Horizon League Semifinal Pits Detroit vs. Wright State Friday

November 4, 2011

Horizon League Semifinal Pits Detroit vs. Wright State Friday

Match #20: Friday, November 4, 2011 5:00 p.m., EST
Engelmann Field, Milwaukee, Wisc.
#2 Detroit 12-5-2 Overall/5-2-1 Horizon League vs at #5 Wright State 9-7-3/3-3-2 Horizon League

Live Online Streaming: Horizon League Network
(Link will be available at game time on DetroitTitans.com)
Live Stats: GameTracker
(Link will be available at game time on DetroitTitans.com)
Friday's Game Notes
Horizon League Tournament Central
Horizon League Tournament Bracket

DETROIT -- The Titans will play in the Horizon League Semifinals for the second straight year. Detroit will play No. 5 seed Wright State Friday evening at 5:00 p.m. EST. The Horizon League Network will stream the game live online and live stats are also available to follow the game online. The winner will earn a berth in the championship game Sunday at 2:00 p.m. (EST) with the championship winner advancing to the NCAA Tournament. The second semifinal game will feature the No. 1 seed Milwaukee hosting No. 6 seed Butler after the Detroit/Wright State match.

Lucky 13
In 19 years of women's soccer at Detroit, the Titans will be making their 13th appearance in a conference semifinal match and their second straight. From 2000-2006, the Titans were in the semifinal every year and from 2003-2006, Detroit had successive runs to the Horizon League Championship game winning it all in 2004.

Vs. Wright State
It's the third time these two schools have met in the playoffs with Wright State holding a 2-1 edge. After falling in the regular season match at Titan Field on Oct. 19 by a 1-0 score, Detroit is 8-9-4 all-time in head-to-head matches with the Raiders. Five of those Titan wins came in the first seven games of the all-time series but the Raiders have had the upper hand since as they are unbeaten in 11 of the past 14 meetings.

Balanced Attack
Detroit has four players with five or more goals and six with four or more this season. 11 different Titans scored at least one goal in the 2011 season and 14 of 19 field players have at least one point on the year. Abby McCollum led the team with 20 points (6G, 8A) while last year's leading scorer Kaitlyn Quarrell had 16 points (6G, 4A). Freshman Alyssa Riley finished with 15 points (6G, 3A) and Lauren Roffey was the fourth person with at least five goals on the year adding an assist for 11 total points. Rebekah Dornbos scored four goals and added two assists for 10 points with all of her goals coming on penalty kicks. Two of those kicks were conference game-winners over Butler and Green Bay. Sarah Dzuris had the fourth best point total on the team with 12 points (4G, 4A).

Horizon League Expertise
Head Coach Mike Lupenec has been a Division I head coach with just one team. He is the only head coach in the 19 year history of Detroit women's soccer and his next win will be his 175th overall. In 366 career games, he has accumulated a 174-162-30 (64-44-15 Conference) record at Detroit with two conference championships in 1995 and 2004. The 2004 win included his only trip to the NCAA Tournament. 2009 remains the only year that Lupenec was not in the conference tournament during his tenure with the Titans.

Home Record
Detroit had an unblemished 6-0 record at home this year until Wright State visited Titan Field on Oct. 19. The Raiders came in and escaped with a 1-0 victory which was the lone non-victory for Detroit.

Score Much?
The No. 2 seed Detroit finished first overall in the Horizon League with 44 goals scored on the year. The Titans posted a team-best 10 goals in the win over Marygrove (8/31) and added six more against Madonna (9/8). Take away the 16 goals against the two NAIA schools and the Titans have scored 28 goals altogether which would stand as the third best overall mark in the league behind Milwaukee (48) and Wright State (29). In conference play, Detroit scored nine goals, three coming from Kaitlyn Quarrell, which is the second highest Horizon League total. The most goals Detroit has scored in a single season was 73 which happened in the inaugural year of 1993.

2011 Horizon League Honors
Five Titans earned Horizon League regular season honors. Senior Alexandra Suschak earned first team honors and was also named the Co-Defensive Player of the Year. Abby McCollum and Kaitlyn Quarrell also made the first team and were the only underclassmen on the list. Sophomore goaltender Nora Abolins made the second team and freshman Alyssa Riley was named to the All-Newcomer team. For Suschak, the first team honor is the second straight year and second overall for Suschak while she is the first Titan to ever claim the league's defensive honor. Last season, Quarrell was named to the second team and McCollum, Quarrell and Abolins were all named to the All-Newcomer team. The three players on the first team marks the second time in 19 years that has happened and first since 2003.

The Final Line of Defense
While Detroit's offense was scoring, the defense was keeping the ball out of the net. The defense held opponents to just 13 goals on the year in 19 games including 11 team shutouts. The 13 goals allowed is the second best mark in the league behind Milwaukee's 12. In conference play, Detroit allowed four goals in eight games including four shutouts. Detroit's single-season low for goals allowed was set in 2005 with 20.

Between the Pipes
Titan goaltenders Nora Abolins and Emily Oberheim have combined for 11 team shutouts this season. The original team record of nine was set in 2005. Oberheim recorded her share in three straight games blanking Bowling Green, Marygrove and UNLV. Abolins posted eight shutouts and now has 15 in 35 career games. She recorded a shutout streak of 403:59 over a four-game stretch of conference games this year. She finished first in the league with five shutouts and her eight overall was second-best. Her eight this year ties her for second best in Titan single-season annals while her 15 overall are third, eight behind the top mark of 23.

First Time For Everything
For the first time ever, the Titans were ranked in the National Soccer Coaches Association of America (NSCAA) Regional Poll this season. Detroit first appeared in the rankings on Sept. 20 as the No. 10 team In the Great Lakes Region. The Titans remained on the poll for the next five weeks moving up to the No. 9 position for three of the five weeks and staying at No. 10 the other two. Detroit's highest RPI rank came this last week as they sit at 113.

And… And... And... TWINS!
Seniors Alexandra Suschak and her twin sister Alison Suschak have played in 143 games combined over four years with Detroit. There have been four games where they have each recorded a point. In their freshman year, the first collegiate point for each of them came in a 2-0 win over Madonna as Alison scored the game-winner on an assist from Alex. Twice this year, the duo has also paired up with Alison scoring both times. Alison scored the opening goal at Michigan State (9/14) and then netted the deciding goal in a 1-0 win at Youngstown State (10/5). The other game the two each had points came in an 8-0 win over Marygrove last season. Alison had a goal and an assist while Alexandra had the game-winning tally.