BALTIMORE, MD – The Johns Hopkins men's lacrosse team placed five players on the 2023 Blatant Lacrosse USILA All-America Team it was announced today.  The five selections are the most for Johns Hopkins since 2018, when the Blue Jays also produced five All-Americans.
 
Graduate student Alex Mazzone (D) earned a spot on the second team, while juniors Scott Smith (D), Russell Melendez (A) and Brett Martin (SSDM) and freshman Matt Collison (M) were honorable mention selections.
 
Mazzone and Smith become the first Blue Jay defensive tandem to earn All-America honors since 2013 (Tucker Durkin-1^st Team / Chris Lightner-MD), while Martin is the first short-stick defensive midfielder in program history to earn a spot on the USILA All-America Team. 
 
Mazzone started all 18 games on close defense for the Blue Jays and counted two goals, two assists, a team-high 77 ground balls and 18 caused turnovers to his credit.  Mazzone's 77 ground balls are the most by a non-faceoff specialist at Johns Hopkins since Matt Bocklet had 99 in 2008, while his 18 caused turnovers were tied for second on the team.  This is third time Mazzone has received an All-America nod from the USILA as he was an honorable mention selection in 2021 and 2022 while playing at Georgetown.  In addition to his Second Team USILA All-America selection, Mazzone was also a Second Team USA Lacrosse Magazine All-American, a Third Team Inside Lacrosse All-American and a First Team All-Big Ten selection this season.
 
This is the third Honorable Mention All-America nod of the 2023 season for Martin, who adds today's USILA selection to previous spots on the Inside Lacrosse and USA Lacrosse Magazine teams.  Martin played in all 18 games as Johns Hopkins' top short-stick defensive midfielder and posted two goals, 19 ground balls and 15 caused turnovers.  His 15 CTs ranked fourth on the team and stand as the program's single-season record for a non-long stick.  He is also JHU's career leader in caused turnovers by a short-stick (30).
 
Smith adds another honor to his growing list of honors and awards as well as he was previously tabbed an Honorable Mention All-American by USA Lacrosse Magazine this season.  Routinely assigned to mark the opposition's top attackman, Smith rang up one goal, 32 ground balls and a team-high 23 caused turnovers while starting all 18 games on close defense; his 23 caused turnovers were just two shy of the Johns Hopkins single-season record.  Smith's top performance of the season came in a tight 12-9 loss to Notre Dame in the NCAA Quarterfinals, when he held Tewaaraton Finalist Pat Kavanagh to just one assist – that's the only game of the season to-date that Kavanagh has been held to less than three points.
 
Melendez made an instant impact in his first season at Johns Hopkins after playing two seasons at Marquette.  A starter in 16 of the 17 games he played in 2023, Melendez finished second on the team in goals (37), assists (16) and points (53).  Among players who took at least 15 shots, he also led the team in shooting percentage (.398) and ended the season on a roll with six straight multi-goal games to his credit.  Melendez rang up a program NCAA Tournament-record nine points (5g, 4a) in a 22-8 first-round win over Bryant and totaled 20 goals and seven assists in his last six games.
 
Collison also made an immediate impact in his first season at Homewood and joins Joel Tinney (2015) and Joey Epstein (2019) as the only Blue Jay freshmen to earn All-America honors in the last 15 years.  Collison finished third on the team in goals (26) and fourth in points (35) and assists (9) while also ranking second in extra-man goals from his spot at midfield.  He had 12 multi-point games and nine multi-goal games on the season, boasted separate scoring streaks of nine and seven games and his 26 goals are third-most in program history by a freshman midfielder.