The Game
• The seventh-ranked Johns Hopkins (10-4, 3-1 B1G) men's lacrosse team closes the regular season portion of its 2023 schedule as the Blue Jays make the short trip south to College Park to take on fourth-ranked Maryland (8-3, 3-1 B1G).
When Last We Saw Them
• Johns Hopkins bounced back from a double-overtime loss at Penn State with a dominating 17-8 win over Ohio State last Saturday (April 15) at home.
• Maryland picked up its second consecutive impressive road victory as the Terrapins knocked off Rutgers, 11-8, on Sunday night.
The Facts
• This is the 136th season of Johns Hopkins men's lacrosse. JHU first fielded a team in 1883.
• Johns Hopkins enters this week's game with an all-time record of 1,014-368-15 (.731).
• Johns Hopkins is the only men's lacrosse program in the nation with 1,000 or more all-time victories. The Blue Jays picked up the program's 1,000th victory with an 11-10 win over Loyola on February 19, 2022.
• JHU owns 44 national championships with nine NCAA titles, 29 USILA titles and six ILA crowns to its credit.
Poll Position
• Johns Hopkins is ranked seventh in this week's USILA Coaches Poll and seventh in the Inside Lacrosse Media Poll as well.
• Maryland is ranked fourth in this week's USILA Coaches Poll and third in the Inside Lacrosse Media Poll.
• The Johns Hopkins Athletic Communications Office uses the USILA Poll when referencing JHU's official ranking at the time of a game.
500+ Top 20 Rankings
• The USILA Poll debuted in 1973 and this week's poll is the 528th issued; JHU's number seven ranking this week means the Blue Jays have appeared in 509 of the 528 polls. In addition, this week's number seven ranking marks the 432nd time that Johns Hopkins has been ranked in the top 10 in the nation.
• After being listed as receiving votes in the USILA Preseason Poll, the Blue Jays made the jump to ninth after starting the season at 2-0.
• The number nine ranking marked the 500th time in school history that JHU has appeared in the top 20 of the USILA Poll.
The Schedule - Just Sayin'
• Including this week's game at fourth-ranked Maryland, 10 of Johns Hopkins' 15 regular season games have been against teams ranked in the top 20 in the nation at the time of the game.
• Among those 10 are four of the top eight and eight of the top 15 in this week's national rankings.
Series History
• This week's game will be the 125th all-time meeting between Johns Hopkins and Maryland. The Blue Jays lead the series 74-49-1, although the Terrapins have won the last five meetings.
• A complete look at the series history between Johns Hopkins and Maryland can be found on pages 19 and 20.
On This Date
• This week's game against Maryland will be the 16th all-time for Johns Hopkins on April 22. The Blue Jays are 15-0 all-time on this date since playing their first game on April 15 in 1943 (note that game dates are not all available prior to 1955 so record is inclusive only where dates available).
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 ranks second in all-time appearances in the Big Ten title game (4) and second in Big Ten Tournament titles (2).
• The eight games JHU has won in the Big Ten Tournament are the second most in league history.
• Including games played before the Big Ten was formed in 2015, Johns Hopkins is 143-71-1 (.666) all-time against teams currently competing in the Big Ten.
Big Ten Tournament Talk
• Well, last weekend's results in the Big Ten cleared things up in the battle for positioning in the upcoming Big Ten Tournament. In the race for the top seed, below is a look at each team's possibilities heading into the final weekend of regular season play:
Johns Hopkins
#1 seed with a win and a Penn State loss
#2 seed with a win and a Penn State win
#3 seed with a loss
Maryland
#1 seed with a win
#2 seed with a loss and a Penn State loss
#3 seed with a loss and a Penn State win
Penn State
#1 seed with a win and a Maryland loss
#2 seed with a win and a Maryland win
#3 seed with a loss and a Johns Hopkins win
More Big Ten Tournament Talk
• Johns Hopkins will host the Big Ten Tournament Semifinals (May 4 / 1 pm & 3:30 pm) and Championship game (May 6 / 5:30 pm) at Homewood Field. The top two teams in the final Big Ten regular season standings will earn a bye into the tournament semifinals, while the teams that finish third through sixth will play quarterfinal games on April 29 (number three and four seeds to host ... games times TBA).
Balanced Scoring
• Johns Hopkins features one of the most balanced scoring sheets in the nation this season.
. The Blue Jays count 23 different players with at least one goal, 21 players with at least one assist and 25 players with at least one point.
• Taking the production up a notch, 10 players currently have at least six goals and 11 have at least seven points.
• Leading the way for the Jays thus far are Jacob Angelus (12g, 35a), Russell Melendez (26g, 9a), Garrett Degnon (32g, 3a), Brendan Grimes (17g, 13a), Matt Collison (20g, 7a), Johnathan Peshko (12g, 5a), Dylan Bauer (9g, 5a), Ryan Evans (8g, 4a) and Ian Krampf (6g, 2a), who all have at least eight points thus far.
It's (Almost) All Coming Back
• Johns Hopkins has scored 174 goals and collected 101 assists for 275 points through 14 games. Of those totals, 140 (80.5%) of the goals, 94 (93.1%) of the assists and 234 (85.1%) of the points have been accumulated by players with at least one year of eligibility remaining.
Three With Hat Tricks Against Utah, Virginia, Michigan & Ohio State
• Johns Hopkins has gotten 3+ goals from three different players in four games this season (Utah, Virginia, Michigan & Ohio State). This is the most instances of 3+ players with a hat trick in the same game since 2015, when there were also four such occurrences. The last time JHU had 3+ players with a hat trick in five or more games in a season was in 2003.
• Prior to these four instances, the last time Johns Hopkins had three players with a hat trick in the same game was on February 11, 2022, when Joey Epstein (6), Garrett Degnon (4) and Brendan Grimes (3) all had three+ goals at Towson.
• Demonstrating the Blue Jays' depth of scoring this season, in the previous four seasons combined (2019-22), Johns Hopkins had just three games (total) where three or more players had a hat trick in the same game.
26 Straight For Degnon
• Graduate student attackman Garrett Degnon continues to lead the team in goals (32) as the Blue Jays enter this week's game at Maryland. Since missing the game against Utah on February 25, he has scored 25 goals in nine games with at least two goals in eight 2of those outings.
• His four goals against Ohio State pushed his goal-scoring streak to 26 games dating back to February 19, 2022, when he scored once in an 11-10 win over Loyola. The streak is currently the third longest active streak in the nation.
• During his 26-game goal-scoring run, Degnon has scored 67 goals and has 20 multi-goal games and 11 games with 3+ goals to his credit.
• Degnon's 26-game run is also the longest by a Johns Hopkins player since a JHU-record-tying 37-game run by Ryan Brown from 2013-16.
Collison Enjoying Strong Freshman Campaign
• Freshman Matt Collison has quickly established himself as one of the top young players in the nation. Through 14 games, Collison is third on the team in goals (20), fourth in assists (7) and fifth in points (27); he had registered at least two points in eight straight games prior being held scoreless at Michigan.
• With a three-goal (and one assist) effort against Ohio State, Collison became just the fourth Johns Hopkins freshman midfielder since 2001 to score 20+ goals in a season. Joel Tinney (28/2015), Michael Kimmel (23/2007) and Paul Rabil (23/2005) are the only other Blue Jay freshman middies to score 20+ goals in a season during that time.
• Collison has earned Big Ten Freshman of the Week honors three times this season. Among Johns Hopkins players, only Joey Epstein (5 selections in 2019) and Shack Stanwick (4 in 2015) have earned the honor more times than Collison's three.
• Earlier this season, Collison had a five-game run of multi-goal games to his credit - he is the first Blue Jay freshman middie to score two or more goals in five straight games in at least 20 years. Prior to Collison's run of five straight games with 2+ goals, Paul Rabil was the last JHU freshman middie to even have a four-game run of two or more goals (2005).
Offensive Notes of Interest
• Since the start of the 2022 season, the Blue Jays are 16-3 when they score 11 or more goals.
• In 56 quarters this season, the Blue Jays have scored two or more goals in 43 quarters and four or more in 27 quarters.
Extra-Extra
• The Johns Hopkins extra-man unit has converted on 13-of-36 (.361) attempts this season, but that hardly tells the story.
• After going 0-for-7 in the first four games of the season, the Blue Jays have converted on 13-of-29 (.448) chances in the last 10 games.
Non-Offensive Scoring
• Through 14 games, Johns Hopkins has gotten 26 points (15g, 11a) from non-offensive players, an average of 1.86 points per game.
• In the win against Rutgers, the Blue Jays got six points from non-offensive personnel (4g, 2a), including two goals from SSDM Brett Martin.
• The Blue Jays got five points (2g, 3a) from non-offensive players against top-ranked Virginia as SSDMs Hunter Jaronski and Jakson Raposo both scored goals with faceoff specialists Matt Narewski and Logan Callahan and goalie Tim Marcille grabbing assists.
• Last season, the Blue Jays got 14 goals and eight assists for 22 points from non-offensive players in 16 games (just under 1.4 points/game).
Defensive Notes of Interest
• The Johns Hopkins defense has held 12 of 14 opponents under its season scoring average this season. The Blue Jays have held five teams at least three goals under their current scoring average.
• In addition, the Blue Jays have held their 14 opponents scoreless for a period of at least 10 minutes 20 different times thus far this season - 11 of those have come in the last seven games.
• Johns Hopkins was 4-0 in 2021, 5-0 in 2022 and, with the recent win over Ohio State, is now 15-0 under head coach Peter Milliman and defensive coordinator Jamison Koesterer when holding the opposition to 10 goals or less.
Closing Strong
• During the last seven games, the Blue Jays are 6-1 and have outscored their six opponents by a combined score of 21-6 in the final 10 minutes of the fourth quarter.
• In the 11-9 win at Syracuse, the Blue Jays scored the final three goals of the game and held the Orange scoreless for the final 11:19.
• At Navy, Hopkins trailed 9-8 with just over eight minutes remaining before outscoring the Midshipmen 4-1 in the final 8:16.]
• Down 9-5 midway through the third quarter, the Blue Jays scored seven straight goals and outscored Delaware 7-1 in the final 23:03 to fuel a 12-10 victory.
• Down 9-8 with less than five minutes remaining in the third quarter, the Blue Jays outscored Michigan 7-1 in a 15-minute span to grab a 15-10 lead.]
• In the 16-12 win against Rutgers, the Blue Jays trailed 10-8 with nine minutes remaining in the third quarter before closing with an 8-2 run.
• The 12-11 double overtime loss at Penn State, JHU trailed 10-7 with 10 minutes remaining in the fourth quarter before outscoring the Nittany Lions 4-1 in those final 10 minutes.
Causing Trouble
• Johns Hopkins caused a season-high 11 turnovers in the 15-14 win over 13th-ranked St. Joseph's and added 10 at Michigan and nine against Rutgers. Including the seven against Ohio State, the Blue Jays now have 103 CTs on the year for an average of 7.36 per game.
• The 103 CTs the Blue Jays have amassed this season are the third-highest single-season total in school history, while the 7.36 CT/game are the second-best average. Caused turnovers were first kept as an official statistic in 2009.
• Leading the way in the CT category this season is junior Scott Smith, who counts 17 CTs to his credit in 14 games. Alex Mazzone (14), Brett Martin (14), Beaudan Szuluk (10) and Carson Brown (10) all have at least 10 CTs on the year as well. The school record for most players with 10 or more caused turnovers in a season is six (2019).
• Johns Hopkins set a program single-season record in 2022 as the Blue Jays averaged 7.63 caused turnovers per game. This came one year after the Blue Jays had set a record by averaging 6.92 CTs per game in 2021.
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