DETROIT (4/14/2023) -- It will be a time to honor and look for a win over an in-state rival as the University of Detroit Mercy women's lacrosse team welcomes Central Michigan To Titan Field on Saturday night.

Game time is set for 7:00 p.m. - just the second night game in school history - and will be broadcast live on ESPN+ and feature live stats. 

It will be Senior Day as the red, white and blue honor their nine-member class in Marina Butler, Charlotte Dale, Annie Gilbert, Heather Keery, Kiah Nuessgen, Caitlin O'Brien, Kate Schmidt, Hannah Shrader and Jess Turner before the start of the contest. 

The Titans are in playoff contention as they stand at 3-7 overall and 2-2 in the MAC, tied for fourth place. The top four teams will make the conference championship and all four spots are open with four games left.

Sophomore Meredith Leavell made 11 saves at Akron and is still leading the conference and seventh in the nation with 10.7 saves per game as well as third in the league and 15th in the country with a .495 save percentage and tops in the MAC and 18th in DI with 3.00 ground balls per game. 

Junior Cat Kopchia - who tied her career high with a season-best four goals in the win at Akron - leads the team with 24 points and 18 goals. Her 2.25 goals per game are seventh in the league.

Senior Marina Butler is second on the team with 22 points on nine goals and a team-best 13 assists, while senior Annie Gilbert has 21 points on 14 goals and seven helpers. Sophomore Maddy Camm leads the team with 12 caused turnovers and is fifth in the league with 1.33 per game and second on the team with 19 ground balls, which equates to seventh in the MAC at 2.11 per contest. 

Central Michigan is 5-6, 3-0 in the league as the defending regular season and conference champions. The Chippewas defeated the Titans, 13-8, at home two weeks ago and have also beat Akron and Eastern Michigan.

Following the game, the Titans will hit the road to face Youngstown State next Saturday. 

Game Nuggets: 

• The Titans trail the all-time series, 5-4, and have dropped five in a row. Detroit Mercy is 2-2 all-time at home and the last win on Titan Field in 2018 helped the team take home a share of the Southern Conference title with the Chippewas
• In the 17-7 win over EMU, the 17 goals were the most since last season's 18-17 setback in overtime to St. Bonaventure, while the 36-20 shots margin was the most since outshooting Delaware State, 39-10, on April 7, 2019
• As a team, the Titans are third in assists per game (4.90) and save percentage (.469) and fourth in ground balls per game (17.60) and clearing percentage (.792)
• Leavell has posted double-digit saves in six games this season, and in eight of her 21 career games, with her career-best 17 saves against Butler at home earlier in the year, tied for 10th in school history and the most since Lexie McCormick's 18 at Notre Dame in 2015. She stopped 15 shots at Central Michigan and 11 in the victory at Akron
• Leavell is already third in school history with a .441 save percentage, fifth with 163 saves and 7.76 saves per game and seventh with 13.66 goals against average
• Kopchia led the team with 39 points and 16 assists and was second with 23 goals last season. She has 55 goals, 25 assists and 80 points in her career, with seven hat tricks, and has scored a goal in 11 straight games dating back to last season and 26 of her 32 career contests. Her career high in goals is four, accomplished on four different occasions now, with the last at Akron
• Butler has notched a goal in 18 of her last 30 games, with a career-high four at Youngstown State as a sophomore, and matched her career-best with five points on three goals and three assists against Eastern Michigan. She has five career hat tricks and tallied a career-best five assists at Akron, last season
• Gilbert has now scored a goal in 18 of her last 24 games, with markers in five straight, and tallied a season-high five points and four goals versus Robert Morris, her fourth career hat trick. Her career high in goals is five at Akron last season and her career-best in points is six, also at Akron in 2021
• Sophomore Leah Bodnar, Gilbert, Butler, freshman Alyssa Jarvis and Kopchia have the only hat tricks on the year for the Titans. Kopchia has three, Bodnar and Butler have a pair and Jarvis has registered one
• Bodnar has posted multiple goals in six-straight games and seven times in her career. She registered a career-high three goals at Akron and at Central Michigan and has put two away in both games against Butler, against Lindenwood and versus EMU. In addition, she tallied a career-high five draw controls in the season opener versus Canisius and has 17 on the year, and that was after registering four all of last season
• Camm leads the team with 12 caused turnovers, is second with 19 ground balls and third with 16 draw controls to go with three goals and four assists. She recorded a career-best three caused turnovers against EMU, career-high four ground balls at Akron and career mark of five draw controls at Xavier
• Nuessgen tied his career-high for the third time with two caused turnovers against Canisius and has 18 in his career with 42 ground balls. Nuessgen also scored his first career goal on just his second career shot against Robert Morris
• Redshirt junior Charlotte Dale had an injury that limited her in the first couple of games, but had two goals and an assist against Lindenwood and Eastern Michigan, a goal and two assists at Butler and a goal and an assist at Central Michigan. 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
• Redshirt freshman Taylor Rocha has scored a goal in six games on the year, with her first collegiate marker against Canisius in the season opener, and has eight goals and 13 points on the season
• Jarvis has found the back of the net in five games on the year, scoring her first two career goals at Xavier and posted a season-best three markers against RMU
• Junior Ella Brandt has scored a goal in two-straight games after having just two career goals coming into the season 
• Junior Abby Schillinger registered her first collegiate goal at Marquette, while freshman Libby Cuckler scored her first in the season opener against Canisius and freshman Ysa Pakowski at Xavier
• Sophomore Katie Bilello tied her career-high with four ground balls against Lindenwood and at Central Michigan, tied her career-best with three draw controls against Robert Morris, tying the same mark against the Colonials last season, and just tied her career-best with two caused turnovers at Akron
• Junior Sarah Meek posted a career-high seven draw controls against Marquette and has 36 in her career, including a career-best 25 this season. She scored a career-high two goals against Lindenwood and has 18 points and 13 goals in her career, adding a goal and two helpers against RMU
• 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 
• 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
• 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 7-28. 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