DETROIT (3/4/2024) -- The University of Detroit Mercy men's lacrosse team will look for its first win of the season in a big way as the Titans head to the East Coast to face #16/14 Rutgers on Tuesday.

Game time is set for 3:00 p.m. at SHI Stadium in Piscataway, New Jersey, and will be streamed live on the Big Ten Network Plus. There will be live stats available.

The Titans are 0-2 on the season, falling at Marquette and to VMI. 

Rutgers is 4-1 with wins over Lehigh, Stony Brook, Loyola and Hofstra and a loss to #6/7 Army.

After the game, the Titans will have another tough road test at Ohio State next Tuesday. 

LOOKING FOR THAT RANKED WIN

• The Titans are 0-22 all-time against nationally ranked teams.

AGAINST THE BIG TEN

• Detroit Mercy is 2-16 all-time against current members of the Big Ten, with a 1-11 mark against Ohio State, a 1-4 record against Michigan and 0-1 tally versus Maryland.
• The win over Ohio State was a 9-8 outcome in 2015, head coach Chris Kolon's first win, while UDM downed the Wolverines 13-9 in 2012. 

ALL-TIME SERIES

• This is the first career meeting between the two schools. 

SOME HISTORY WITH COACH BRECHT

• Rutgers head coach Brian Brecht is familiar with Detroit Mercy as he went 2-1 against them as head coach of Siena as conference rivals in the MAAC.
• Brecht's Siena's club downed UDM in the 2011 MAAC Championship game, 12-3, but earlier in that season, the Titans won at Siena, 13-11, ending the Saints' 13-game home winning streak - the second longest in the nation at the time - as well as their 20-game MAAC winning streak, which included 10-straight at home.

THE GOOD OL DAYS

• Head coach Chris Kolon has been with the Titan program all 16 years and is in his 10th as a head coach, but he once wore a different shade of red.
• Kolon played lacrosse at Rutgers from 1996-999 and lettered for four years as a defenseman for the Scarlet Knights. He was the first player from his high school, Deaholm in Birmingham, Michigan, to earn a Division I lacrosse scholarship.

BORN AND RAISED IN MICHIGAN

• While the Titans recruit nationally - witnessed by 12 states plus Canada on their 46-man roster - there is no arguing that Detroit Mercy loves to keep players in its home state as 28 of its 46 players (60.8%) hail from the Great Lakes State.
• The next on the list is Wisconsin with four (4), California (3), Ohio (2), Colorado (1), Illinois (1), Maryland (1), Nevada (1), North Carolina (1), Texas (1), Vermont (1) and along with one from Canada (1). 

THE MAGIC MAN

• Graduate senior Luke Majick recorded his seventh career hat trick with three goals against VMI, and that was after a goal and two assists at Marquette.
• He is approaching top 10 in school history in points (70) and goals (43).
• Majick started the year honored by his conference peers as he was named to the Preseason All-ASUN Team as a midfielder after a poll by the league's head coaches. 
• He started the year with a goal and two assists at Marquette, along with two ground balls and a caused turnover. 
• A team captain, he played in all 13 games with 11 starts last season and tied for the team-high with a career-best 31 points, ranking 18th in the ASUN with 2.38 points per game. He led the team with a career-best 11 assists and was third with a career-high 20 goals.
• He also tied for the team lead with three man-up goals and had 11 ground balls and two caused turnovers.
• During the year, he posted a career-high seven points on a career-best four goals with three assists at Mercer. He also had a few other hat tricks, coming up with three goals, three ground balls, and a caused turnover versus Robert Morris, two goals and a career-high four assists against Lindenwood, three markers at Air Force, and four goals with an assist and two ground balls at Cleveland State.

WEARING THE BIG "C"

• Detroit Mercy will have a trio of outstanding leadership this season as the Titans announced that graduate seniors Kyle Loken and Luke Majick as well as senior Noah Martin will have the honor of wearing the capital 'C' this year. 
• "These men have demonstrated to the team and the coaching staff how much they care about their fellow teammates and the program and continue to showcase what we have built this program on," said head coach Chris Kolon '09 (MBA). 
• Loken - just the fourth Titan to be named a team captain three times - has seen action in 38 games as a defensive midfielder and has recorded 21 caused turnovers and 68 ground balls to go with 10 goals and an assist. Last year, he tied for fourth on the team with a career-tying 24 ground balls and fifth with a career-high eight caused turnovers, while scoring two goals. 
• Majick returns as captain for the second straight year. The midfielder has played in 32 games as a Titan and has posted 43 goals and 27 assists and tied for the team-high with a career-high 31 points, led the team with a career-best 11 assists and was third with a career-best 20 goals last season. 
• Martin - a first-time captain - has been the anchor of the defense the last two years and has played in 33 games in his first three seasons, tallying 24 caused turnovers and 53 ground balls. Last season, he tied for the team lead with a career-best 13 caused turnovers and was second with a career-high 34 ground balls.

WE HAVE OUR DREW

• Sophomore Drew Kessenich scored two goals in the opener at Marquette and added a pair of assists against Marquette.
• He had a fine freshman season, where he was named to the Atlantic Sun All-Freshman Team.
• He played in all 13 games with 11 starts and tied for the team lead with 31 points and was second with 21 goals and 10 assists to go with 19 ground balls. He also topped the squad with five man-up goals, ranking fifth in the league and 43rd in the nation with the five power-play goals.
• He scored a goal in nine games, with multi-strikes in seven of them, including seven points on five goals and two assists against Lindenwood and back-to-back three-goal games at Ohio State and Mercer.  

NEWBIES

• Freshman Sean Donahue notched his first career goal in the opener at Marquette and added another against VMI, while freshman Lucas Goeller registered his first assist and point against the Golden Eagles.
• Freshman Owen Miller scored his first goal against VMI and Joey Nawrocki as just 7-of-20 in faceoffs versus the Keydets.

NOLAN'S OUR MAN

• Junior Nolan Graalman has started the season with a goal in each of the first two games after a sophomore season that saw him tally 23 points on the strength of 21 goals, including 15, fourth on the team.  
• He recorded a career-high three goals and three ground balls against Utah and tied his goal mark with three strikes at Cleveland State. 

THAT'S RIGHT I SAID OWEN

• Sophomore Eoghan Mullett- pronounced Owen - is back on defense after securing a starting spot early last year after transferring from Bryant. He led the team with 36 ground balls and tied for the team lead with 13 caused turnovers, ranking 10th in the ASUN with 3.0 ground balls per game and 11th with 1.08 caused turnovers per contest.
• He registered a caused turnover in 11 games, with two in three contests, and collected a ground ball in every game, with at least three on six occasions. An aggressive player, he also tied for the team lead with five penalties.
• Mullett finished with a season-best seven ground balls and had a caused turnover at Jacksonville. He had two caused turnovers and four ground balls against Marquette and a season-high two caused turnovers and five ground balls against Bellarmine. 

AT THE FACEOFF

• The Titans return two faceoff specialists from last season in junior Billy Hart and sophomore Logan Flaherty.
• Hart won 7-of-19 with three GB's at Marquette in the opener, while Flaherty and freshman Joey Nawrockiwere both 2-of-7, with Flaherty grabbing two GB's. 
• Hart has now won 108 career faceoffs and was at 41.0% last season, claiming 64-of-156 with 24 ground balls. He won a career-best 10-of-22 with four ground balls and scored his first goal on his first career shot at Jacksonville. He took 9-of-17 with a season-high five ground balls at Air Force and tied his career-high winning 10-of-19 with five GB's at Cleveland State.
• Flaherty tied for the team lead with 63 wins, picking up 15 ground balls, as a rookie. He tallied 9-of-15 with a caused turnover at Queens, was 8-of-17 at Air Force and won six faceoffs against Lindenwood, where he also notched his first goal. 

KING ME

• Junior Aidan Bishop started the season opener with two goals at Marquette and just posted a career-best four points on two goals and two assists against VMI.
• In his career, he has now played in 26 games with 24 starts and has 22 goals, eight assists, 34 ground balls and seven caused turnovers. 

GUARDING THE NET

• Juniors Jakob Hemme and Ryan Richters are the top two goalies on the roster, a roster that has five netminders.
• Richters has started the first two games and made 11 saves at Marquette and 13 versus VMI. 
• Hemme ranks fourth in school history with 271 saves and second with 12.9 saves per game. He saw action in 11 games with 10 starts last season and led the team with 137 saves - 10th in school history - and a .479 save percentage - sixth in the ASUN - and was third with 28 ground balls. He topped the conference and was 19th in the nation with 12.45 saves per game, fifth in school history, and was 18th in the ASUN with 2.55 ground balls per game.
• Hemme recorded double-digit saves in nine games, with a season-high 19 saves and a career-best seven ground balls versus Utah and tallied 14 saves, four ground balls and a career-best two caused turnovers at Jacksonville.
• In his career, he has played in 21 games and has double-digit saves in 18 of them, tying a school record with 28 at Michigan in 2022. 
• Meanwhile, Richters hails from California and played as a freshman at Grand Canyon and as a sophomore at Concordia University in California. Last season, he made 48 saves and posted a 62.3% save percentage, helping Concordia to a MCLA title. 
• He also played for Team Latvia at the 2023 World Lacrosse Championships and was nominated to the All-World Team. 

I WILL TAKE A HENIGE

• Junior Sean Henige is coming off a career day with three caused turnovers and seven ground balls against VMI.  
• He did not see any action as a freshman, but his practice paid off as he appeared in 13 games with 12 starts last year and was fourth on the team with 10 caused turnovers and also picked up 20 ground balls.
• He posted a season-high two caused turnovers and four ground balls at High Point, two caused turnovers and two GB's at Queens and four ground balls and two caused turnovers against Bellarmine. 
• In the opener, he had two ground balls at Marquette.