DETROIT (4/15/2022) -- The University of Detroit Mercy men's lacrosse team will be on the road this holiday weekend as the Titans face another fellow Catholic institution in Bellarmine on Saturday.

Game time is set for Noon and will be streamed live on ESPN+ and the ESPN Watch App.

Detroit Mercy will need need a win to stay in the hunt for the playoffs as the Titans are 1-7 overall and 0-2 in Atlantic Sun action. The red, white and blue are coming off a 13-4 setback to Air Force last week.

Graduate senior Brett Erskine tallied his ninth career hat trick in the contest last week as he leads the team with 20 points and 16 goals. Graduate senior Paul Manuszak tops the team with 16 caused turnovers and 47 ground balls as he is second in the ASUN and is 30th in the nation with 5.88 ground balls per game and fifth in the league and 13th in the nation with 1.88 caused turnovers per game. 

Redshirt freshman Jakob Hemme has been back in net starting the last two games, posting 13 saves against Robert Morris and 17 versus Air Force.

Bellarmine is 3-10 on the season and 1-1 in conference play with a 15-11 victory over Cleveland State and a 12-9 loss at Robert Morris. The Knights have also played three common opponents with the Titans falling at Michigan and at High Point and winning at VMI. 

After the game, the Titans return home to face Cleveland State next Saturday, April 23. 

Game Nuggets:

• The Titans have won four in a row and five of the last six in the series, but Bellarmines leads the all-time match-up, 7-5. Eight of the 12 games have been decided by four goals or less and the Titans are 2-2 on the road winning the last two. The last time they played in Louisville, Matthew Vangalen netted the game-winner with just nine seconds left in a 15-14 win
• The four-straight true road games to start the season were the most in a row since the Titans played five straight in 2012, while the four road games to start the year were tied for the longest span in school history with the four in a row in 2011
• Detroit Mercy is second in the ASUN and is 29th in the nation with 31.7 ground balls per game, while placing first in the league and fifth in DI with 15.1 saves per contest
• The two-time MAAC LSM of the Year, Manuszak has registered at least five ground balls in five games with back-to-back season highs of eight against VMI and at High Point and is third in school history with 203 ground balls - 14 behind second-place - while his 48 caused turnovers are sixth in school history and four away from fifth place and Paul Bitetti and five in back of Jason McDonald and fourth
• His 203 ground balls are also 23rd among active players and his 3.99 ground balls per game is second in school history and 37th among active players
• Manuszak also has multiple caused turnovers in five games with a season-best four at Ohio State and three against Marquette, Robert Morris and Air Force
• Freshman goalie Jakob Hemme has posted double-digit saves in six of the seven games he has played and is leading the conference and fifth in the nation with 14.1 saves per game
• He tied a school record with 28 saves at Michigan - tops in the country at the moment - and has 99 total stops on the season.
• Senior Tyler Hart came off the bench for only his second career action and made seven saves in nearly 49 minutes of action against VMI, allowing just two goals in picking up the victory, and then tallied 15 saves at High Point with two caused turnovers and three ground balls
• Erskine is seventh in the ASUN with 2.00 goals per game and 15th in the conference with 2.50 points per game
• He has 130 career points for fourth in school history, 16 away from third place, while his 87 goals are second with the all-time leader Shayne Adams at 147
• His 87 goals are also 45th among active players and 130 points are 53rd
• Freshman Aidan Bishop has scored a goal in four of the last five games, including a season-high two at High Point
• Junior Luke Majick is second on the team with seven goals and 11 points and had his first career hat trick with three goals in the season opener at Ohio State and added two goals and two assists against VMI
• Sophomore Will Edell posted his first career hat trick with three goals at Marquette, which also tied his career-high in points
• Senior Keegan Stenstrom registered the first points of his career with a goal and two assists against VMI
• Freshman defender Evan DeVito had three caused turnovers at High Point, while sophomore defender Noah Martin has six caused turnovers and 12 GB's on the year
• Junior Ryan Birney - who had a career-high four goals against VMI - had 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-ASUN in Kylie
• The Titans have had a long history of family connections on the team in the Birney's, Masterson's, Case's and have another pair of brothers on this year's squad in junior Kyle Loken and freshman Caden Loken and senior Tyler Hart and freshman Billy Hart
• Another family connection is senior Zach Kennedy as his grandfather played basketball and football for the Titans, while his dad played basketball for the red, white and blue
• A leader of men on and off the field and a pioneer of the game helping it flourish in the state of Michigan, Chris Kolon is in his 14th season on the sidelines – and eighth as a head coach - for Detroit Mercy in 2022 and holds a career mark of 38-55. His 14 seasons means that he has been with the program since its birth, first as an assistant before assuming the head coaching duties. On June 2, 2014, he was tabbed the program's interim head coach and then was named the permanent head coach on July 14. During his time with Detroit Mercy, The Titans have posted their first three winning seasons and led the team to a school record in overall (9) and conference victories (5) in 2018. His teams were always at the top of the MAAC in academic accolades in both Academic All-League selections and honor roll recipients. He has also tutored five players that have gone on to get drafted in the MLL and NLL and 10 that have played in both professional lacrosse leagues. In 2019, he was named an assistant coach with the Atlas Lacrosse Club in the brand new Premier Lacrosse League. In his seven years as a head coach, Detroit Mercy made the MAAC Championships five times, reaching the title game in 2018. His first-ever win was a memorable one as Detroit Mercy upended Ohio State, 9-8, on March 7, 2015. The win was the first by the Titans over Ohio State - who were receiving votes in both the Inside Lacrosse Media Poll and the USILA Coaches Poll and would go on to play in the NCAA Tournament later that season