• Johns Hopkins returns to Homewood Field to take on Ohio State in the Blue Jays' final regular season home game of the season.
• Hopkins is coming off a 19-12 loss at third-ranked Northwestern last weekend.
• The Blue Jays will honor three classes on Saturday.
At halftime, five members of the Class of 2020 will be recognized after their senior season was cancelled due to Covid-19. JHU will then honor its four graduate students and 11 seniors after the game.
• Saturday's game is also the final home game for head coach Janine Tucker as she is set to retired after the season.
  • The Blue Jays are 223-161-2 (.580) all-time in the month of April, including 117-71 (.622) under head coach Janine Tucker.
• Since moving to Division I in 1999, Hopkins is 76-64 (.543) in the month of April.
  • Three of Hopkins' losses this season have come by just one or two goals to ranked opponents.
• JHU lost in overtime at 25th-ranked Navy on March 10 and then dropped a tough two-goal decision to 10th-ranked Michigan eight days later. Hopkins fell by just one goal at 13th-ranked Rutgers (March 26).
• In addition, two of the Blue Jays' wins have come by one or two goals. Hopkins beat host and 19th-ranked Penn (February 26) by two goals. On April 6, JHU beat host Towson in overtime.
  • 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 311-178 (.636), including a 243-162 (.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 311 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 receiving votes in both the IL Women/IWLCA Poll and USA Lacrosse Magazine 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 10th toughest schedule in the nation this season. JHU's opponents have a combined win percentage of 64.2.  
• Hopkins has been ranked in 105 of the last 136 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 2 ground ball to rank 18th and 4 to rank 17th (has 106)
• Needs 39 draws to rank 5th (has 163)
• Needs 4 caused turnovers to rank 7th (has 75)
 
Kathleen Garvey (Gr. • GK):
• Needs 11 saves to rank 4th and 73 to rank 3rd (has 326)
 
Shelby Harrison (Gr. • M):
• Needs 10 goals to reach 100 for her career (has 90)
• Needs 13 free position goals to rank 1st (has 42)
• Needs 3 caused turnovers to rank 15th (had 52)
 
Jeanne Kachris (Gr. • D):
• Needs 3 ground balls to rank 13th, 4 to rank 12th and 8 to rank 11th (has 121)
• Needs 4 caused turnovers to rank 6th (has 79)
 
Annika Meyer (Sr. • D):
• Needs 1 caused turnover to rank 10th, 2 to rank 9th and 10 to rank 8th (has 65)
• Needs 5 ground balls to rank 16th and 7 to rank 15th (has 110)
 
Kaitlyn Pham (Jr. • GK):
• Needs 2 saves to rank 13th and 11 to rank 12th (has 8)
  • With her first goal just 2:02 into the third quarter on Saturday, Shelby Harrison became the 26th player in school Division I history, and 44th all-time, to score 100 career points.
• Harrison also needs 10 goals to score 100 for her career. She would be the 16th in school DI history to reach the mark, and 30th all-time. 
  • Kathleen Garvey notched her 300th career save in the win at Towson (April 6). She is the sixth goalie in school Division I history, and 10th all-time, to reach the mark.
• Garvey ranks fifth in JHU DI history with 326 career saves and is ninth all-time. She also leads all active goalies in the Big Ten in career saves.
  • 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.
  • Inside Lacrosse released its Midseason All-America Teams on Thursday and three Blue Jays were named to Honorable Mention - fifth-year seniors Shelby Harrison and Jeanne Kachris and senior Annika Meyer.
• Harrison leads the Blue Jays in goals (34), free position goals (15) and draws (50) and is tied for first in points (36). She is ninth in the Big Ten in draws per game (3.33).
• Kachris leads Hopkins with a career-high 25 caused turnovers and is also second in ground balls (29). She ranks second in the league in caused turnovers per game (1.67) and is ninth in ground balls per game (1.93).
• Meyer is JHU's leader in ground balls (32) and is second in caused turnovers (20). She is sixth in the Big Ten in ground balls per game (2.13) and fifth in caused turnovers per game (1.33).
  • Fifth-year senior Shelby Harrison became Johns Hopkins all-time leader in draw controls at Rutgers (March 26). 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 26 draws.
• Harrison has led the team in draws in each of her five seasons and notched the 200th draw of her career on February 28, 2021 versus Northwestern - in just her 47th career game. She averages 3.86 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).
• 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 163 career draws. and has had five or more draws in a game nine times in her career.  
• Senior Mia Farnella has emerged as a draw specialist this season and ranks second on the team with 30 daws (2.73 per game). She entered the season with nine career draw controls.
  • Northwestern used a third-quarter seven-goal run to take control en route to a 19-12 win over Johns Hopkins Saturday afternoon in Evanston.
• With the game tied at eight in the third quarter, Brennan Dwyer sparked that seven-goal run with a free position goal at the 9:47-mark. Six different Wildcats scored during the run that saw NU go up 15-8 after three.
• Northwestern jumped out to a 3-0 lead but a pair of Abbey Hurlbrink goals in an 81-second span cut the deficit to one with 3:56 to play in the first. Erin Coykendall put the Cats back up by two, but Madison McPherson went coast-to-coast after grabbing a rebound on the defensive end and beat Madison Doucette on the doorstep. Dwyer answered with 52 seconds left in the quarter to put NU up 5-3 after one.
• The Wildcats pushed their lead to three with 9:28 to play in the second. The Blue Jays answered with three goals in a three-minute span to knot the score at six. Lauren Gilbert had the final say of the half however, scoring with just 0.8 seconds remaining to give NU the lead at the break.
• Shelby Harrison didn't need long to tie the game up in the third as she dodged to the cage off a restart and scored from in-tight. Coykendall put the Cats back on top with a free position goal but George Gorelick answered for the Blue Jays, tying the game at eight with 10:33 to go in the third. Northwestern responded with that game-changing seven-goal run.
• Harrison ended the run at the 8:41-mark in the fourth but NU answered with a three-goal spurt to push the lead to 18-9 with 6:35 to play. Gorelick got one back for the Blue Jays when she dodged from behind, spun on her defender and scored from the doorstep. Greta Stahl answered less than a minute later to stake the Cats to a 19-10 lead with 3:47 on the clock. McPherson would score twice in a 59-second span to make it a 19-12 final. 
• Gorelick (2g, 1a), Claire Mills (2g, 1a) and McPherson (3g) led the Blue Jays with three-points each. McPherson also had three ground balls and a caused turnover to go with her hat trick. Annika Meyer had two takeaways to go with three ground balls, while Jeanne Kachris also had three ground balls. Kathleen Garvey finished with 12 saves in the cage for her fourth double digit save performance in the last five games.
  • Fifth-year Shelby Harrison leads the Blue Jays with a career-high 15 free position goals. She ranks second in the Big Ten and 18th in the nation in free position goals (1.00/game).
• Harrison ranks second all-time in school history with 42 free position goals. Her 15 fpg this season are tied for the second most in school single-season history and are five shy of Dene DiMartino's single season record (20 / 2016).
• Junior Madison McPherson is second on the team with a career-high seven free position goals. She also ranks 10th in the conference with 0.50 per game.
  • Junior middie Madison McPherson is having a breakout season on the offensive end of the field for the Blue Jays. After playing a primarily defense role in her first two seasons, she made the transition to more of a two-way middie.
• McPherson had tallied just one point in her first two seasons (17 games). This season, she ranks second on the team in goals (26), third in points (29) and sixth in assists (3). She also leads the team in shooting percentage (.510) and is second in free position goals (7).
  • Fifth-years Keegan Barger, Shelby Harrison and Jeanne Kachris have played in 74 games in their career - three shy of Maggie Schneidereith's school record (77 / 2017-21).
• In addition, Barger and Kachris have started all 74
•  games of their career. Schneidereith also holds the record for career starts (77).
  • A trio of Blue Jays - Jordan Carr, Georgie Gorelick and Charlotte Smith - scored their first career goals in the season-opening win versus VCU.
• Junior Madison McPherson scored her first career goal just 2:11 into the game versus ninth-ranked Loyola (February 19). She then tallied her first career hat trick in JHU's win over Georgetown (March 2). Senior Claire Mills also turned in her first career hat trick versus the Hoyas.
• Gorelick notched her first career hat trick in Hopkins come-from-behind win over Drexel (March 6).
• Four Blue Jays had career firsts in the win over the UMBC Retrievers (March 29). Fifth-year defender Jeanne Kachris scored her first career goal. Sophomores Jordan Carr, Cameron Levine and Marielle McAteer each notched their first career assist.
• Sophomore Liza Regan tallied her first career assist and freshman Ashley Mackin scored her first career goal in Sunday's win over Coastal Carolina.
• Kachris handed out her first career assist on Saturday at Northwestern.
  • Senior Georgia Esmond leads the Blue Jays and ranks fifth in the Big Ten  with 22 assists. She has at least one assist in 10 of Hopkins' 15 games this season and has had five 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 31 helpers to her credit. 
  • Hopkins and Ohio State meet for the 21st time in a series that began in 2002, with the inception of the American Lacrosse Conference.
• The Blue Jays lead the series, 14-6, and have won five straight over the Buckeyes. JHU is 8-1 aginst Ohio State at Homewood Field. Last season's two meeings in Columbus were decided by a total of just two goals.  
  Eight Blue Jays carry active goal, assist and/or point streaks into Saturday's game versus Ohio State. In fact, three Blue Jays have a point-scoring streak in double digits. Here's a look at those streaks:
 
Maeve Barker (Jr. • A):
• Has at least one point in 12 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
 
Jordan Carr (So. • M):
• Has at least one point in 4 straight games
• Has at least one goal in 2 straight games
 
Bailey Cheetham (Jr. • M):
• Has at least one point in 6 straight games
 
Georgie Gorelick (So. • M):
• Has at least one point in 2 straight games
• Has at least one goal in 2 straight games
 
Shelby Harrison (Gr. • M):
• Has at least one point in 13 straight games
• Has at least one goal in 13 straight games
 
Abbey Hurlbrink (So. • M):
• Has at least one point in 3 straight games
• Has at least one goal in 3 straight games
 
Madison McPherson (Jr. • M):
• Has at least one point in 13 straight games
• Has at least one goal in 7 straight games
  • 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. She finished with 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 (February 26). She scored twice and added an assist for three points.
  • The Blue Jay defense ranks third in the Big Ten and 21st in the nation with 9.27 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 seventh in school history and 12th among all active Division I players with 79 career caused turnovers. She is second in the Big Ten in caused turnovers (1.67/game). She is also tied for 14th in JHU history with 121 career ground balls. Kachris is 19th among all active Division I players in ground balls.
• Fifth-year senior Keegan Barger ranks eighth in JHU history, and is 14th among all active players in Division I, with 75 caused turnovers. She also holds the school single-game record with seven takeaways in a game.
• Senior Annika Meyer ranks fifth in the league in caused turnovers (1.33) and sixth in ground balls (2.13). She ranks 12th in program history with 65 career takeaways and is 17th with 110 career ground balls.
• Hopkins held VCU to just six goals on 15 shots in its season-opener (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 (March 6), Hopkins held the Dragons scoreless for a stretch of 26:07 between the second and fourth quarters. Hopkins held ECU (March 20) scoreless for nearly 22 minutes in a drought that spanned the second and third quarters. Last Saturday, JHU held Rutgers scoreless for nearly 21 minutes in a drought that spanned the second and third quarters. And on March 29, the Blue Jays held the UMBC Retrievers scoreless for a span of 17:26 in the second and third quarters.
• On April 6, Hopkins held Towson scoreless for 18:30, a drought that spanned the first to third quarters. 
  • 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.
  • 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 142-72 (.663) within the friendly confines of Homewood Field and the Jays are 51-26 (.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 on 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 461-298-4 (.607) and a 243-162 (.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 wraps up the regular season on Thursday, April 28 at Penn State. Opening draw at Panzer Stadium is slated for 6:00 pm.