The Game
« Johns Hopkins (1-1) returns to Homewood Field and welcomes ninth-ranked North Carolina (3-0) for an early-season non-conference game. 
« The Blue Jays suffered their first loss of the 2020 season last Saturday as Hopkins dropped a 10-7 decision at Loyola.  North Carolina ran its season-opening winning streak to three games as the Tar Heels topped Lafayette, 24-8, at home last Saturday.

The Facts
«  This is the 133rd 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 992-343-15.
«  JHU owns 44 national championships with nine NCAA titles, 29 USILA titles and six ILA crowns to its credit.

In February
«  This week's game against North Carolina will be the 43rd all-time for Johns Hopkins in the month of February.
«  JHU is 29-13 (.690) all-time in games played in the month of February.
«  Johns Hopkins played its first game in the month of February in 1998, didn't play again in February until 2004 and has now played at least one game in the opening month of the season every year since 2006.

Poll Position
«  Johns Hopkins is ranked 15th in this week's USILA Coaches Poll and also sits at 15th in the Inside Lacrosse Media Poll.  North Carolina is ranked ninth in the USILA Coaches Poll and seventh in the Inside Lacrosse Media Poll this week.

Series History
«  This week's game will be the 49th between Johns Hopkins and North Carolina.  The series dates to a 16-9 Blue Jay victory in the 1977 NCAA Quarterfinals at Homewood Field.
«  JHU leads the all-time series 26-22 and grabbed an 11-10 win last season in the pouring rain in Chapel Hill.
«  The visiting team has won the last four games and five of the last six.]
«  Complete series history can be found on page 13.

On This Date
«  Johns Hopkins has played two games all-time on February 22 with wins against Delaware in 2011 (18-5) and Michigan in 2014 (14-5).
«  In the 2011 victory against the Blue Hens, Johns Hopkins got four goals and three assists from sophomore attackman Zach Palmer, while it was a 12-1 game-opening run and a 19-save performance from Eric Schneider that fueled the win over the Wolverines three years later.

Johns Hopkins-UNC Ties
«  Johns Hopkins head coach Dave Pietramala and North Carolina head coach Joe Breschi were both members of the 1994 United States National Team that won the FIL World Championship.
«  The head coach at North Carolina during the Tar Heels' 1981, 1982 and 1986 NCAA Championship seasons was Willie Scroggs, who played at Johns Hopkins from 1967-69 for legendary Blue Jay coach Bob Scott.  JHU won the USILA National Championship in each of Scroggs' three varsity seasons.

A Tough Stretch
«  With this week's game against North Carolina, the Blue Jays begin a three-game run against teams that are all currently unbeaten.
«  The Tar Heels will carry a 3-0 record into this week's game, while games against Princeton (2-0) and Syracuse (2-0) follow for Johns Hopkins.

Defense Stepping Up
«  A year ago, the Blue Jay defense allowed an average of 13 goals per game.  Through two games this season, Johns Hopkins has allowed a total of just 17 goals.  This is the fewest goals Johns Hopkins has allowed through the first two games of a season since 2017 (13).
«  In just two games this season, the Johns Hopkins defense has held the opposition scoreless for long stretches.  Against Towson, the Tigers went without scoring for stretches of 17:42, 13:36 and 15:18.  Despite the loss, the Blue Jays also held Loyola off the board for periods of 11:55 and 11:37.
«  The Johns Hopkins defense features two new starters on close defense, a new regular at the #1 LSM spot and a freshman at the other and three of four SSDMs seeing the first extensive playing time of their career.

Zinn, Degnon Off to Quick Starts
«  A year ago, Evan Zinn had nine points in 16 games as a freshman and classmate Garrett Degnon didn't register a point in three games.  Things have changed drastically in one year as the two have combined for eight goals and four assists in two games this season.
«  Degnon recorded the first hat trick of his career, which of course were the first three goals of his career - in the win against Towson and added two goals and one assist at Loyola.
«  Zinn had two goals and one assist against Towson and then flipped that with a goal and two helpers at Loyola.

Extra-Extra
«  Johns Hopkins finished fifth in the nation in extra-man offense last season as the Blue Jays converted on 26-of-57 (.456) EMO chances and opened the 2020 season by converting on 1-of-2 against Towson before an 0-for-3 showing against Loyola.
«  Players who totaled 19 of last season's 26 extra-man goals return as Joey Epstein (6), Alex Concannon (6), Forry Smith (4) and Luke Shilling (3) were all part of the Blue Jay EMO unit in 2019.
«  Clicking at better than 40% on extra-man is nothing new for the Blue Jays as JHU has converted on 40% or better in seven of the last eight years and nine of 13 seasons under offensive coordinator Bobby Benson.

Against the ACC
«  This week's game against North Carolina will be the 227th all-time for Johns Hopkins against a team currently in the ACC.
«  Johns Hopkins is 133-91-2 (.593) all-time against current ACC members.
]«  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.

Strength of Schedule
«  Johns Hopkins will play 13 regular season games against teams that compiled a combined record of 119-76 (.610) in 2019.
«  Six of the first seven teams on the Blue Jays' 2020 schedule posted winning records in 2019 and the seventh (Princeton), went 7-7 (.500).  In all, 10 of JHU's 13 opponents this season finished with a record of .500 or better (nine were above .500).
«  JHU will not play a team that finished under .500 last season until visiting Navy (6-7) on March 14.  Two of the three teams on JHU's 2020 schedule that finished under .500 last season were just one game under (Navy, Rutgers).

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 2019 Big Ten Tournament.  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, 2019, 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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