DURHAM, N.H. (2/17/2024) -- Senior Cat Kopchia tied her career-high with four goals and the Titans cut a five-goal deficit down to one, but couldn't find the equalizer as the University of Detroit Mercy women's lacrosse team was edged by New Hampshire, 12-11, on the road on Saturday.

Senior Julia Fortino recorded her first two collegiate goals. Sophomore Alyssa Jarvis posted a pair of goals and junior Meredith Leavell made 10 saves with two caused turnovers and a ground ball. 

Junior Leah Bodnar tallied a career-tying three-caused turnovers with three ground balls, two assists and a goal, and senior Abby Schillinger pulled down a career-best eight draw controls and scored a goal.

The Titans (0-1) were trailing 10-5 with less than two minutes to go in the third when Kopchia came up with a caused turnover and then she beat the defense and the keeper for a score with just 11 seconds to go in the period. 

UDM's defense came up strong again as Bodnar caused a turnover and she eventually found Jarvis, who beat the goalie to make it 10-7 with 11:54 left. New Hampshire (2-1) would get one back, but Fortino made it an 11-8 contest with a goal at the 10:04 mark.

Junior Maddy Camm found Kopchia for her fourth strike of the game with 8:38 remaining and sophomore Libby Cuckler's free-position goal had the Titans down by just one, 11-10, with 6:34 on the scoreboard. 

Detroit Mercy also trailed by one, 12-11, as Schillinger won the draw and Bodnar tickled the twine with 2:33 left. Schillinger would win the next draw, but Bodnar's shot to knot it up was saved and the Titans would turn it over and see the Wildcats run out the clock. 

Both teams registered 31 shots, but New Hampshire had a 20-16 margin in ground balls and a 15-12 advantage in draw controls.

Camm ended with a team-high and tied her career-high with four ground balls, a draw control and a caused turnover and junior Sophie Davis had a caused turnover. 

The Titans were down 2-0 when Kopchia scored the first goal of 2024 midway through the first. Schillinger would tie the game at 2-2 with 13 seconds left in the opening period as she found the back of the net.

UDM went up 3-2 early in the second as a Leavell save got the offense the ball and Kopchia scored again, but it was the Wildcats up 5-3 at the break and 9-5 after Jarvis' first goal with 2:50 left in the third.

The red, white and blue will get back to work and play two games on the road next week, starting with a trip to Duquesne on Saturday.

Game Notes: 

• The first-ever game for the Titans was on Feb. 21, 2009, a 20-1 road victory at Howard. 
• This was the first-ever game between the two schools and the first-ever game against any current school in the America East Conference
• Detroit Mercy started its history with two straight season-opening wins, defeating Howard on the road, 20-1, in 2009 and downing St. Francis (PA) 16-5 at home in 2010, but has dropped 14 straight since
• Detroit Mercy is 2-14 all-time in road openers and 1-11 all-time in season-opening road games
• Kopchia has tallied four goals five times in her career
• Kopchia now has 92 points on 65 goals and 27 assists, 10th in school history with those helpers
• Schillinger had just 15 draw controls in her career coming into the game
• Bodnar also had three caused turnovers at Eastern Michigan last year
• Cuckler's other career game was last year at home against EMU
• Fortino had just three career shots coming into the game, but had three attempts to score her first two goals 
• Camm also had four ground balls last year at Akron
• It was Leavell's 11th career game with double-digit saves
• Leavell is currently fifth in school history with 211 saves and 8.09 saves per game, third with a .433 save percentage and fourth with a 14.21 goals-against average

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