DETROIT (4/28/2023) -- The University of Detroit Mercy women's lacrosse team will end the regular season with a short trip to Ypsilanti as the Titans visit Eastern Michigan on Saturday. 

Game time is set for 4:300 p.m., at Scicluna Field and will feature live stats but no broadcast.

Detroit Mercy comes into the contest at 3-10, 2-5 in the MAC, while Eastern Michigan is 1-14 overall and 0-7 in conference play. 

Sophomore Meredith Leavell still leads the MAC with 10.37 saves per game - sixth in the NCAA - as well as with 2.85 ground balls per contest, 22nd in DI. She has 135 total stops on the season, three away from the top 10 in school history for a single season and her 10.37 saves per game is third in the Titan record books. 

Senior Annie Gilbert and junior Cat Kopchia share the team lead with 29 points as Kopchia has a team-best 22 goals and Gilbert has registered 18 goals and 11 assists. Senior Marina Butler is third with 27 points on 13 goals and a team-high 14 assists and sophomore Leah Bodnar has 21 points and 19 goals with a team-best 30 draw controls. 

Sophomore Maddy Camm tops the team with 15 caused turnovers and is second with 25 ground balls and 23 draw controls to go with five goals and five assists.

In the first meeting, Detroit Mercy went on a 6-0 run in the second half en route to a 17-7 victory at home. Butler and Kopchia each had five points on three goals and two assists - matching a career-high in points for Butler - while Gilbert had two goals and two helpers and Bodnar added two markers.

Camm had had a career-best three caused turnovers to go with two ground balls, a draw control, a goal and an assist, junior Sophie Davis registered a career-high two caused turnovers and Leavell made eight saves, picked up four GB's and caused a turnover to earn the win in net. 

Game Nuggets: 

• 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 (4.67) and save percentage (.447) and fourth in caused turnovers per game (7.25) and fourth in ground balls per game (17.00) and clearing percentage (.806).
• Leavell has posted double-digit saves seven times this season and in nine of her 24 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, 14 at Youngstown State and 11 in the victory at Akron.
• Leavell is already fourth in school history with a .423 save percentage and 14.36 goals against average, fifth with 191 saves and 8.10 saves per game
• Kopchia has 59 goals, 26 assists and 85 points in her career, with eight hat tricks, and has scored a goal in 28 of her 35 career contests. Her career high in goals is four, accomplished on four different occasions now, with the last at Akron, and has three markers at Butler, against EMU and against Kent State
• Butler has notched a goal in 20 of her last 33 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 20 of her last 27 games, with markers in seven of her last eight, and tallied her fifth career hat trick with three goals against Central Michigan. She had a season-high five points and four goals versus Robert Morris. Her career high in goals was five at Akron last season and her career-best in points is six, also at Akron in 2021.
• Bodnar has posted multiple goals in seven of her last nine games and eight times in her career. She registered a career-high five goals, six assists and seven draw controls her last time out against Kent State and had three goals at Akron and at Central Michigan and put two away in both games against Butler, against Lindenwood and EMU. 
• Camm recorded a career-best three caused turnovers against EMU, a career-high four ground balls at Akron and career mark of five draw controls at Xavier. 
• Senior Kiah Nuessgen posted a career-best three caused turnovers against Kent State and has 23 in his career, with 44 ground balls. Nuessgen also scored his first career goal on just his second career shot against Robert Morris.
• Senior Charlotte Dale tallied her fifth career hat trick with a season-high three goals at Youngstown State. She posted 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.
• Freshman Alyssa Jarvis has found the back of the net in six games on the year, scoring her first two career goals at Xavier and posted a season-best three markers against RMU. She also pulled down a season-high five draw controls against Kent State
• Junior Ella Brandt has scored a goal in four of the last five games after having just two career goals coming into the season. 
• Junior Abby Schillinger registered her first collegiate goal at Marquette and added another last week at Youngstown State
• Freshman Libby Cuckler scored her first goal in the season opener against Canisius, freshman Ysa Pakowski at Xavier and sophomore Brooke Parrillo versus Central Michigan. 
• 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 tied her career-best with two caused turnovers at Akron and against Kent State. 
• Junior Sarah Meek posted a career-high seven draw controls against Marquette and has 39 in her career, including a career-best 27 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 7-31. 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.