as a freshman in 2018 and then tying for the team lead with six points (two goals, two assists) with Hailey Wentzloff in 2019. She led the team with two goals and four points during a shortened season in spring 2021.

This season, Piechocki leads the squad with three goals and six points, while also pacing the team in shots (10), shots on goal (eight) and minutes played (581). 

Piechocki's three goals rank tied-for-fifth in the Horizon League entering the contest. 

Freshman Scoring
Freshman Erica Leinweber is tied for the team lead with six points on two goals and two assists. She has recorded a point in four of the last five games with goals against Saginaw Valley State and Belmont. 

2021 #HLWSOC Preseason Poll
The Titans were picked to finish 11th in the Horizon League Women's Soccer Preseason Poll, which is voted on by the league's head coaches. Detroit Mercy received 41 points total, which was just one point behind Purdue Fort Wayne and five votes back of Youngstown State, which was selected to place eighth.

Milwaukee, the defending Horizon League champions, received nine of the 12 first-place votes and were selected to finish first in the preseason poll with 130 total points, 10 points ahead of Northern Kentucky (120 points). Oakland (112), UIC (111) and IUPUI (104) rounded out the top five in the coaches' poll.

Up Next
The Titans will return home to face Cleveland State on Sunday in a 1:00 p.m. kick-off.