The Game
• Johns Hopkins (6-8, 2-3 B1G) welcomes Penn State (3-10, 1-4 B1G) to Homewood Field for a Big Ten Quarterfinal game. Faceoff is set for 1 pm on Saturday, April 30.
Last Time Out
• Johns Hopkins fell to top-ranked Maryland, 22-7, in the regular season finale at Homewood Field last Saturday.
• Penn State also dropped its regular season finale as the Nittany Lions dropped a 15-14 overtime decision at fourth-ranked Rutgers last Saturday.
The Facts
• This is the 135th season of Johns Hopkins men's lacrosse. JHU first fielded a team in 1883.
• Johns Hopkins enters this weekend's game with an all-time record of 1,003-363-15 (.732)
• JHU owns 44 national championships with nine NCAA titles, 29 USILA titles and six ILA crowns to its credit.
First to 1,000
• Johns Hopkins became the first men's lacrosse program in history to reach 1,000 all-time victories with an 11-10 win over Loyola (2-19-22).
• With the win (and subsequent results), the Blue Jays are 1,003-363-15 all-time and sit 75 wins ahead of Syracuse on the all-time victories list among Division I men's lacrosse programs.
The B1G Tournament
• All six Big Ten teams will compete in the league tournament starting with the quarterfinals on Saturday, April 30.
• Johns Hopkins earned the number four seed and will host fifth-seeded Penn State in one quarterfinal, while Ohio State is the number three seed and will host sixth-seeded Michigan in the other quarterfinal.
• The winner of the Johns Hopkins-Penn State quarterfinal will play top-seeded and top-ranked Maryland in the B1G Semifinals on Thursday, May 5 (5:30 pm), while the winner of the Ohio State-Michigan game will play second-seeded Rutgers (8 pm - May 5). The semifinals and championship game will be hosted by Maryland.
Johns Hopkins and the Big Ten
• Johns Hopkins joined the Big Ten as a sport affiliate member in 2015, the first year the league offered men's lacrosse as a championship sport.
• Since the league was formed, the Blue Jays are tied for the league-lead in all-time appearances in the Big Ten title game (4) and rank second in Big Ten Tournament titles (2). The seven games JHU has won in the Big Ten Tournament are tied for the most in league history.
• Including games played before the Big Ten was formed in 2015, Johns Hopkins is 139-69-1 (.667) all-time against teams currently competing in the Big Ten.
On This Date
• Dating back to 1955, this week's game against Penn State will be the 14th for Johns Hopkins on April 30. The Blue Jays are 11-2 on this date in that time and have currently won eight of their last nine games on this date.
• Johns Hopkins and Penn State have met once on this date - in 2015 - in the first-ever Big Ten Tournament game. The top-seeded Blue Jays topped the fourth-seeded Nittany Lions, 14-9, in College Park, Maryland that night as brothers Wells and Shack Stanwick combined for five goals and six assists to fuel the victory. The win was the fourth of what eventually became a seven-game winning streak that propelled the Blue Jays to the Final Four that season.
Series History
• This week's game will be the 17th all-time meeting between Johns Hopkins and Penn State. The Blue Jays lead the all-time series 12-4, took 2-of-3 against the Nittany Lions in 2021 and grabbed a 13-10 win against PSU two weeks ago at Homewood Field (April 16).
• This will be the fourth time Johns Hopkins and Penn State are meeting in the Big Ten Tournament. JHU won in 2015 (14-9) and 2021 (15-7) in the semifinals and quarterfinals, respectively, while the Nittany Lions grabbed an 18-17 overtime win in the 2019 title game.
Strength of Schedule
• The strength of JHU's 2022 schedule has been well documented since head coach Peter Milliman announced the schedule last fall. The strength of the schedule has played out as expected with a quick look at the opposition's record to date bearing that out.
• To-date, the 14 opponents the Blue Jays have played have compiled a record of 110-61 ... that .643 opponent winning percentage ranks fourth in the nation.
• Using this week's USILA National Rankings as a guide, Johns Hopkins has played the teams currently ranked first (Maryland), second (Georgetown), third (Rutgers), fourth (Virginia), eighth (Jacksonville), 11th (Ohio State) and 18th (North Carolina).
• Johns Hopkins is the only team in the nation that has played the top four teams in the nation in this week's national rankings. Only three other schools - Loyola, Notre Dame and Princeton - have played even three of the top four.
Lacrosse's All-Time Winningest Program
• Johns Hopkins enters this week's game with an all-time record of 1,003-363-15 to rank as the all-time winningest program in college lacrosse history.
• With the win against Loyola on February 19, Johns Hopkins became the first men's college lacrosse program to reach 1,000 all-time wins.
• JHU is one of just seven schools with 700+ victories, one of just five with 800+ wins and one of two that has won 900 or more games.
• The seven schools with 700+ wins in Division I men's lacrosse history are listed below.
Lending a Hand
• Through 14 games, Johns Hopkins has collected an assist on 92-of-148 (.622) goals this season. The Blue Jays are one of just 27 teams in the nation assisting on 60% or more of their goals and rank 16th with an assist on 62.2% of their goals on the year.
More Lending
• The first 11 goals Johns Hopkins scored in its recent win over Penn State and 12 of its 13 on that night were assisted (.923). Taking it back to the game against Ohio State (April 9) - and even including earning just two assists on seven goals against Maryland - 22 of the last 30 goals JHU has scored have been assisted (73.3%).
Balance on Offense
• A quick look at the stat sheet reveals the Blue Jays feature a balanced scoring unit through the first 14 games of the season.
• Johns Hopkins has eight players with nine or more points, eight players with at least six goals and four players with 13 or more assists.
• In all, 19 different players have scored at least one goal and 23 players have at least one point to their credit through 14 games.
Defensive Notes of Interest
• While there are many factors that go into winning a game, scoring defense is a big key. Since Peter Milliman took over in 2021 and appointed Jamison Koesterer as the defensive coordinator, JHU is 5-0 when holding the opposition to less than 10 goals.
• Through 14 games, the Blue Jay defense has held the opposition scoreless for a stretch of 10 minutes or longer 13 times with nine of those stretches coming in the last eight games.
A Comparative Defensive Look
• Through 14 games, the Blue Jay defense has held eight opponents below its season scoring average while six opponents have exceeded their season average against the Blue Jays.
• The Blue Jays have currently held five of their last six and six of their last eight opponents below their current season scoring average.
Blue Jays Have Faced Nation's Highest Scoring Teams
• Through games of April 24, the Johns Hopkins defense has faced the top three scoring offenses in the nation and the five of the top six (Maryland-Jacksonville-Georgetown-Virginia-Rutgers).
• Johns Hopkins is the only team in the nation that has played the top three scoring offenses (Maryland-Jacksonville-Georgetown) in the nation.
Causing Trouble-Part I
• JHU was credited with a season-high 12 caused turnovers in the recent 13-10 win over Penn State. Johns Hopkins was also credited with 11 caused turnovers in the 11-8 season-opening win against Jacksonville, added 10 against Navy, 11 at Delaware, nine against Michigan and eight at Rutgers; in all, the Blue Jays have totaled 107 CTs through 14 games.
• The 7.64 caused turnovers per game this season is on pace to break the previous single-season record of 6.92 caused turnovers per game (2021). Prior to 2021, JHU had average more than 6.5 caused turnovers per game just once (6.73 / 2013) since CTs became an official stat in 2009.
• Johns Hopkins' 107 caused turnovers this season are a program single-season record and mark the fourth time JHU has topped 100 CTs in a season. The previous record for most caused turnovers in a season game in 2015, when JHU compiled 104 CTs in 18 games.
Causing Trouble-Part II
• In a recent four-game stretch, Johns Hopkins was credited with 10 (Navy), 11 (Delaware), nine (Michigan) and eight (Rutgers) caused turnovers. This marked the first time since caused turnovers became an official statistic in 2009 that JHU has caused 8+ turnovers in four consecutive games.
Extra-Extra
• JHU has converted on 14-of-37 (.378) extra-man chances through 14 games and ranks 33rd in the nation in extra-man offense.
• Seven different players have an scored extra-man goal on the year - Garrett Degnon, Connor DeSimone, Joey Epstein, Brendan Grimes, Jack Keogh, Johnathan Peshko, Scott Smith - and 12 of JHU's 14 EMO goals have been assisted.
• Johns Hopkins converted on 15-of-35 (.429) extra-man chances in 2021 to finish tied for 12th nationally in extra-man offense.
• Epstein is JHU's career active leader in EMO goals with 13, while Degnon has 10 to his credit.
• The Blue Jays' 42.9% conversion percentage last season marked the eighth time since 2012 that Hopkins has finished the season at better than 40% on extra-man.
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