• Johns Hopkins returns to Homewood Field to take on UMBC in non-conference action Tuesday afternoon.
• The Blue Jays are coming off a heartbreaking 12-11 loss at 13th-ranked Rutgers Saturday. The Retrievers  are riding a three-game win streak in which they have outscored their opponents, 59-31.
  • The Blue Jays are 163-67-2 (.707) all-time in the month of March, including 131-55 (.706) under head coach Janine Tucker.
• Since moving to Division I in 1999, Hopkins is 113-51 (.689) 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 308-176 (.636), including a 240-160 (.600) 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 is ranked 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 third toughest schedule in the nation this season. JHU's opponents have a combined win percentage of 68.6. Only Northwestern (69.5) and Penn State (68.9) have tougher schedules.  
• Hopkins has been ranked in 103 of the last 133 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 102)
• Needs 41 draws to rank 5th (has 161)
• Needs 1 caused turnover to rank 7th and 12 caused turnovers to rank 6th (has 71)
 
Kathleen Garvey (Gr. • GK):
• Needs 25 saves to rank 6th (has 268)
 
Shelby Harrison (Gr. • M):
• Needs 20 free position goals to rank 1st (has 35)
• Needs 1 caused turnover to rank 19th and 2 to rank 18th (had 48)
 
Jeanne Kachris (Gr. • D):
• Needs 6 ground balls to rank 15th (has 109)
• Needs 11 caused turnovers to rank 6th (has 72)
 
Annika Meyer (Sr. • D):
• Needs 5 caused turnovers to rank 13th (has 57)
• Needs 1 ground ball to rank 20th, 2 to rank 19th and 3 to rank 18th (has 99)
 
Kaitlyn Pham (Jr. • GK):
• Needs 4 saves to rank 13th and 13 to rank 12th (has 6)
  • Fifth-year senior Shelby Harrison became Johns Hopkins all-time leader in draw controls on Saturday at Rutgers. She won the game's opening draw, the 268th of her career, to break Dene' DiMartino's (2013-16) record. Harrison finished with a game-high seven draws. It was the 24th time in her career (69 games) that she has had five or more draws.
• Harrison ranks 14th among all active players in the nation, and second among players in the Big Ten, with her 274 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 3.97 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.  
  • Host and 13th-ranked Rutgers scored with just six ticks left to beat Johns Hopkins Saturday afternoon in Big Ten action.
• Shelby Harrison gave the Blue Jays the early lead with a free position goal at 13:25, but the Scarlet Knights answered with back-to-back goals to take a 2-1 lead at the 10:47-mark. Harrison then sparked a three-goal Hopkins run that saw the Blue Jays grab a 4-2 lead with 6:59 to play in the first. Stephanie Kelly ended the Blue Jays' run and cut the deficit to one at 1:38 but Charlotte Smith answered with just 16 seconds left to stake Hopkins to a 5-3 lead after one.
• Rutgers scored twice in a 16-second span early in the second to knot the score at five. Hopkins responded with four goals in a run that bridged halftime and gave the Blue Jays a 9-5 lead. Cassidy Spilis bookended a three-goal spurt by the Scarlet Knights, that ended a scoreless drought of nearly 21 minutes and cut the lead to one after three.
• Madison McPherson pushed the lead back to two when she scored on the run from the right alley just 52 seconds into the fourth quarter. The Scarlet Knights answered with another three-goal run to take an 11-10 lead with 3:45 to play. McPherson scored her second straight and tied the game with 2:23 left, beating her defender and scoring on a bouncer to the far post. But it was TT Naslonski that had the final say of the game as she scored with just six seconds left to win it for the Scarlet Knights.
• Harrison finished with a game-high seven draws, four goals, three ground balls and a caused turnover. McPherson notched her second straight hat trick and third on the season while Maeve Barker also had a two-point day (1g, 1a). Bailey Cheetham and Camerone Levine had four ground balls each, while Cheetham also had two takeaways.
  • 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 and ranks fourth in the Big Ten  with 16 assists. In fact, she accounts for 48.5 percent of the team's assists (33) this season. Esmond has at least one assist in seven of Hopkins' 10 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 UMBC meet for the 32nd time in a series that began in 1976. The Blue Jays lead the series, 16-13-2, and have won seven straight. In fact, JHU is 13-2 against UMBC under head coach Janine Tucker.
• The Blue Jays and Retrievers last met in 2019, a 17-7 win by JHU at Homewood Field. The two were slated to meet on March 16, 2020 - just a few days before the season was suspended due 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 ranks fourth in the Big Ten and 28th in the nation with 9.00 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 20th in the nation with 1.80 caused turnovers per game. She is seventh in school history and 14th among all active Division I players with 72 career caused turnovers. Kachris also ranks 16th in JHU history with 109 career ground balls.
• Fifth-year senior Keegan Barger ranks eighth in JHU history with 71 caused turnovers. She also holds the school single-game record with seven takeaways in a game and is 15th among all active Division I players in career caused turnovers.
• Senior Annika Meyer ranks ninth in the league in caused turnovers (1.20) and seventh in ground balls (2.20). She ranks 14th in program history with 56 career takeaways and needs just one ground ball to move into the top-20.
• 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. On Saturday, Hopkins held Rutgers scoreless for nearly 21 minutes in a drought that spanned the second and thir 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 Tuesday's game versus UMBC. Here's a look at those streaks:
 
Maeve Barker (Jr. • A):
• Has at least one point in 7 straight games
• Has at least one goal in 3 straight games
• Has at least one assist 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
 
Shelby Harrison (Gr. • M):
• Has at least one point in 8 straight games
• Has at least one goal in 8 straight games
 
Madison McPherson (Jr. • M):
• Has at least one point in 9 straight games
• Has at least one goal in 3 straight games
 
Charlotte Smith (Fr. • A):
• Has at least one point in 2 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 458-296-4 (.607) and a 240-160 (.600) 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 on Saturday afternoon to take on eighth-ranked Maryland. The Big Ten contest is slated for a 12:00 pm start and will be televised on ESPNU.