DETROIT (3/13/2023) -- The Titans will be busy this week with two games as the University of Detroit Mercy men's lacrosse team plays its final non-conference game of the year at #14 Ohio State on Tuesday.

Game time is set for 7:00 p.m. at the Ohio State Lacrosse Stadium and will be streamed live on Big Ten+ and will also feature live stats.

Detroit Mercy is 0-3 on the season as the red, white and blue are coming off a tough 10-5 setback to Marquette at home, a game that the Titans led 4-2 at the break.

Senior Ryan Birney leads the team with seven points on seven goals, while three other Titans have two goals on the season. Graduate senior David Beacom and redshirt freshman Eoghan Mullett each have a team-high four caused turnovers with six ground balls and sophomore Jakob Hemme has started all three games in net and has 36 saves and a .554 save percentage.  

The Titans are 1-10 all-time against Ohio State, with the lone victory a 9-8 triumph at home in 2015. That win was the first game under current head coach Chris Kolon '09 (MBA). Detroit Mercy is 0-9 all-time on the road in the series, which brings back a little nostalgia as OSU was the first-ever game for the Titan lacrosse program in 2009. 

Ohio State is 3-3 on the season and is coming off its third-straight loss with a 16-3 road loss at nationally-ranked Notre Dame. The other two losses were to #9 Cornell, 16-13, and #1 Virginia, 17-6. The wins were over Atlantic Sun-rvals Air Force, Cleveland State and #19 North Carolina. 

Following the game, the Titans will open their conference schedule at Mercer on Saturday. 

Game Notes:

• Detroit Mercy is 2-15 all-time against current members of the Big Ten with home wins over Michigan (2012) and Ohio State (2015)
• Detroit Mercy is looking for its first-ever win against a nationally-ranked opponent as the Titans are 0-20 all-time against top-20 teams
• The Titans have a fairly young roster with 14 upperclassmen on their 47-man roster and had eight freshmen and sophomores in the starting line-up at VMI
• Detroit Mercy has student-athletes from 13 states as well as from Canada
• The Titans are in their second season as a member of the Atlantic Sun Conference after spending 12 seasons in the MAAC from 2010-2021, with their first year as an independent in 2009
• Ryan Birney - who had a career-high five goals in the opener at VMI - had two older brothers who play for the Titans and were All-MAAC players in Mike Birney '15 and Sean Birney '18 as well as an older sister who played on the women's team and was All-ASUN in Kylie
• Birney is the current Titan leader with 40 points and 34 goals and has five hat tricks in his career
• Going back to last season, sophomore Jakob Hemme has posted double-digit saves in 11 of his 131 career games, with a career-high and school-tying 28 saves at Michigan last season, and made 13 at High Point and 16 against Marquette
• Three Titans notched their first career goals in the season opener as freshmen Drew Kessenich and Zach Snider had two goals and sophomore Chase Mahabir scored his first collegiate marker, while freshman Ayden Snow had his first versus Marquette
• Senior Luke Majick was named All-MAAC Second Team in 2021 and was second on the team with 21 points and 13 goals and tied for first with eight assists last season. He has 37 points on 20 goals and 17 assists as a Titan after transferring from Furman
• The Titans have had a long history of family connections on the team in the Birney's, Tom and Pat Masterson, Cam and Landon Case's and have another pair of brothers on this year's squad in senior Kyle Loken and sophomore Caden Loken and senior Tyler Hart and sophomore Billy Hart
• A leader of men on and off the field and a pioneer of the game, helping it flourish in the state of Michigan, Chris Kolon is in his 15th season on the sidelines – and ninth as a head coach - for Detroit Mercy in 2022 and holds a career mark of 39-60. His 15 seasons mean that he has been with the program since its birth, first as an assistant before assuming the head coaching duties. On June 2, 2014, he was tabbed the program's interim head coach and then was named the permanent head coach on July 14. During his time with Detroit Mercy, The Titans have posted their first three winning seasons and led the team to a school-record in overall (9) and conference victories (5) in 2018. He has also tutored five players that have gone on to get drafted in the MLL and NLL and 10 that have played in both professional lacrosse leagues. In 2019, he was named an assistant coach with the Atlas Lacrosse Club in the brand new Premier Lacrosse League. In his seven years as a head coach with the team in the MAAC, Detroit Mercy made the MAAC Championships five times, reaching the title game in 2018. His first-ever win was a memorable one as Detroit Mercy upended Ohio State, 9-8, on March 7, 2015. The win was the first by the Titans over Ohio State - who were receiving votes in both the Inside Lacrosse Media Poll and the USILA Coaches Poll and would go on to play in the NCAA Tournament later that season