PITTSBURGH (2/25/2024) -- The University of Detroit Mercy women's lacrosse team will conclude its two-game swing in Pennsylvania as the Titans visit Pittsburgh on Monday. 
Game time is set for Noon at Highmark Stadium and will be broadcast live on ESPN+. A live stats feed will also be available.

Pittsburgh is led by 2012 Titan graduate and former President Award winner Emily Boissonneault, who is in her third season with the Panthers. She was inducted into the Titan Hall Of Fame in 2020 and was part of the very first Detroit Mercy team in 2009, etching her name in the NCAA record books as she ended her career with 242 goals – tying for 13th in NCAA history – and 157 caused turnovers – tied for seventh in the Division I record book. 

The Titans have dropped their first two games, but have shown resiliency, nearly making a second-half comeback in both contests. Senior Cat Kopchia and sophomore Libby Cuckler each had two goals, while sophomore Alyssa Jarvis tied her career-high with three points on two assists and a goal in a 13-7 loss at Duquesne. 

Pittsburgh is 1-3 on the season with a 20-2 win over Duquesne and setbacks to Arizona State (18-11), #22 Penn State (13-5) and #1 Boston College (19-3). 

Following the game, the red, white and blue will return home to host Jesuit-rival Canisius on Wednesday at 1:00 p.m., at Titan Field. 

OUR HALL-OF-FAMER

• Pitt head coach Emily Boissonneault - a 2012 UDM graduate and inducted into the Hall Of Fame in 2020 - was part of the very first Detroit Mercy team in 2009 and etched her name in the NCAA record books as she ended her career with 242 goals – tying for 13th in NCAA history – and 157 caused turnovers – tied for seventh in the Division I record book. She also held the school record with 272 points and 193 career ground balls and is still the Titan leader with 52 free-position goals.
• A four-time All-league honoree, she made an immediate impact right from the start, scoring five goals in the Titans' first-ever game, a 20-1 win over Howard on the road, and someone who would go on to make history started it all with the first-ever lacrosse goal in program history just a minute and a half into the contest. 
• She went on to earn National Lacrosse Conference Attack MVP honors and was named to the womenslacrosse.com All-Rookie Team. As a senior, she took home the President's Award, given to the most outstanding senior student-athletes who demonstrate what it means to be a true Titan.
• A model student-athlete, she was the vice president of SAAC as a senior, a four-time member of the athletic director's honor roll, and a member of the NLC All-Academic Team. She was also chosen to attend the NCAA Student-Athlete Leadership Forum prior to her senior campaign. 

FROM ALL OVER

• The Titans have four homegrown student-athletes on the roster, but Detroit Mercy has done a great job hitting the national recruiting trails.
• Detroit Mercy has players from Illinois (5), Ohio (5), Florida (3), Arizona (1), California (1), Indiana (1), Maryland (1), Minnesota (1), New York (1), North Carolina (1), Texas (1), Virginia (1) and Washington (1) along with one from Canada (1).  

VS. THE ACC

• The Titans are 0-5 all-time against the Atlantic Coast Conference, with a 0-3 mark against Notre Dame and a 0-2 record versus Louisville. 

OUT TO PROVE YOU WRONG

• Detroit Mercy was picked to finish seventh in the MAC Preseason Coaches Poll.
• Kent State was tabbed first with 33 points and three first-place tallies, just ahead of Central Michigan's 32 points and three first-place nods.
• Robert Morris (28), Eastern Michigan (16), Youngstown State (13) and Akron (13) were all picked ahead of the Titans' 12 points.

OUR ALL-MAC IS BACK

• Junior Leah Bodnar got off to a quick start in the season opener at New Hampshire as she tallied a career-tying three-caused turnovers with three ground balls, two assists and a goal. She then had two caused turnovers, two ground balls and a goal at Duquesne. 
• Last year, she was named All-MAC Second Team after seeing action in 13 games with 12 starts and finished third on the squad with 19 goals and tied for fourth with 21 points. She also led the team with 33 draw controls, had 12 ground balls, and caused six turnovers. 
• Bodnar scored a goal in seven games, all multi-goal contests, recording her first career hat trick with three goals at Central Michigan. She added another hat trick along with a career-best four GB's, two draw controls and an assist at Akron and had a monster game with a career-high five goals, six points and seven draw controls against Kent State. 

NINE LIVES

• Senior Cat Kopchia got off to a hot start in the season opener at New Hampshire as she recorded her ninth career hat trick with a career-tying four goals en route to being named the MAC Offensive Player of the Week. She came back with a pair of markers at Duquesne. 
• In her career, she now has 94 points on 67 goals and 27 assists, 10th in school history with those helpers. 
• She was already one of the top goal scorers in the MAC, starting all 12 games she played in and leading the team with a career-high 24 goals, second with 30 points and tied for third with eight assists last season. She also led the team with 75 shots and 56 were on net for a .747 shots on goal percentage and topped the team with five free-position goals and 14 free-position attempts.
• Kopchia recorded a goal in 11 of her 12 games, with nine multi-goal contests, including a season-high five points on three goals and two assists, along with a GB, a draw control and a caused turnover against Eastern Michigan. She tallied a season-high four goals with a ground ball at Akron and had three goals and an assist versus Kent State.

NOT IN MY NET

• Junior Meredith Leavell was named the MAC's Defensive Player of the Week after a stellar season opener that saw her record 10 saves with two caused turnovers and a ground ball at New Hampshire.
• She just stopped 13 shots at Duquesne, including three on the free position. 
• It was her 12th career game with double-digit saves.
• Leavell is currently fifth in school history with 224 saves and 8.12 saves per game, third with a .430 save percentage and fourth with a 14.32 goals-against average.
• Last year, she played in all 14 games on the season with 13 starts and led the MAC and was ninth in the nation with 10.36 saves per game as well as leading the conference and 18th in the country with 2.86 ground balls per game. Her 145 total stops and 10.36 saves per game were third in the Titan record book, while her 40 total GB's and 145 saves were the third most in the league. She ended third in the league and 28th in DI with 145 saves, third in the MAC and 38th in the country with a .457 save percentage as well as fourth with a 14.40 goals-against average. 
• Leavell registered double-digit saves in eight games and at least three ground balls on six occasions and tallied a career-best 17 saves against Butler at home earlier in the year, tied for 10th in school history, along with five ground balls. She stopped 15 shots at Central Michigan, made 14 saves at Youngstown State and 11 saves with a career-best six GB's at Xavier.

YOU RANG

• Graduate senior Marina Butler is back after leading the team with 17 assists, placing third with 30 points and tied for fourth with 13 goals last year.  
• She scored a goal in seven games and had multiple markers in five of them. 
• Butler tied her career-high with five points on three goals and two assists against Eastern Michigan. She also handed out a season-high three assists and scored a goal against Lindenwood and tied her season-high with three assists at Akron and at Eastern Michigan. 
• She has 80 points on 39 goals and 41 assists - tied for fourth in school history - along with 32 ground balls, 15 caused turnovers and eight draw controls.

GIVE ME LIBERTY

• Sophomore Libby Cuckler has stepped up on offense to start the year as she recorded a goal and an assist at New Hampshire and two goals - both on the extra attacker - at Duquesne.
• She had just two goals and three points in 11 games last season. 

YES I CAMM CAMM

• Junior Maddy Camm showcased a great all-around game last season and started off this year with the same results, ending with a team-high and tied her career-high with four ground balls, and registering an assist, a draw control and a caused turnover at New Hampshire. 
• Camm just tallied two caused turnovers, two GB's, two draw controls and a goal at Duquesne. 
• She topped the team with 16 caused turnovers, was second with 27 ground balls and tied for second with 27 draw controls to go with 11 points on five goals and six assists in 2023. Her 27 GB's and 16 caused turnovers were ninth most in the league and she also ranked sixth in the MAC with 1.23 caused turnovers per game as well as sixth in the league and 85th in the nation with 2.08 ground balls per game.
• On defense, she had at least one caused turnover in 10 games and multiple in five, at least two ground balls in 10 contests and two draw controls on seven occasions. 
• She pulled down a career-best five draw controls with two ground balls and an assist at Xavier, recorded a career-best three caused turnovers, with a draw control, two ground balls, a goal and an assist against Eastern Michigan and two caused turnovers, two draw controls, a career-high four ground balls and a goal at Akron.

A SCHILL OF A TIME

• Senior Abby Schillinger pulled down a career-best eight draw controls and scored a goal in the season opener at New Hampshire and added four draws at Duquesne.
• Schillinger had just 15 draw controls in her career coming into this season. 

REPRESENTING PUERTO RICO

• Senior Cecelia Vergara is coming off her best collegiate game with a career-high three ground balls, career-best two assists as well as a draw control and caused turnover at Duquesne.
• She donned a different red, white and blue for a few days in November as she was a member of the Puerto Rico National Team at the PALA Sixes Cup in Kingston, Jamaica.
• A defensive midfielder, Vergara posted seven caused turnovers with five draw controls and three ground balls in 12 games last year.
• In her career, she has appeared in 35 games and has 24 draw controls, 16 ground balls and eight caused turnovers to go with seven points on four goals and three assists. 
• The Pan-American Lacrosse Association (PALA) is the third Continental Federation (CF) formed under the auspices of World Lacrosse, which is the international governing body of lacrosse. As a Continental Federation, PALA governs members in the Americas and the Caribbean. 

OUR PRESIDENT

• Senior Sarah Meek not only holds the distinction of being one of the Titan captains, but she also serves as President of the Student-Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC).
• Meek is coming off a career-high five ground balls and three caused turnovers at Duquesne. 
• A three-time member of the Athletic Director Honor Roll and a two-time member of the MAC All-Academic Team, Meek saw action in all 14 games with two starts and tied for the team lead with a career-high 27 draw controls and also posted a career-best 10 points, tying her career-high with seven goals and adding nine ground balls and three caused turnovers.
• She recorded a career-high seven draw controls with a ground ball at Marquette and scored a career-best two goals with two draw controls and a ground ball against Lindenwood. She came away with three draw controls and a goal versus Eastern Michigan and tallied a career-high three points on two assists and a goal, along with four draw controls and a GB against Robert Morris.
• In her career, she has 40 draw controls, 17 ground balls and 19 points on 14 goals and five assists. 

OUR WASHINGTON TITAN

• Sophomore Alyssa Jarvis, the first Titan from the state of Washington, had a solid rookie campaign last year and started this season with a pair of goals at New Hampshire and just tied her career high with three points on a goal and two assists at Duquesne. 
• She played in 14 games with 12 starts as a freshman and was sixth on the team with 10 goals and tied for sixth with 13 points. She was also fourth on the squad with 18 draw controls and had 12 ground balls and four caused turnovers. 
• She scored two goals on her first two collegiate shots at Xavier. Jarvis posted a season-best three goals with two draw controls and a ground ball against Robert Morris and pulled down a season-high five draw controls and had a goal and ground ball against Kent State. 

TAKE IT AWAY

• UDM has posted 18 caused turnovers through the first two games, with eight at New Hampshire and 10 at Duquesne. 
• The Titans registered double-digit caused turnovers just four times last season.