The Game
• The fifth-ranked and sixth-seeded Johns Hopkins (11-5) men's lacrosse team welcomes Bryant (12-4) to Homewood Field for a first round game in the 2023 NCAA Division I Men's Lacrosse Tournament. The game will air live on ESPNU (12 pm).
• The winner of the first round game between Johns Hopkins and Bryant will take on the winner of the first round game between third-seeded Notre Dame and Utah in the NCAA Quarterfinals on Sunday, May 21 at Navy.
When Last We Saw Them
• Johns Hopkins fell to Maryland, 14-9, in the Big Ten Semifinals on Thursday, May 4 at Homewood Field.
• Bryant was last seen winning back-to-back games in the America East Tournament by identical 12-11 scores to claim the program's first AE title (this is the Bulldogs' first season in the America East for men's lacrosse).
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 1,015-369-15 (.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.
Game Number 1,400
• This week's game against Bryant will be the 1,400th in program history.
500+ Top 20 Rankings
• The USILA Poll debuted in 1973 and the most recent poll is the 530th issued; JHU's number five ranking means the Blue Jays have appeared in 511 of the 530 polls. In
addition, the number five ranking marks the 434th 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'
• Johns Hopkins played eight regular season games against teams that qualified for the 2023 NCAA Tournament.
• The Blue Jays posted a 5-3 record in their eight games against teams in the tournament.
• Hopkins holds wins against Delaware, Georgetown, Maryland, Michigan and Utah, while the Jays dropped games against Maryland, Penn State and Virginia.
Series History
• This week's game will be the first-ever meeting between Johns Hopkins and Bryant in men's lacrosse.
• The teams did not share any common opponents during the 2023 season.
Program Ties - Part I
• Johns Hopkins graduate student goalie Luke Caracciolo was the starting goalie at Bryant for each of the last four years. He started all 44 games he played in over the last four seasons at Bryant.
• At Johns Hopkins, Caracciolo is pursuing a master's degree in global securities studies.
Program Ties - Part II
• Johns Hopkins defensive coordinator Jamison Koesterer and Bryant head coach Brad Ross spent two years together on the coaching staff at Ohio State in 2015 and 2016.
• Koesterer and Ross helped guide the Buckeyes to the 2015 Big Ten title game and a trip to the NCAA Quarterfinals that season.
NCAA History
• Johns Hopkins is making its record 48th appearance in the NCAA Tournament.
• The Blue Jays are 71-38 all-time in the NCAAs with the 71 wins standing first all-time.
• Johns Hopkins' complete NCAA Tournament history can be found in the tournament record book at the back of this week's game notes.
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, 11 players currently have at least six goals and 12 have at least seven points.
• Leading the way for the Jays thus far are Jacob Angelus (15g, 37a), Russell Melendez (30, 12a), Garrett Degnon (37g, 4a), Brendan Grimes (19g, 13a), Matt Collison (23g, 9a), Johnathan Peshko (14g, 5a), Dylan Bauer (9g, 6a), Ryan Evans (8g, 4a), Casey McDermott (6g, 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 195 goals and collected 113 assists for 308 points through 16 games. Of those totals, 156 (80.0%) of the goals, 105 (92.9%) of the assists and 261 (84.7%) of the points have been accumulated by players with at least one year of eligibility remaining.
28 Straight For Degnon
• Graduate student attackman Garrett Degnon continues to lead the team in goals (37) as the Blue Jays enter the NCAA Tournament. Since missing the game against Utah on February 25, he has scored 30 goals in 11 games with at least two goals in 10 of those outings.
• His three goals against Maryland in the Big Ten Semifinals pushed his goal-scoring streak to 28 games dating back to February 19, 2022, when he scored once in an 11-10 win over Loyola. The streak is currently the second longest active streak in the nation.
• During his 28-game goal-scoring run, Degnon has scored 72 goals and has 22 multi-goal games and 12 games with 3+ goals to his credit.
• Degnon's 28-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 16 games, Collison is third on the team in goals (23), fourth in assists (9) and tied for fourth in points (32).
• With a three-goal (and one assist) effort against Ohio State (April 15), Collison became just the fifth Johns Hopkins freshman midfielder since 1980 to score 20+ goals in a season. Joel Tinney (28/2015), Del Dressel (27/1983), 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 earned Big Ten Freshman of the Week honors four times this season. Among Johns Hopkins players, only Joey Epstein (5 selections in 2019) and Shack Stanwick (4 in 2015) have earned the honor as many times as Collison has.
• 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 17-3 when they score 11 or more goals.
• In 64 quarters this season, the Blue Jays have scored two or more goals in 49 quarters and four or more in 29 quarters.
Extra-Extra
• The Johns Hopkins extra-man unit has converted on 14-of-41 (.341) 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 14-of-34 (.412) chances in the last 12 games.
Non-Offensive Scoring
• Through 16 games, Johns Hopkins has gotten 27 points (16g, 11a) from non-offensive players, an average of 1.69 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 13 of 16 opponents under its season scoring average this season. The Blue Jays have held six teams at least three goals under their current scoring average.
• In addition, the Blue Jays have held their 16 opponents scoreless for a period of at least 10 minutes 23 different times thus far this season - 14 of those have come in the last nine 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.
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 and a season-high-tying 11 at #4 Maryland, the Blue Jays now have 121 CTs on the year for an average of 7.56 per game.
• The 121 CTs the Blue Jays have amassed this season are the second-highest single-season total in school history, while the 7.56 CTs/game are just off the school-record pace of 7.63 (2022). 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 22 CTs to his credit in 16 games. Alex Mazzone (17), Brett Martin (15), Beaudan Szuluk (14) and Carson Brown (12) 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).
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