DETROIT (4/5/2023) -- The University of Detroit Mercy men's lacrosse team will celebrate Easter Weekend with a home game as the Titans welcome ASUN newcomer Lindenwood to campus on Saturday.

It will be part of a lacrosse doubleheader as the men's game will be at Noon and the women hosting Robert Morris at 4:00 p.m. Both games will be broadcasted live on ESPN+ and will feature live stats. 

The Titans are coming off a tough 9-5 setback at Queens and are now 1-7 overall and 1-3 in the conference.

Senior Ryan Birney netted two more goals last week to extend his team lead to 19 goals and 20 points. The 19 goals rank 10th in the ASUN as he is seventh in the conference with 2.38 per game.

Freshman Drew Kessenich is second on the team with 18 points and 12 goals, while tied for the team lead with six assists. Four of his goals have come with the man up, second in the ASUN. 

Sophomore Jakob Hemme has allowed less than 10 goals in his last two games as he tops the league and is 20th in the nation with 12.,75 saves per game and fourth in the ASUN with a 48.8 save percentage. Senior David Beacom leads the team with nine caused turnovers and is fourth with 17 ground balls, while junior Noah Martin leads the squad with 24 GB's. 

Lindenwood comes into the game at 2-5, 1-3 in the league, with a win over Queens and losses to Air Force, Bellarmine and Cleveland State.

Following the game, the Titans will have a busy road week with trips to Jacksonville on Wednesday and Air Force next Saturday. 

Game Nuggets: 

• The Titans have a fairly young roster with 14 upperclassmen on their 47-man roster and have had 13 freshmen and sophomores start a game this year
• 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
• The Titans' 14 goals against Robert Morris were the most by the Titans since the 16-11 win against VMI last season, a span of 13 games, while the 12 turnovers were the second-fewest on the season behind the seven at Mercer
• The last time the Titans held an opponent to under 10 goals for three-straight games was in 2021, when they beat Siena (11-9) and Canisius (13-5) and lost to Monmouth (9-7). 
• 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 53 points and 46 goals and has seven hat tricks in his career, and has been turning on the defense with five caused turnovers in his last two games, with a career-best three against RMU
• Going back to last season, Hemme has posted double-digit saves in 15 of his 18 career games, with a career-high and school-tying 28 saves at Michigan last season, and had 19 saves with a career-best seven ground balls against Utah to go with 16 saves 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 and sophomore Harold Skinner at Queens
• Kessenich posted back-to-back hat tricks, with three goals at nationally-ranked Ohio State and three goals and an assist at Mercer and had two goals and two assists against Utah and Robert Morris
• 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 49 points on 29 goals and 20 assists as a Titan after transferring from Furman and recorded a career day with seven points, four goals and three assists at Mercer and now has four career hat tricks
• Sophomore Nolan Graalman netted his first career hat trick with three goals against Utah
• Sophomore Aidan Bishop has scored a goal in three of the last four games - with a career-high three against RMU - as he had just 10 goals and an assist all of last season
• Junior Kyle Loken scored his first goal of the season at Queens and now has eight goals in his career, with five of those as a sophomore
• Beacom tallied a career-high three caused turnovers and tied his career best with four ground balls at Mercer, and scored his second career goal against Utah and added another versus Robert Morris
• Martin has tallied three caused turnovers and 21 ground balls in the last five 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 and had a career-high four ground balls against Marquette and Robert Morris
• Sophomore Sean Henige had a career-high two caused turnovers at High Point and at Queens and also a career-best four GB's at HPU
• Freshman Kyle Grant had two caused turnovers and two ground balls at High Point and also two caused turnovers at VMI
• Freshman Logan Flaherty won a season-high 10 faceoffs versus the Colonials and nine at Ohio State and at Queens
• 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 40-64. 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 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 coached 4 USILA Scholar All-Americans, 2 CoSIDA Academic All-Americans, seven (7) Senior CLASS Award Nominees, including two that went on to the final ballot for All-American accolades, 47 All-Conference players, five (5) LSM's of the Year, three (3) Rookie of the Year's, two (2) Defensive Players of the Year and one (1) Offensive Player of the Year. He has tutored 15 players that have gone on to get drafted in the MLL, NLL and PLL and 19 that have played in all three 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