The Detroit Titans men's lacrosse team took some giant steps in year two as the red, white and blue ended the year with its first three victories, an all-conference selection, a truck load of close games and a statistical ranking in the top 10 in the nation.

“I feel very good where we are at after our second year,” said head coach Matt Holtz. “We are still young, but we have some talented players and I believe we took a step forward this year competing and playing hard throughout the season.”

Detroit finished the season at 3-12, 2-6 in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference, its first season as a member of the league, for a seventh place finish. UDM saw seven of its losses by just four goals or less, including a pair of 9-8 decisions. In MAAC play, five of Detroit's six setbacks were within a three goal margin.

The biggest achievements of the year occurred within the same week as the Titans came up with their first win in program history, 16-12, over Presbyterian on Titan Field on March 22. The 16 markers set a program high for goals in a game. The offensive attack was led by freshman Tyler Staruch (Brighton, MI/Brighton) who scorched the Blue House for five goals. In all, nine Titans registered goals as coach Holtz felt the sensation of an ice bath at the end of the contest.

“We turned the corner with that win,” said Holtz. “We had played a few close games and a few games got away from us, but we were able to get our first win and that really helped us play hard the rest of the year.”

After tasting victory, the Titans added their second win just five days later with an 11-8 triumph against VMI for their first MAAC tally. In that game UDM was down 2-0 before scoring five straight to take a lead it would never relinquish.

Offensively, Detroit was led in that game by freshmen and team MVP Joel Matthews (St. Catharines, ON/Holy Cross Secondary), who would make his mark not only in the league, but nationally too. Matthews had seven hat tricks on the season, tied for the seventh most in the country, which included four goals versus the Keydets. He started off the year with a bang with four markers against Bellarmine and had five more three weeks later at Ohio State. In his third game, he found the back of the net three times to give him 12 goals in his first three games and he would eventually end the year leading the team with 37 goals and 48 points. Those numbers ranked him among the leaders in the MAAC and he also had the most goals scored in the regular season by a rookie at the Division I level, while finishing 16th in the nation with 2.47 goals per game. He was selected second team all-conference at the end of the year by the MAAC coaches.

“He played great for us and he has a great future ahead of him,” added Holtz.

A number of returnees from the inaugural season came back with a year of DI experience and that clearly showed. Junior Matt Gregson (Flint, MI/Powers Catholic), who led the team in 2009 with 15 goals and 25 points, came back to post 23 goals and finished with 31 points to earn team Offensive Player of the Year accolades . Sophomore Scott Harris (Saline, MI/Saline) (3 goals, 1 assist in 2009) led the Titans with 14 helpers and added 12 goals, while junior Tim Lehto (Farmington, MI/North Farmington) tallied 13 scores and eight assists, compared to just two points last season.

Sophomore John Nowicki (Clinton Twp., MI/De La Salle Collegiate) matched his freshman goal total with eight, but also added nine assists for 17 points and sophomores Ty Maruyama (Lakewood, CO/Green Mountain) and Brad Janer (Novi, MI/Detroit Catholic Central) each increased their scoring output from a year ago.

“We had a number of returning players who stepped up their game and played beyond expectations,” said Holtz. “We got great efforts from guys like Lehto, Harris and Gregson on offensive and Nolan and Butts on defense.”

The Titans ended the regular season third in the country in caused turnovers at 10.47 per game, a category that they led in for two weeks during the year. Once again, a number of returning players made contributions and improved their play for the Titans to be able to compete in every game. Seniors Chris Butts (Riverhead, NY/Riverhead) and Tim Shoemaker (Rochester, MI/Rochester) along with junior Adam Nolan (Ann Arbor, MI/Pioneer) and sophomore Jason McDonald (Bayport, NY/Bayport-Blue Point) keyed the Titan defensive unit.

Butts, the Coach's award winner, picked up 30 ground balls and had 10 caused turnovers, while McDonald had 25 GB's and 19 caused turnovers. Nolan scooped up 14 ground balls and Shoemaker, playing the LSM position, had 22 GB's, eight caused TO's, a goal and two assists. Senior Vince Diana (Massillon, OH/Jackson) also played an important role as the second string goalie before assuming the full time job late in the year ending the season with a .521 saves percentage.

Two talented freshmen defenders in Jamie Hebden (Farmington Hills, MI/Brother Rice) and Jordan Houtby (St. Catharines, ON/Holy Cross Secondary) also came up in a big way for Detroit. The Titan Defensive Player of the Year, Houtby was second on the team with 53 ground ball pick-ups, while his 32 caused turnovers led the team and were good for seventh in the country in caused TO's per game (2.13). Hebden had 28 GB's and was 26th in the nation at 1.5 turnovers per game.

“Houtby was our Defensive MVP so that really shows what he meant to our team this year,” said Holtz. “We knew as a coaching staff that Hebden would be good but to see him contribute as much as he did as a freshman was a bit of a surprise, but he is a good player who will only get better.”

Newcomers played a major role all over as Staruch was tied for fourth on the team with 13 goals and was fifth with 18 total points, while freshman Chris Nemes (Novi, MI/Detroit Catholic Central) netted 10 goals and had five assists. Rookie Brandon Davenport (Grosse Pointe Woods, MI/GP North) won 50 percent of his face offs and collected a team-high 54 ground balls and A.J. Levell (Columbus, OH/Dublin Scioto) started13 games in net making 136 saves while winning the first two games in Titan history.

“We will still have a young team next year, but I believe that we have the talent in place to win and now we just need to learn how to win to reach that next level,” added Holtz.

With the loss of just two seniors off the squad and the return of a battle tested sophomore and freshmen class combined with the new talent the coaching staff is bringing in, year three's excitement is already being felt on the campus.