DETROIT (3/28/2026) -- Six Titans found the back of the net and the red, white and blue erased an early four-goal deficit, but the University of Detroit Mercy men's lacrosse team could not complete the comeback, falling to LIU, 9-7, at home on Saturday.
Redshirt junior
Cooper St. Clair made 18 saves - one shy of his career high - to lead the defense, while freshman
Luke Zajdel scored his first two collegiate goals to pace the offense.
Senior
Kyle Grant had two caused turnovers and three ground balls, while sophomore
Ian Greenwell had two caused turnovers, four GB's and an assist. Sophomore
Canton Lanham was 7-of-18 in faceoffs with five ground balls.
Despite six saves from St. Clair in the first and two goals from Zajdel, LIU (8-1, 3-0 NEC) had a 3-2 lead at the end of one and extended that to 6-2 with over 10 minutes remaining in the second.
St. Clair made seven more stops in the second - for 13 at the break - and one of them led to a goal by sophomore
Zach Gleason to make it 6-3 at the half.
Detroit Mercy (1-8, 0-3 NEC) got closer early in the third as sophomore
Andrew Parker beat the keeper, but the Sharks went ahead 7-4.
A takeaway by Greenwell ignited a three-goal spurt as freshman
Dylan Belliveau found another rookie in
PJ O'Hanlon, and it was 7-5. A win by Lanham followed, and that led to a couple of long poles getting together for a score, with Greenwell feeding sophomore
Malakhi Berry to make it a 7-6 contest with 5:54 left.
Detroit Mercy then took advantage of a LIU penalty as redshirt sophomore
Marcus Thundercloud set up graduate senior
Harold Skinner, and he unleashed a shot to knot it at 7-7 with 3:30 on the clock in the third.
The game remained tied until LIU struck for the final two markers, one at 8:59 and the other at 8:21, and the Titans could not get another on the board.
Belliveau finished with two assists, and O'Hanlon had a helper, a caused turnover, and three ground balls. Berry and senior
Jackson Ewald had a caused turnovers and two ground balls, while freshman
Tyler Francis-Renner posted a takeaway and a GB.
Detroit Mercy will be on the road next week when it travels to New York to face LeMoyne.
Game Notes:
- LIU has won both meetings between the two schools
- Lanham now has 212 career faceoff wins, fourth in school history and 78 away from Damien Hicks and third place
- Lanham now has 103 wins on the year, approaching the 109 he recorded last season, and also has 53 ground balls on the year
- Grant came into the game second in the NEC and 13th in the country with 2.13 caused turnovers per game, and 10th in the conference with 3.00 ground balls per game
- Grant now has 56 caused turnovers in his career, three away from sixth place, and also has 95 ground balls
- Greenwell has now caused a turnover in eight games, with a pair in five of them, as well as at least two ground balls in eight games
- Greenwell now has 13 takeaways on the year after registering 15 as a rookie
- Parker has scored a goal in 18 of his 20 career games, and has at least one in every game this year
- St. Clair made 19 saves against Marquette for his career high and also had 18 stops at Jacksonville
- St. Clair now has 131 saves on the season as he came into the game leading the NEC and third in the nation with 14.1 saves per game, while he is also third in the league with a .514 save percentage
- St. Clair now has double-digit saves in eight of the nine games on the year
- Ewald now has 13 CT's and 28 GB's in his career
- Berry now has three goals on just five shots this year
- Skinner now has 26 career points on 15 goals and 11 assists
