March 7, 2003
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The Game: Top-ranked Johns Hopkins looks for its second consecutive 3-0 start as the Blue Jays host Penn at 2:00 pm on Saturday, March 8.
A Look Back: Johns Hopkins posted a 16-7 victory over Albany on Tuesday evening to improve to 2-0. Penn picked up its first victory of the 2003 season with a 9-4 win over Lafayette.
Back on Top: Johns Hopkins and Virginia share the top spot in this week's STX/USILA Rankings (complete poll on page 4). The Blue Jays also top the Warrior/Inside Lacrosse Power Poll this week. After being ranked number one for a total of just one week from the beginning of the 1996 season through the end of the 2001 season, the Blue Jays are enjoying their fifth week atop the polls since the start of the 2002 season.
The Coaches: Dave Pietramala is in his third season as the head coach of the Blue Jays. The 2002 USILA National Coach of the Year, he sports an overall record of 45-23 (.662) including a 22-6 (.786) record at Johns Hopkins.
Pietramala spent three years as the head coach at Cornell (1998-2000) before returning to his alma mater prior to the 2001 season. He is the only person in the history of college lacrosse who has earned NCAA Division I National Player of the Year honors (1989) and NCAA Division I National Coach of the Year honors (2000 & 2002).
Brian Voelker is in his first season as the head coach at Penn and sports a 1-1 overall record. A 1991 Johns Hopkins graduate, he was an assistant coach at JHU from 1998-2000 and served as the head coach of the Baltimore Bayhawks of the MLL in 2001.
Hopkins Lacrosse on the Radio: Johns Hopkins men's lacrosse games can be heard on WJFK-AM 1300 in Baltimore. The Johns Hopkins Lacrosse Game of the Week presented by Copy World begins with a pre-game show 15 minutes prior to faceoff and includes a 15-minute post-game show. Larry Quinn and Mark Dixon will provide all the play-by-play and expert analysis. All regular-season games (except the games against Albany and Canisius) and NCAA Tournament games will be broadcast.
Hopkins Lacrosse on Television: The Blue Jays are scheduled to hit the air waves five times this season. Games against Virginia, Maryland, Navy and Loyola will air on WMAR, while the JHU-Duke game will be aired on Comcast SportsNet. Since 1998, Johns Hopkins has had 34 of its games televised and has posted a 21-13 record in those 34 games.
The STX Hopkins Edge: The first edition of the STX Hopkins Edge will air on Saturday, March 8 at 12:30 pm on WMAR (Channel 2) in Baltimore. This in-depth look at Hopkins lacrosse features head coach Dave Pietramala and WMAR lacrosse analysts Keith Mills and Quint Kessenich taking a close look at the Johns Hopkins Blue Jays.
Hopkins Lacrosse on the Web: The official web site for Johns Hopkins athletics is located at www.HopkinsSports.com.
Series Notes
* Johns Hopkins and Penn will be meeting for the 27th time. This will be the first meeting between the two teams since 1968.
* Johns Hopkins leads the all-time series with the Quakers, 25-1 and the Blue Jays have currently won 10 straight in the series.
* Penn's only victory against Johns Hopkins came in 1922 by a 4-3 score.
* JHU defeated Penn, 20-5 in the last meeting in 1968 after beating Loyola 22-4 in its previous game. In the 35 seasons since, JHU has scored 20 or more goals in back-to-back games just three times.
About the Quakers: Penn will look to make it two straight in the win column after Tuesday's 9-4 win over Lafayette. First-year coach Brian Voelker's team features a solid mix of veterans and newcomers and will look to make noise in the race for the automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament that goes to the Ivy League Champion.
Senior midfielder Alex Kopicki, a preseason All-American, scored three goals in the win over Lafayette and is one of the top all-around middies in the Ivy. Freshman James Riordan has gotten his career off to a quick start as he has five goals and one assist through two games, while junior Will Phillips has four goals in two outings.
Voelker is one of the top defensive players to play the game in the last 20 years and he will work closely with a group that features returning starters Stephen Brown and Pat Connelly. Last season Penn held 10 of its 13 opponents to nine goals or less and won eight of those nine games. With one of the youngest attack units in the nation, success on the defensive end of the field will likely fuel the early-season success of the team. Penn finished second in the nation in man-down defense and sixth in the nation in scoring defense last season.
These Are The Facts: Johns Hopkins enters this week's game against Penn with an all-time record of 808-259-15 (.754) in 114 seasons of play. The Blue Jays own seven NCAA titles, 29 USILA titles, and 6 ILA titles for a total of 42 national championships.
Captain My Captain: Senior attackman Bobby Benson (Baltimore, MD/McDonogh), Senior midfielder Adam Doneger (Hewlett, NY/Lynbrook), senior defenseman Michael Peyser (Lloyd Harbor, NY/Cold Spring Harbor), junior defenseman Greg Raymond (Corning, NY/Corning East) and senior goalie Rob Scherr (Reisterstown, MD/McDonogh) have been selected as team captains for Johns Hopkins this season.
Tying it All Together: Johns Hopkins is coached by Dave Pietramala, who played at Hopkins from 1986-89. Penn is coached by Brian Voelker, who played at Johns Hopkins from 1988-91. Pietramala, Voelker and current JHU assistant Bill Dwan were all key members of the Blue Jay defense when Hopkins advanced to the National Championship game in 1989. Current JHU offensive coordinator was a midfielder on the 1989 team and was a classmate of Voelker and Dwan.
More Ties: Current Penn assistant coaches Todd Cavallaro and Peter Jacobs also played at Johns Hopkins. Cavallaro played from 1991-94 and Jacobs played from 1992-95.
All In the Family: For the third consecutive season, the Johns Hopkins coaching staff consists entirely of Johns Hopkins' graduates. Head coach Dave Pietramala and assistant coaches Seth Tierney (class of 1991), Bill Dwan (1991) and Pat Miller (2001) all earned their degree at JHU. Prior to the 2001 season when Pietramala, Tierney, Dwan and Howard Offit comprised the Blue Jay coaching staff, the last time the entire coaching staff was made up of JHU graduates was 1984, when the Blue Jays were coached by Don Zimmerman (1976), who was assisted by Jerry Pfeiffer (1966), Joe Devlin (1978), Fred Smith (1950), Joe Cowan (1969), and Dennis Townsend (1966).
Tough: Johns Hopkins will once again play arguably the most difficult schedule in the nation. The Blue Jays play the three other teams that advanced to the Final Four last season (Syracuse, Princeton and Virginia), all four ACC schools (Virginia, Duke, North Carolina and Maryland) and in-state rivals Towson, Loyola and Navy. All nine of those teams are ranked in the preseason top 15. Officially, JHU checked in at number three in the 2003 Face-Off Yearbook/UnderArmour Strength of Schedule Rankings.
Brother Act: The Blue Jays have three sets of brothers on this year's team and three other players whose brother previously played for Hopkins. The brothers on this year's team include Bobby Benson and Joe Benson, Michael Peyser and Greg Peyser and Todd Smith and Scott Smith. In addition, Corey Harned's older brother, Chris Harned, was an attackman for the Blue Jays from 1997-2000, while Peter LeSueur's older brother, Paul LeSueur, was a defensive middie and a captain on the 2000 team that advanced to the Final Four. Freshman defender Andrew DiConza is the younger brother of P.J. DiConza, a captain and Third Team All-America defenseman on the 2002 team.
Anytime, Anywhere: Last week's game against second-ranked Princeton was the 22nd time in the last 23 games away from Homewood Field for the Blue Jays against a team ranked in the top 15.
It's Great for Ratings: Six of JHU's 14 games last season were decided by one goal. Dating back to the 2001 season, 11 of Hopkins' last 28 games have been decided by one goal. JHU is 9-2 in those 11 games.
More Ratings: Since the beginning of the 2001 season, 20 of JHU's 28 games have been decided by three goals or less.
One-Goal Turnarounds: JHU is 9-2 in one-goal games in the last two seasons. In its previous 11 one-goal games (covering a span from 1997-2000), Hopkins was 4-7.
Another One-Goal Turnaround: JHU's nine one-goal victories in the last two years are just one less than the Blue Jays accumulated in the previous six seasons combined (1995-2000).
Younger Than You Think: A year ago, the Blue Jays started just two seniors on their way to the Final Four. While experienced, the Blue Jays are still relatively young. The Blue Jays have more sophomores (5) than seniors (4) in the starting lineup. One of those seniors, goalie Rob Scherr, actually has one more year of eligibility.
More Younger: Of the 23 players who played in the season-opener against Princeton, four were seniors (including Scherr), five were juniors, 10 were sophomores and four were freshmen.
Lucky Number Eight: Johns Hopkins started the same 10 players in all 14 games last season. Eight of those 10 players return this season. Only goalie Nick Murtha and defenseman P.J. DiConza graduated after starting last season.
Another Eight: Hopkins returns its top eight scorers from last season.
Top This: Of the 138 goals the Blue Jays scored last season, 132 (95.7%) were scored by players who are back this season.
Consider it Topped: Of the 85 assists the Blue Jays were credited with last season, 83 (97.6%) were registered by players who return this season.
Just to Make it Official: Of the 223 points Hopkins amassed last season (138 goals / 85 assists), 215 (96.4%) were registered by players who return this season.
Doing the Little Things: Through two games, Johns Hopkins holds a commanding 75-43 advantage in ground balls and has won 35-of-49 (.714) faceoffs.
