ROCHESTER, Mich. (10-30-24) - Redshirt Justice Tillotson, freshman Natalie Dye, sophomore Leila Lanier, and graduate students Joyelle Washington and Erica Toupin each scored a goal as Detroit Mercy matched their best offense performance of the season with a 5-0 Metro Series beatdown over arch-rival Oakland on Wednesday night at Oakland Soccer Field. The Titans finished the regular season with a 4-0-2 road record in league play to earn the No. 3 seed in the upcoming 2024 #HLWSOC Championship and will play No. 6 seed Purdue Fort Wayne on Sunday, Nov. 3 at 1 p.m. at Titan Field. Graduate student Marisa Silver posted six saves in her second clean sheet of the season.

Detroit Mercy's (9-7-2, 7-1-2 HL) 5-0 rout of Oakland (3-14-2, 2-8 HL) was the biggest margin of victory by either team since the Metro Series inception in 2014. This was also UDM's largest margin of victory in HL play since the Titans defeated Green Bay 5-0 in 2015, the largest league road win margin since defeating YSU 5-0 in 2002, and the largest road win margin since a 10-0 vicotry at Marygrove in 2011.

UDM wasted little time as Tillostson fired a shot past the wall off a free kick giving the Titans a 1-0 lead just 38 seconds into the match.

In the 42nd minute, there was a Natalie-to-Natialie connection as Dye took a feed from freshman Natalie Vance and connected on a missile shot into the upper right 90 from just outside the 18-yard line for her first career goal off Vance's first career assist giving the Titans a 2-0 lead at the half.

UDM kept the pressure on to open the second half off a corner kick in the 47th minute. Freshman Kyleen Bradow sent a cross into the box where OU goalkeeper Lauren Perry came off her line to punch the ball down. However, the ball went directly to Lanier, who flicked it into the back of the net for her second goal of the season and a 3-0 Titan advantage.

Vance made things happen once again in the 58th minute as she stepped in and flicked the ball from a defender up to Washington just outside the box. She drove in, made a move to shake the defender, and slipped the ball into the net on the lower left side for her team-best eighth goal of the season, giving UDM a 4-0 lead. 

In the 80th minute, Toupin put the icing on the take as she took the ball off a turnover, dribbled to the right side of the box, and hit a high-arcing shot that went off Perry's outstretched fingertips into the goal sealing the 5-0 win.