The Game
«  Johns Hopkins (8-7) heads to seventh-seeded Notre Dame (8-6) to take on the Fighting Irish in the first round of the NCAA Division I Men's Lacrosse Tournament.
«  The Blue Jays and Fighting Irish are both coming off runner-up finishes in their respective conference tournaments as Johns Hopkins fell to top-ranked Penn State, 18-17 in overtime, in the Big Ten Championship game, while Notre Dame dropped a 10-4 decision to fourth-ranked Virginia in the ACC final.

What's Next
«  The winner of the Johns Hopkins-Notre Dame game advances to the NCAA Quarterfinals at Hofstra on Saturday, May 18.  The Johns Hopkins-Notre Dame winner will play the winner of the first-round game between Richmond and second-seeded Duke.

The Facts
«  This is the 132nd season of Johns Hopkins men's lacrosse.  JHU first fielded a team in 1883.
«  Johns Hopkins enters this week's game with an all-time record of 991-341-15.
«  JHU owns 44 national championships with nine NCAA titles, 29 USILA titles and six ILA crowns to its credit.

Poll Position
«  Johns Hopkins is ranked 10th in both the USILA Coaches Poll and the Inside Lacrosse Media Poll.  These are the two official in-season polls conducted throughout the regular season.
«  Notre Dame is ranked ninth in both the USILA Coaches Poll and the Inside Lacrosse Media Poll.  Both complete polls can be found on page 14.
«  The game against Notre Dame will be Johns Hopkins' sixth straight against a team ranked in the top 10 in the nation at the time of the game.
«  This week's game will be Johns Hopkins' ninth of the season against a team ranked in this week's USILA Top 20.

Series History
«  This week's game will be the sixth game in a series that dates to a 15-7 Johns Hopkins win in 1992.
«  JHU leads the all-time series 4-1 and all five previous meetings also came in the NCAA Tournament.
«  The Blue Jays picked up wins against Notre Dame in the first round of the NCAAs in 1992 (15-7), 1996 (12-7) and 2007 (11-10 in overtime) and in the quarterfinals in 2000 (15-11).
«  Notre Dame scored its only win over Johns Hopkins in the 2001 quarterfinals (13-9).
«  In each of the three years that Johns Hopkins played Notre Dame in the first round of the NCAAs, the Blue Jays advanced to the Final Four.
«  The Blue Jays have scored at least nine goals in every game against Notre Dame and 12+ in three of the five.

National-Best 47th NCAA Appearance
«  Johns Hopkins is making its NCAA-record 47th appearance in the NCAA Tournament.  Only one other team (Maryland-42) has qualified for 40 or more of the 49 all-time NCAA Division I Men's Lacrosse Tournaments since the first one in 1971.

71 All-Time NCAA Tournament Victories
«  Johns Hopkins boasts a record 71 all-time wins in the NCAA Tournament.  Including last season's 1-1 mark in the NCAAs, JHU is 71-37 (.657) all-time in the NCAAs.

First Round Success
«  This week's game at Notre Dame will be Johns Hopkins' 20th all-time in the first round of the tournament.  The Blue Jays are 15-4 all-time in the first round.

For What It's Worth
«  This week's game will be JHU's 16th game of the season. Not including their games against JHU, the Blue Jays' first 15 opponents are a combined 138-62 (.690) through games of May 5.  That ranks as the highest opponent winning percentage in the nation. 

Against the ACC
«  This week's game against Notre Dame will be the 226th all-time for Johns Hopkins against a team currently in the ACC.
«  Johns Hopkins is 133-90-2 (.596) all-time against current ACC members.

Against the ACC - in the NCAAs
«  Johns Hopkins has played 52 all-time NCAA Tournament games against current ACC teams.  The Blue Jays are 28-24 all-time in the NCAAs against the five teams currently competing in the ACC.

Doing the Little Things
« In the last 13 games, JHU is 211-of-240 (.879) on clears and has won 204-of-360 (.567) faceoffs.  This is a big improvement from the Blue Jays' first two games of the season, when they were 28-of-40 (.700) on clears and 25-of-61 (.417) on faceoffs in losses to Towson and Loyola.

Lending a Hand]
«  Through 15 games, 113 of Johns Hopkins' 185 goals have been assisted ... that's 61.1%.  By comparison, JHU collected assists on 62.3% of its goals last season.
«  For the record, the last time Johns Hopkins assisted on better than 65% of its goals for an entire season was in 2003, when the Blue Jays totaled 151 assists on 224 goals (67.4%).

Spreading it Around
«  Johns Hopkins has 19 different goal-scorers and 23 different players have registered at least one point through 15 games.

Scoring is Up
«  Johns Hopkins scored 16 goals at Maryland on April 27 and topped that with a 17-goal outburst against top-ranked Penn State in the Big Ten Championship game.
«  JHU is averaging 12.33 goals per game and has scored 12+ in nine of 15 games, including six of the last seven.

Class Act
«  Johns Hopkins has scored 185 goals and collected 113 assists for 298 points through 15 games with a strong balance in the scoring breakdown among the four classes.
«  Blue Jay freshmen lead the way with 54 goals and 82 points, while the team's juniors lead the way with 30 assists.
«  The balance in scoring has been remarkable as each class has totaled at least 30 goals and 59 points through 15 games.  The freshman, junior and senior classes all have at least 78 points in 15 games.

Non-Offensive Scoring
«  With the addition of a shot clock this season, the pace of play has quickened and has resulted in more transition lacrosse.  This has resulted in more scoring for Johns Hopkins' non-offensive players.
«  Through 15 games, non-offensive players  (defensemen, long & short-stick defensive middies, faceoff specialists & goalies) have accumulated 13 goals and 19 assists (32 points) for the Blue Jays.
«  By comparison, in 17 games last season, the Blue Jays' non-offensive players totaled 10 goals and 7 assists (17 points).

In Case We Get The
«  Johns Hopkins is 27-17 (.614) in overtime under the direction of head coach Dave Pietramala.  JHU's last overtime game came in the championship game of the Big Ten Tournament this season.  The Blue Jays dropped an 18-17 decision to top-ranked Penn State in that game.
«  Johns Hopkins has won seven of its last 11 overtime games.

One-Goal Wonders
«  Including the 18-17 overtime loss to Penn State on May 4, Johns Hopkins is 56-28 (.667) in one-goal games under head coach Dave Pietramala.
«  The Blue Jays were 4-1 in one-goal games in 2018 and are 6-3 in their last nine one-goal games.

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