• Johns Hopkins returns home to play two games in three days at Homewood Field. JHU opens Big Ten play with a tough task as 10th-ranked Michigan comes to Baltimore on Friday. The Blue Jays are then right back at Homewood on Sunday to take on the East Carolina Pirates.
• Friday's game is the Blue Jays' fourth straight against a ranked opponent and second straight against a top-10 team.
  • The Blue Jays are 162-65-2 (.711) all-time in the month of March, including 130-53 (.710) under head coach Janine Tucker.
• Since moving to Division I in 1999, Hopkins is 112-49 (.696) in the month of March.
  • The Blue Jays are looking forward to a more traditional schedule in 2022 with 11 non-conference and six Big Ten contests. Last year, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Hopkins was unable to practice in the fall and then faced a Big Ten-only schedule in the spring, playing each Big Ten team twice.
• The 2022 schedule features 10 home games and three new opponents (VCU, East Carolina and Coastal Carolina). Seven of the Blue Jays' 2022 opponents advanced to the NCAA Tournament last season, including one which advanced to the national semifinals.
  • Head coach Janine Tucker announced in August that 2022 will be her final season at Johns Hopkins. She is in her 29th, and final, season and sports a career record of 307-174 (.638), including a 239-158 (.602) record since she successfully transitioned the program from Division III to Division I in 1999.
• The all-time winningest coach in program history, Tucker has led the Blue Jays to double-digit wins 22 times, 13 NCAA Tournament appearances and three ECAC Division I championship games. Her 307 wins are the second most by a female coach in any sport in Johns Hopkins history. In addition, she ranks seventh among all JHU coaches in career victories.
• In a career filled with thrilling victories and big moments, Tucker's most recent milestone came in 2021 as she became just the ninth coach in NCAA Division I history to reach 300 wins when her Blue Jays beat 13th-ranked Penn State, on April 18.
• Tucker was presented with the IWLCA's Diane Geppi Aikens Award in November. The award is named in honor of the legendary Loyola coach whose courageous battle with cancer inspired the nation and recognizes lifetime achievement to the women's college game.
• After a successful career as an All-American lacrosse player at Loyola, Tucker broke into the coaching ranks at her alma mater as an assistant alongside Geppi Aikens.
  • Hopkins slipped to 18th in this week's IL Women/IWLCA Poll. The Blue Jays had been ranked 16th before dropping back-to-back games to top-25 teams.
• Seven of the Blue Jays' 2022 opponents are ranked in the top-25 in this week's IL Women/IWLCA Poll, including five in the top-10.
• Hopkins has been ranked in 101 of the last 131 IWLCA Coaches Polls, beginning with the first regular season poll in 2012. 
  Several Blue Jays are making their move up the Johns Hopkins Division I record book. Here's a look at where they rank:
 
Keegan Barger (Gr. • M):
• Needs 48 draws to rank 5th (has 151)
• Needs 16 caused turnovers to rank 6th (has 67)
 
Kathleen Garvey (Gr. • GK):
• Needs 45 saves to rank 6th (has 248)
 
Shelby Harrison (Gr. • M):
• Needs 1 free position goal to rank 3rd and 4 to rank 2nd (has 31)
• Needs 4 draws to rank 1st (has 263)
 
Jeanne Kachris (Gr. • D):
• Needs 5 ground balls to rank 16th (has 103)
• Needs 1 caused turnover to rank 9th and 2 to rank 7th (has 65)
 
Annika Meyer (Sr. • D):
• Needs 4 caused turnover to rank 13th (has 56)
 
Kaitlyn Pham (Jr. • GK):
• Needs 4 saves to rank 13th and 13 to rank 12th (has 6)
  • Sixth-ranked Stony Brook used a nine-goal run to take control of the game and fuel a 16-5 win over Johns Hopkins Sunday afternoon on Long Island. 
• After falling behind by a goal early, Hopkins jumped on Stony Brook with four unanswered to grab a 4-1 lead by the 5:33-mark in the first. Jordan Carr scored twice in a 53-second span to turn the one-goal deficit into a one-goal lead. Georgie Gorelick converted a free position shot at 7:20 followed by a Shelby Harrison score to stake JHU to the 4-1 lead. Siobhan Rafferty scored with just 58 seconds left in the first quarter to spark that nine-goal Seawolves' run that spanned more than 19 minutes and saw the home team take a 10-4 lead.
• Bailey Cheetham buried a free position shot from a tough angle on the right side of the arc at 8:37 in the third to snap the Stony Brook run and cut the deficit to five. Just two minutes later, Rayna Sabella answered with a free position goal of her own, igniting a six-goal game-ending run for Stony Brook.
• Carr was the only Blue Jay with a multi-point outing with her career-best two goals. Esmond extended her point and assist streaks to seven games with her first quarter assist.
• Harrison finished with four draws to give her 263 for her career and four shy of tying Dene' DiMartino's program record (267). Kathleen Garvey posted her first double-digit save performance of the season, finishing with 12 saves.
  • A trio of Blue Jays scored their first career goals in the season-opening win versus VCU as Jordan Carr, Georgie Gorelick and Charlotte Smith all struck against the Rams.
• Junior Madison McPherson added her first career goal just 2:11 into the game versus ninth-ranked Loyola on February 19. She then tallied her first career hat trick in JHU's win over Georgetown on March 2. Senior Claire Mills also turned in her first career hat trick versus the Hoyas.
• Gorelick notched her first career hat trick last Sunday in Hopkins come-from-behind win over Drexel.
  • Senior Georgia Esmond leads the Blue Jays, ranks fourth in the Big Ten and 20th in the nation with 15 assists. In fact, she accounts for 60 percent of the team's assists (25) this season. Esmond has at least one assist in six of Hopkins' seven games this season and has had four multi-assist games.
• Just four games into the season, Esmond had already doubled her career assist total. She entered the season with nine career assists and now has 24 helpers to her credit. 
  • Hopkins and Michigan meet for the seventh time in a series that began in 2014. The Blue Jays have a 5-1 lead in the series and have won the last two meetings.
• The teams played twice last year as the Big Ten played a conference-only schedule to the Covid-19 pandemic.
  • Sunday's game is the first-ever meeting between Johns Hopkins and East Carolina as the Pirates are in just their fifth season.
  • The Blue Jays will see a familiar face on the Pirate sideline Sunday in ECU assistant coach Tianna Wallpher. She spent two seasons as a volunteer assistant at Hopkins before joining the ECU staff in August 2021.
  • Senior defender Annika Meyer has been named to the 2022 Tewaaraton Award Watch List. She is just the third Blue Jay defender to be named to the watch list and the first since Alyssa Kildare in 2012. A Hopkins women's lacrosse player has been named to the watch list 16 times in the last 19 seasons.
• Meyer was named a Big Ten Preseason Player to Watch after earning First Team All-Big Ten honors in 2021. She was also named a preseason All-American by both USA Lacrosse Magazine (Second Team) and Inside Lacrosse (Honorable Mention). 
  • Fifth-year seniors Shelby Harrison and Kathleen Garvey were also named Big Ten Preseason Players to Watch.
• Harrison, a two-time All-Big Ten selection in the midfield, returns as one of the top draw specialists in the 46-year history of the program. Garvey returns after earning Big Ten Goalie of the Year honors in 2021. She led the league in saves (129) and was second in save percentage (.436), goals against average (11.14) and saves per game (8.60).
  • Senior attacker Georgia Esmond was named the Big Ten Co-Offensive Player of the Week on February 15. This is her second weekly conference honor as she was named B1G Freshman of the Week on March 4, 2019,
• Esmond totaled a game and career-high six points and four assists, along with three ground balls in the season-opening win against VCU. Five of her six points came in an 11-minute span of the second half as the Blue Jays turned a one-goal game into a nine-goal game.
  • Freshman attacker Charlotte Smith was named the Big Ten Co-Freshman of the Week for her effort in the Blue Jays' 10-8 win at 19th-ranked Penn.
• Smith scored twice and added an assist for three points.  She is the ninth Blue Jay to earn B1G Freshman of the Week honors since Johns Hopkins joined the league in 2017.
  • Johns Hopkins was picked to finish fourth in the 2022 Big Ten Women's Lacrosse Preseason Poll of the league's seven head coaches.
• Northwestern was the unanimous pick to the win the Big Ten in 2022, followed by Maryland, Rutgers, Hopkins, Penn State, Ohio State and Michigan.
  • Fifth-year senior midfielders Keegan Barger and Shelby Harrison and senior defender Annika Meyer have been selected in a vote by their teammates as captains for the 2022 season.
• This is Barger's second turn as a captain as she was the Blue Jays' lone captain in 2021.
  • Fifth-year senior Shelby Harrison has led the team in draws in each of her four seasons and ranks second all-time in school history with 263 career draws. She notched the 200th draw of her career on February 28, 2021 versus Northwestern - in just her 47th career game. Harrison averages 3.98 draws per game in her career, the best per game average in program history. She needs just four draws to tie Dene DiMartino's all-time record of 267.  
• Harrison holds the school record for draws in a game (11) and by a freshman (91). She has had six or more draws in a game 15 times in her career.
• Fifth-year senior Keegan Barger is also a threat at the draw circle. She ranked second on the team in draws in a COVID-shortened 2020 (17) and as a freshman (54). She ranks sixth in school history with 154 career draws. and has had five or more draws in a game nine times in her career.  
  • The Blue Jay defense is third in the Big Ten and ranks 20th in the nation with 9.57 caused turnovers per game.
• In 2021, the Blue Jays led the Big Ten and ranked 14th in the nation in caused turnovers (10.00). JHU also ranked second in the league in scoring defense (11.20) and ground balls (17.60) a year ago.
• Fifth-year senior Jeanne Kachris ranks third in the Big Ten and 27th in the nation with 1.71 caused turnovers per game. She is 11th in school history with 65 career takeaways. Kachris is also tied for 17th with 103 career ground balls.
• Senior Annika Meyer ranks sixth in the league in caused turnovers (1.43) and fourth in ground balls (2.14). She has moved into the top-20 in school history in caused turnovers and currently ranks 14th with 56 career takeaways.
• Fifth-year senior Keegan Barger is the team's active career leader with 66 caused turnovers, which is tied for seventh in school Division I history. She also holds the school single-game record with seven takeaways in a game.
• Hopkins held VCU to just six goals on 15 shots in its season-opener on February 12. The Blue Jays' also forced 13 Rams' turnovers, led by Meyer's game-high four takeaways. Hopkins also forced 12 turnovers versus Loyola and 14 against Penn.
• In the come-from-behind win over Drexel, Hopkins held the Dragons scoreless for a stretch 26:07 between the second and fourth quarters.
  Six Blue Jays carry active goal, assist and/or point streaks into Friday's game versus Michigan. Here's a look at those streaks:
 
Maeve Barker (Jr. • A):
• Has at least one point in 4 straight games
 
Eliza Bowman (So. • A):
• Has at least one point in 3 straight games
• Has at least one goal in 3 straight games
• Will miss the season due to injury
 
Georgia Esmond (Sr. • A):
• Has at least one point in 7 straight games
• Has at least one assist in 5 straight games
 
Georgie Gorelick (So. • A):
• Has at least one point in 3 straight games
• Has at least one goal in 3 straight games
 
Shelby Harrison (Gr. • M):
• Has at least one point in 5 straight games
• Has at least one goal in 5 straight games
 
Madison McPherson (Jr. • M):
• Has at least one point in 6 straight games
  • The Blue Jays welcome back four seniors from last year's squad in Keegan Barger, Kat Garvey, Shelby Harrison and Jeanne Kachris. After the 2020 season was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the NCAA granted all spring athletes an extra year of eligibility.
  • Head coach Janine Tucker welcomed eight freshmen to the team this season. Joining Hopkins are Hadley Boston, Paris Colgain, Jordan Conversano, Alayna Costa, Ashley Mackin, Annie Marshall, Quinlan O'Brien and Charlotte Smith.
• Colgain was ranked #17 by Inside Lacrosse while Boston was named to the Watch List.
  • Under head coach Janine Tucker, the Blue Jays are 139-70 (.665) within the friendly confines of Homewood Field and the Jays are 48-24 (.667) at home since the start of the 2014 season.
• Hopkins will play 10 of its 17 regular season games at Homewood this spring. 
  • Johns Hopkins will play  three nationally-televised games this season. Hopkins' games versus Maryland (April 2) and Ohio State (April 23) will be televised by ESPNU while JHU's game at Penn State (April 28) will air on the Big Ten Network.
• In addition, Hopkins' games at Penn (Feb. 26), Navy (Mar. 10) and Stony Brook (Mar. 13) will be shown on ESPN+
  • This marks the 47th season for Johns Hopkins, which sports an all-time record of 457-294-4 (.608) and a 239-157 (.603) record as a Division I program.
• The Blue Jays have posted 35 winning seasons, including 21 straight from 1987 to 2007. Hopkins has also made 18 NCAA Tournament appearances, including nine in the Division I Tournament (2004, 2005, 2007, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2018, 2019, 2021).
  • Hopkins travels to the Garden State on Saturday, March 26 to take on 12th-ranked Rutgers. Opening draw at SHI Stadium is slated for 5:00 pm.