• Johns Hopkins returns to Big Ten play this weekend as the Blue Jays travel to the Garden State to take on 13th-ranked Rutgers Saturday night.
• Hopkins is coming off a 14-7 win over East Carolina on Sunday at Homewood Field. That win snapped a three-game losing streak for the Blue Jays.
• The Scarlet Knights are the seventh ranked opponent the Jays have faced so far this season - in 10 games.
• Saturday's game is Hopkins' 300th since the program moved to Division I in 1999.
  • The Blue Jays are 163-66-2 (.709) all-time in the month of March, including 131-54 (.708) under head coach Janine Tucker.
• Since moving to Division I in 1999, Hopkins is 113-50 (.693) 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 308-175 (.638), including a 240-159 (.601) 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 308 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 dropped to 20th in this week's IL Women/IWLCA Poll.
• Seven of the Blue Jays' 2022 opponents are ranked in the top-25 in this week's IL Women/IWLCA Poll, including four in the top-10 (Maryland, Northwestern, Stony Brook, Loyola).
• The Blue Jays boast the second toughest schedule in the nation this season. JHU's opponents have a combined win percentage of 69.4. Only Northwestern's strength of schedule (71.7) is higher.
• Hopkins has been ranked in 102 of the last 132 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 6 ground balls to rank 17th (has 101)
• Needs 41 draws to rank 5th (has 161)
• Needs 12 caused turnovers to rank 6th (has 71)
 
Kathleen Garvey (Gr. • GK):
• Needs 30 saves to rank 6th (has 263)
 
Shelby Harrison (Gr. • M):
• Needs 1 free position goal to rank 3rd and 4 to rank 2nd (has 31)
• Needs 1 draw contro to break record (has 267)
 
Jeanne Kachris (Gr. • D):
• Needs 1 ground ball to rank 16th and 8 to rank 15th (has 107)
• Needs 12 caused turnovers to rank 6th (has 71)
 
Annika Meyer (Sr. • D):
• Needs 6 caused turnovers to rank 13th (has 56)
 
Kaitlyn Pham (Jr. • GK):
• Needs 4 saves to rank 13th and 13 to rank 12th (has 6)
  • Fifth-year senior Shelby Harrison tied the Johns Hopkins record for career draw controls on Sunday in the Blue Jays' win over East Carolina. She enters Saturday's game at Rutgers with 267 career draws, matching Dene' DiMartino's (2013-16) mark.
• Harrison ranks 14th among all active players in the nation, and second among players in the Big Ten, with her 267 draws.
• Harrison has led the team in draws in each of her four seasons and notched the 200th draw of her career on February 28, 2021 versus Northwestern - in just her 47th career game. She averages 3.92 draws per game in her career, the best per game average in program history.  
• 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 161 career draws. and has had five or more draws in a game nine times in her career.  
  • Madison McPherson and Shelby Harrison combined for nine goals, including seven in the second half, to lead Johns Hopkins to a 14-7 win over ECU Sunday at Homewood Field.
• This one was tight early as the teams traded goals over the opening 16 minutes of the game. With the game still tied at three late in the second quarter, it became the Harrison and McPherson show. The duo combined for eight goals in less than 10 minutes in a run that bridged halftime.
• Leah Bestany and Erin Gulden snapped the run with back-to-back goals to pull the Pirates back within four. But Harrison and McPherson weren't done yet, scoring back-to-back goals to put JHU up 11-5 after three.
• The Blue Jays picked up right where they left off, scoring two goals in 53 seconds early in the fourth to push out to an eight-goal advantage. ECU again answered with two quick goals to cut the deficit to six with 10:01 to play. But that's as close as they Pirates would get. Alayna Costa scored on a left-handed shot to cap the scoring with 4:27 to play.
• McPherson led the Blue Jays with her career-high five goals, all of which came in the second half. She is the first Blue Jays with five goals in a half since Nicole DeMase turned the trick versus Rutgers on March 23, 2019. Harrison added four goals and three draw controls to tie Dene' DiMartino's program record for career draws (267).
  • 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 25th in the nation with 16 assists. In fact, she accounts for 51.6 percent of the team's assists (31) this season. Esmond has at least one assist in seven of Hopkins' nine 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 25 helpers to her credit. 
  • Hopkins and Rutgers meet for the eighth time in a series that began in 2015. The Blue Jays have a 6-1 lead in the series and the teams split the meetings last season. Rutgers beat Hopkins for the first time in series history at Homewood last February but JHU responded with a win in Piscataway in April. 
• The teams played twice last year as the Big Ten played a conference-only schedule to the Covid-19 pandemic.
  • 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.
  • The Blue Jay defense is third in the Big Ten and ranks 25th in the nation with 9.33 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 second in the Big Ten and 10th in the nation with 2.00 caused turnovers per game. She is tied for seventh in school history with 71 career takeaways and also ranks 17th with 107 career ground balls.
• Fifth-year senior Keegan Barger is tied with Kachris for seventh in JHU history with 71 caused turnovers. She also holds the school single-game record with seven takeaways in a game. She ranks 11th in the conference with 1.89 ground balls per game. Kachris and Barger rank 14th among all active Division I players with 71 career caused turnovers.
• Senior Annika Meyer ranks eighth in the league in caused turnovers (1.22) and fourth in ground balls (2.22). She has moved into the top-20 in school history in caused turnovers and currently ranks 14th with 56 career takeaways.
• Sophomore Cameron Levine is third on the team and is tied for ninth in the Big Ten with 1.11 caused turnovers per 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.
• In the come-from-behind win over Drexel, Hopkins held the Dragons scoreless for a stretch 26:07 between the second and fourth quarters. This past Sunday, Hopkins held ECU scoreless for nearly 22 minutes in a drought that spanned the second and third quarters.
  • 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.
  Five Blue Jays carry active goal, assist and/or point streaks into Saturday's game at Rutgers. Here's a look at those streaks:
 
Maeve Barker (Jr. • A):
• Has at least one point in 6 straight games
• Has at least one goal in 2 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 9 straight games
 
Shelby Harrison (Gr. • M):
• Has at least one point in 7 straight games
• Has at least one goal in 7 straight games
 
Madison McPherson (Jr. • M):
• Has at least one point in 8 straight games
• Has at least one goal in 2 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 140-71 (.663) within the friendly confines of Homewood Field and the Jays are 49-25 (.662) 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 458-295-4 (.607) and a 240-159 (.601) 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 returns to Homewood Field to take on UMBC Tuesday, March 29. The non-conference contest is slated for a 4:00 pm start.