DETROIT (4/28/2022) -- In what is essentially a playoff game to end the regular season, the University of Detroit Mercy women's lacrosse team will look to qualify for the postseason as the Titans welcome Kent State on Saturday on Senior Day. 

The game is set for 4:00 p.m. at Seaholm High School in Birmingham, Michigan, and will be broadcast live on the Titans Sports Network on YouTube and will have live stats.

Tickets to the contest are $5 and can be purchased here. Tickets can only be purchased electronically as no cash will be accepted.

Prior to the game, the Titans will honor their eight-women senior class in Emily Beazley, Taylor Cantelon, Claire Conway, Elise Harder, Maddie Johnson, Taryn McManus, Julianne Snyder and Jess Turner. 

After coming up with a big road win last week to sweep Akron, Detroit Mercy enters the game at 2-12 overall and 2-7 in the MAC, while Kent State is 5-11 on the year and also 2-7 in the conference, meaning that the victor of the game will earn the fourth and final seed in the upcoming MAC championships.

The Titans defeated Akron, 14-8, as Harder scored four goals and handed out two assists, redshirt sophomore Charlotte Dale tallied three goals and Johnson recorded 12 saves in the contest. 

Sophomore Cat Kopchia leads the team with 36 points as she is tied for first with 14 assists and is second with 22 goals. Harder tops the squad with 24 goals and is second with 30 points, while also leading the team with 66 draw controls, fifth in the league with 4.71 per contest. 

McManus leads the team with 17 caused turnovers, seventh in the MAC with 1.21 per game, and 21 ground balls and Cantelon has 65 draw controls as her 5.00 per game is third in the league. 

Kent State has dropped three in a row since beating Akron, 10-9. The Golden Flashes won the first meeting of the year, 16-11, on a cold snowy day in Ohio back in late March. 

The MAC Championships are set for next week, May 5-7, and will be either at Robert Morris or Central Michigan, the two teams that are still alive for the top seed. YSU has clinched the other playoff spot. 

Game Nuggets:

• Kent State leads the overall series, 3-1, but the Titans are 1-1 at home defeating the Golden Flashes 16-12 in the squad's first-ever meeting in 2019
• The Titans are second in the league and 41st in the nation with 14.79 draw controls per game, while standing third in the conference winning 50.1% of their draws and in assists (4.57)
• Kopchia has notched a point in 11 of the 13 games with a goal in 10 of them as her 1.08 assists are fifth in the league
• She had a career-high seven points as she tallied six assists, tied for third in school history, in the comeback victory over Akron
• Harder now has 154 draw controls for third in school history, just five away from Anna Eidem for second (159) as her 3.08 draw controls per game are third in school history
• Harder has now registered a point and a goal in 12 of the 14 games and has 91 goals and 12 assists for 103 points in her career as she is 10th in school history with 2.06 per game
• She had a season-high six points, tying her season-best with four goals and two assists in the win at Akron and also had back-to-back hat tricks with four goals and five points against St. Bonaventure and three goals at Kent State
• She registered six draw controls at Akron, her 11th game this year that she has grabbed at least three, as she set the school record with 19 draw controls against St. Bonaventure, tied for the third-most in DI, as that figure helped the Titans collect a school-best 32 in the game, tops in the nation at the moment
• Cantelon has grabbed at least six draw controls in six games on the year, with her season-high of 10 at Youngstown State and eight at Central Michigan
• Her 146 career draw controls are tied for fourth in school history with Corina Mahorn and her 3.95 draw controls per game are second in the school record book
• Junior Marina Butler has notched a goal in seven of the 12 games this season with a season-high three at Youngstown State and is coming off a career-best five assists at Akron
• McManus has a caused turnover in eight of the 12 games, with two or more in five and season-high of three at Kent State and against Robert Morris
• McManus has 52 career caused turnovers for eighth in school history, nine away from seventh place, as her 1.04 caused turnovers per game is sixth in school history
• Dale has three hat tricks on the year with the three last week at Akron and the back-to-back hat tricks with a career-high six points on three goals and three assists against Akron and three goals with two helpers versus St. Bonaventure as she has now recorded a point in 11 games and scored a goal in nine of the 13 she has played 
• Junior Annie Gilbert tallied a career-high five goals against Akron and has scored a goal in 10 of the 14 games
• Freshman Maddy Camm scored a season-high two markers at Akron and has seven goals and five assists on the season as she has tallied either a goal or a point in 11 of her 13 games, scoring her first collegiate goal in her collegiate debut on her very first shot at Robert Morris, where she also had two caused turnovers and two ground balls 
• Freshman Leah Bodnar scored a season-high two goals against Youngstown State and had a season-best three points on a goal and two assists at Akron
• Sophomore Kaileigh Nuessgen is fifth on the team with 14 ground balls with a season-high of three GB's and two caused turnovers at Kent State
• Senior Claire Conway has played in 49 career games with 47 starts and has totaled 57 ground balls and 27 caused turnovers, recording a season-best three GB's and two caused turnovers last week at Akron
• Senior Emily Beazley is currently a member of the U23 England National Team
• Freshman Meredith Leavell's 56 saves are seventh in the conference 
• Dwayne Hicks is officially in his second year as head coach of the Titans after taking over as an interim coach in 2020 before it was canceled due to the pandemic (but was not assessed any wins or losses that season) as his record stands at 4-20. His first career win was a double-overtime thriller, 15-14, in 2021, while his second was a record-breaking 24-12 contest at Youngstown State as the Titans netted a school-record 24 markers. Hicks is a familiar face within the Titan Athletic Department, having spent the prior three seasons as an assistant coach on the men's lacrosse staff. He joined the men's lacrosse program in the fall of 2017 and in both of his full campaigns with the team, he helped coach back-to-back winning campaigns with a school-record nine wins in 2018 and a trip to the MAAC Championship game and another eight wins in 2019 and another bid to the postseason. Hicks brings more than 45 years of lacrosse in his background as a player and coach and has been one of the most instrumental individuals in helping spread the game in the state of Michigan. He spent 15 years as the Director of Lacrosse at the Total Sports Complex in Wixom, Michigan. He was also the head coach and director of the Total Lacrosse's Train and Play program and Team Total Lacrosse travel team. Hicks coached the Oakland University women's lacrosse program in four seasons, as the team qualified for four national championships, placing as high as third and winning three regional championships. Hicks has been recognized as Coach of the Year on five occasions. He has also been selected National Coach of the Year twice, once as head coach of the men's team at Michigan State and the other as the assistant coach of the Oakland women's team. During his five years with the Oakland men's team, Hicks was able to develop an unknown program into a nationally ranked, highly touted lacrosse team, which included two national championship appearances and one Central Collegiate Lacrosse Association (CCLA) title. In 2006, Hicks moved from Oakland to Eastern Michigan to help build their program. After three seasons with the Eagles and helping them become a CCLA playoff contender, he moved to Michigan State, where he guided the Spartans to four CCLA playoff appearances, one championship and two runner-up efforts. After his collegiate playing career at Notre Dame, Hicks played/coached professionally in the English Lacrosse Union in Manchester England. Originally from Long Island, New York, Hicks was a standout lacrosse player and wrestler at Freeport High School