DETROIT (3/24/2024) -- Senior Cat Kopchia kept up her offensive onslaught with five goals to lead three Titans with hat tricks as the University of Detroit Mercy women's lacrosse team ended the game with three-straight goals to pull away from Youngstown State, 13-8, on Sunday.

UDM now has back-to-back wins for the first time since the 2021 season and the first time at home since 2019.

Kopchia raised her goal total to a career-high 33 on the season as she moved into 10th place in the school record book with 94, while her 36 points on the year give her 124 in her career for ninth place in Titan history.

Junior Leah Bodnar had three goals and sophomore Alyssa Jarvis posted three goals, a team-high six draw controls, two caused turnovers and two ground balls. Junior Maddy Camm tallied four points on a goal and a career-tying three assists to go with a pair of caused turnovers, four draws and three GB's and junior Meredith Leavell made 14 saves in net for her 16th career double-digit save contest. 

The Titans (2-8, 1-1 MAC) led by four on a couple of occasions, but Youngstown Stat (0-10, 0-2 MAC) made it a two-goal game at 9-7 late in the third and 10-8 early in the fourth, but Detroit Mercy stopped any chance of a comeback with three markers in a four-minute span in the fourth.

Jarvis beat the keeper for a goal at the 9:46 mark, and after a save by Leavell, Bodnar was able to find the back of the net for a 12-8 lead with 6:54 left. Graduate senior Marina Butler was able to cause a turnover and that led to Kopchia's fifth strike of the game for a 13-8 advantage as Leavell made four saves down the stretch to secure the win. 

Senior Sarah Meek had four draw controls and a caused turnover, while graduate senior Kiah Nuessgen, juniors Katie Bilello and Sophie Davis and sophomore Angelina Hook all had a ground ball.

Detroit Mercy outshot the Penguins, 34-29, and won the battle of ground balls, 16-11, and draw controls, 14-9. UDM was also 21-of-24 on clears and had a season-low nine turnovers. 

The Titans started quickly as Camm won the opening draw and scored just over a minute into the game. Jarvis then came up with a takeaway, which led to Camm finding Bodnar for a score and it was 2-0 with 12:09 left. 

The lead was 3-1 late in the first as Butler would tickle the twine and 4-2 in the second as Jarvis won the opening draw and Kopchia finished with a laser to the back of the cage. Kopchia and Jarvis went back-to-back in the second to extend the lead to 6-3, and in the third, Kopchia tallied a marker and Bodnar followed for an 8-4 advantage with 7:44 left.

It looked like the score would be 9-7 after three, but with 10 seconds showing, Camm won a draw and raced down the field, locating Jarvis and she fired one in at the buzzer for a 10-7 advantage. 

Detroit Mercy will have five days to prepare for its road trip to Robert Morris as the Titans and Colonials will play on Saturday, Mar. 30, with game time set for 2:00 p.m. 

Game Notes: 

• Youngstown State leads the overall series, 4-2, and is 1-2 in the Motor City
• The Titans won back-to-back games for the first time since the 2021 season when it won consecutive road games at Akron and at Youngstown State and back-to-back games at home for the first time since 2019, when they claimed three straight over Kent State, Furman, and Wofford
• Camm also had three assists at Central Michigan
• Camm came into the game leading the team, second in the MAC and 34th in the nation with 16 caused turnovers and 1.78 per game as well as leading the team lead, third in the MAC and 30th in the nation with 25 ground balls and 2.78 per game.  
• Camm now has at least one caused turnover and two ground balls in every game this season and has 41 caused turnovers, 62 draw controls, 65 ground balls with 26 goals and 22 assists in her career
• Kopchia just registered her seventh-straight hat trick, her eighth of the season and 16th in her career
• Kopchia has scored at least two goals in every game this season and 12 straight dating back to last year
• Kopchia also had five goals at Lindenwood
• Leavell's season-high in saves was 15 saves against Marquette 
• Leavell came into the game third in the MAC and 11th in DI with 87 saves, third in the league and 16th in the nation with 9.6 saves per game, third in the league and 54th in the country with a .420 save percentage and third in the MAC with a 14.62 goals against average
• Butler has scored a goal in seven of the last eight games, including two markers at Xavier
• Butler now has 91 points on 47 goals and 44 assists - fourth in school history - along with 41 ground balls, 22 caused turnovers and nine draw controls
• Bodnar has hat tricks in back-to-back games, three on the season and six in her career
• Bodnar had a career-tying five goals in the last game against Kennesaw State
• Jarvis came into the game leading the team with 40 draw controls, third in the MAC and 64th in DI with 4.44 per game
• Jarvis now has 41 draw controls in the last six games as she tallied eight against Kennesaw State, a career-best 11 at Central Michigan, six at Lindenwood and back-to-back games with five draw controls at Xavier and at Canisius
• Jarvis has scored a goal in nine games this season

  Read Full Article