DETROIT (3/23/2023) -- The University of Detroit Mercy men's lacrosse team will be back at home for two-straight games as the Titans get ready for a visit from Utah on Saturday.

Game time is set for 1:00 p.m. on Titan Field and will feature live stats. A broadcast is still to be determined based on weather.

The Titans are 0-5 on the year as they are coming off a 16-12 setback at Mercer in their conference opener last weekend.

Senior Luke Majick leads the team with 12 points on six goals and a team-high six assists, while senior Ryan Birney tops the team with 10 goals and 11 points. Senior David Beacom leads the team with seven caused turnovers and 13 ground balls and sophomore Jakob Hemme is second in the ASUN with 12.60 saves per game. 

Utah comes into the contest at 2-4 and 1-0 in the Atlantic Sun as the Utes downed Bellarmine, 15-8, last week. 

After the game, the Titans will stay at home as they welcome Robert Morris on Wednesday, March 29m in a 1:00 p.m. affair. 

Game Notes:

• Detroit Mercy is 0-2 all-time against Utah, but both of those were on the road in 2019 and last season
• 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
• 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 44 points and 37 goals and has five hat tricks in his career
• Going back to last season, Hemme has posted double-digit saves in 13 of his 15 career games, with a career-high and school-tying 28 saves at Michigan last season, and made a season-high 16 against Marquette and 15 at Mercer
• 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
• Kessenich has posted back-to-back hat tricks, with three goals at nationally-ranked Ohio State and three goals and an assist at Mercer
• 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 and is coming off a career day with seven points, four goals and three assists at Mercer, his third career hat trick
• Beacom is coming off a career-high three caused turnovers and tied his career best with four ground balls at Mercer
• Junior Noah Martin has tallied three caused turnovers and 11 ground balls in the last two games, recording a caused turnover and five GB's at Ohio State and two caused turnovers with a career-best six ground balls at Mercer
• Redshirt freshman Eoghan Mullett started the year with two caused turnovers at VMI and at High Point
• The Titans have had a long history of family connections on the team 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 39-62. 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 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