The Game
• The fifth-ranked and second-seeded Johns Hopkins (11-4, 4-1 B1G) men's lacrosse team welcomes seventh-ranked and third-seeded Maryland to Homewood Field for the Big Ten Semifinals. The Hopkins-Maryland game will be the second of the two semifinal games at Homewood with faceoff set for approximately 3:30 pm on Thursday, May 4. The game will air live on BTN.
• Top-seeded Penn State will play fourth-seeded Michigan in the first semifinal (1 pm)
• The winners of the semifinal games will meet in the Big Ten Championship game on Saturday, May 6 (5:30 pm) at Homewood Field.
When Last We Saw Them
• Johns Hopkins closed the regular season with a 12-11 win at fourth-ranked Maryland in its regular season finale on April 22. The win secured a share of the Big Ten regular season title for the Blue Jays and locked down the number two seed in the Big Ten Tournament.
• Maryland punched its ticket to the Big Ten Semifinals as the Terrapins topped Rutgers, 14-11, in the Big Ten Quarterfinals last Saturday night (April 29) at home.
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 1,015-368-15 (.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 fifth in this week's USILA Coaches Poll and fourth in the Inside Lacrosse Media Poll as well.
• Maryland is ranked seventh in this week's USILA Coaches Poll and seventh in the Inside Lacrosse Media Poll as well.
• 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 530th issued; JHU's number five ranking this week means the Blue Jays have appeared in 511 of the 530 polls. In addition, this week's 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'
• Including this week's game against #7 Maryland, 11 of Johns Hopkins' 16 games have been against teams ranked in the top 20 in the nation at the time of the game.
• Among those 11 games are five against teams in the top eight (including Maryland twice) are 10 against teams in the top 20.
Series History
• This week's game will be the 126th all-time meeting between Johns Hopkins and Maryland. The Blue Jays lead the series 75-49-1 after picking up a 12-11 victory against the Terps on April 22.
• A complete look at the series history between Johns Hopkins and Maryland can be found on pages 21 and 22.
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 rank 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 144-71-1 (.669) all-time against teams currently competing in the Big Ten.
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 (15g, 36a), Russell Melendez (28, 12a), Garrett Degnon (34g, 3a), Brendan Grimes (18g, 13a), Matt Collison (22g, 7a), Johnathan Peshko (14g, 5a), Dylan Bauer (9g, 5a), Ryan Evans (8g, 4a), Casey McDermott (5g, 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 186 goals and collected 107 assists for 293 points through 15 games. Of those totals, 150 (80.6%) of the goals, 100 (93.5%) of the assists and 250 (85.3%) of the points have been accumulated by players with at least one year of eligibility remaining.
27 Straight For Degnon
• Graduate student attackman Garrett Degnon continues to lead the team in goals (34) as the Blue Jays enter the Big Ten Tournament. Since missing the game against Utah on February 25, he has scored 27 goals in 10 games with at least two goals in nine of those outings.
• His two goals against fourth-ranked Maryland pushed his goal-scoring streak to 27 games dating back to February 19, 2022, when he scored once in an 11-10 win over Loyola. The streak is currently tied for the second longest active streak in the nation.
• During his 27-game goal-scoring run, Degnon has scored 69 goals and has 21 multi-goal games and 11 games with 3+ goals to his credit.
• Degnon's 27-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 15 games, Collison is third on the team in goals (22), fourth in assists (7) and fifth in points (29); 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 (April 15), Collison became just the fifth Johns Hopkins freshman midfielder since 1983 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 has 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 60 quarters this season, the Blue Jays have scored two or more goals in 47 quarters and four or more in 28 quarters.
Extra-Extra
• The Johns Hopkins extra-man unit has converted on 13-of-37 (.351) 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-30 (.433) chances in the last 11 games.
Non-Offensive Scoring
• Through 15 games, Johns Hopkins has gotten 26 points (15g, 11a) from non-offensive players, an average of 1.73 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 15 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 15 opponents scoreless for a period of at least 10 minutes 22 different times thus far this season - 13 of those have come in the last eight 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
• In the 11-9 win at Syracuse, the Blue Jays held the Orange scoreless for the final 11:19.
• 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.
• In its last game at #4 Maryland, JHU held Maryland scoreless from the 13:22 mark of the fourth quarter until just 54 seconds remained in regulation.
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 114 CTs on the year for an average of 7.60 per game.
• The 114 CTs the Blue Jays have amassed this season are the second-highest single-season total in school history, while the 7.60 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 20 CTs to his credit in 15 games. Alex Mazzone (16), Brett Martin (14), Beaudan Szuluk (12) 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).
