DETROIT (3/27/2023) -- Mid-American Conference play will start on Wednesday as the University of Detroit Mercy women's lacrosse team will make the short drive to Mount Pleasant, Michigan, to battle in-state rival Central Michigan. It will be the league opener for both schools. 

Game time is set for 6:00 p.m., at the CMU Lacrosse Complex and will feature live stats and a live broadcast.

The Titans went 1-5 in the non-conference campaign with a win over Xavier of the BIG EAST, while CMU is 2-6 on the season, with wins against California and at Duquesne. 

Junior Cat Kopchia leads the team with 12 points and nine goals. Sophomore Meredith Leavell has started all six games in net and is leading the MAC and seventh in the nation with 10.67 saves per game, tops the conference and is 13th in DI with 3.00 ground balls per game and also first in the league and 22nd in the country in save percentage at 48.1%.

As a team, the Titans lead the conference with 8.33 caused turnovers per game and third putting 17.83 shots on goal per contest. 

The two teams have split eight meetings in their history, but the Chippewas have won four in a row in the series. The Titans are also 2-2 on the road in the match-up. 

After the game, the red, white and blue will stay local as they host Eastern Michigan on Saturday. 

Game Nuggets:

• The Titans are in their third year in the MAC after spending time in the Southern Conference (2018-20), Atlantic Sun (2013-17) and the National Lacrosse Conference (2010-12), earning a share of the Southern Conference regular season title in 2018 and 2019 and advancing to four-straight ASUN championships from 2013-16
• Detroit Mercy's roster consists of student-athletes from 15 states as well as Canada
• Detroit Mercy has 18 upperclassmen on its 31-women roster and returns 25 letter winners from last season, including eight starters, five of its top six-point scorers and three of its top six defenders
• Detroit Mercy was a IWLCA All-Academic Team last year after posting a 3.46 team GPA, marking the 12th time in school history that the program earned the accolade, and recorded a 3.49 in the first semester
• Leavell has posted double-digit saves in four games this season, and in six of her 17 career games, with her career-best 17 saves against Butler at home, tied for 10th in school history and the most since Lexie McCormick's 18 at Notre Dame in 2015
• Senior Marina Butler has notched a goal in 17 of her last 27 games, with a season-high three at Youngstown State and had a career-best five assists at Akron, both last season
• Senior Annie Gilbert has now scored a goal in 14 of her last 20 games, with a career-high five goals against Akron last year, and had three goals and an assist in the win at Xavier
• Gilbert and Kopchia have the only hat tricks on the year for the Titans as Kopchia had three goals and an assist at Butler and Gilbert had three goals and an assist at Xavier
• Redshirt freshman Taylor Rocha has notched a goal in four games this season
• Junior Kiah Nuessgen tied his career-high for the third time with two caused turnovers against Canisius and has 17 in his career with 37 ground balls
• Sophomore Leah Bodnar tallied a career-high five draw controls in the season opener versus Canisius, and that was after registering four all of last season. She tied her career high for the fourth time with two goals at Butler, something she also did at home versus the Bulldogs, against Lindenwood and versus Youngstown State last season
• Redshirt junior Charlotte Dale is coming off an injury that limited her in the first couple of games, but had two goals and two assists last time out at Butler and two goals and an assist against Lindenwood. She has four hat tricks in her career, with a career-best six points on three goals and three assists against Akron and a career-high four goals versus Kent State, both last season
• Sophomore Katie Bilello tied her career-high with four ground balls against Lindenwood
• Junior Sarah Meek posted a career-high seven draw controls against Marquette and has 26 in her career, and had a career-high two goals against Lindenwood
• Kopchia led the team with 39 points and 16 assists and was second with 23 goals last season. She has 46 goals, 22 assists and 68 points in her career, with five hat tricks, while her career high in goals is four, accomplished on three different occasions
• Graduate senior Jess Turner's older brother Matt Turner played on the Titans' men's lacrosse team from 2017-21. She has twice tied her career-high with two caused turnovers at Xavier and at Marquette and tied her career-high with four ground balls against Butler
• Senior Caitlin O'Brien recorded a career-high four GB's at Xavier 
• Dwayne Hicks is officially in his third 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 5-26. 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 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