The Team
«  Johns Hopkins (32-2) is making its third consecutive appearance in the Elite Eight and its fourth in the last five seasons.
« Johns Hopkins is one of just three teams that has advanced to the Elite Eight in each of the last three seasons (Johns Hopkins, Juniata, Hope).

How They Got Here
«  Johns Hopkins earned the Centennial Conference's automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament as the Blue Jays topped Gettysburg (3-0) and Swarthmore (3-0) in the conference tournament.
« The Blue Jays advanced to the Elite Eight with straight-set victories against Bridgewater State (MA), Carnegie Mellon and Ithaca.

NCAA Tournament History
«  Johns Hopkins is making its 11th appearance in the NCAA Tournament with all 11 appearances coming since 2011 and seven of the 11 have come under the direction of current head coach Matt Troy (2011, 2012, 2019, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024).
« This is the eighth consecutive year the Blue Jays have advanced to the NCAAs with each appearance earned via the Centennial Conference's automatic bid to the tournament.
« The Blue Jays are 21-9 overall in the NCAA Tournament, including 17-3 since Troy returned to Homewood in 2019.
« JHU counts one national championship (2019) and three other appearances in the Elite Eight (2022, 2023 and 2024) to its credit.

30+ Wins
«  With a 32-2 record on the year, Johns Hopkins has reached the 30-win mark for the third time in program history.
« The Blue Jays won a program-record 35 matches (35-0) en route to winning the program's first national championship in 2019 and went 31-1 in 2021.

Head Coach Matt Troy
«  Matt Troy served as the Blue Jays' head coach from 2010-12 before departing Homewood for the head coaching position at Mary Washington (VA) from 2013-18.  At the time of his departure, the head coaching position at Johns Hopkins was not full-time.
« Troy returned to Johns Hopkins in January of 2019 and has since pieced together a six-year/five-season run that is unparalleled in program history (the 2020 season was canceled due to the COVID pandemic).
« With the win over Ithaca in the 2024 NCAA Regional Championship match, the Blue Jays are 150-16 (.904) since Troy returned.  Eight of those 16 losses came during a 24-8 campaign with a youth-filled squad in 2022.
« With a 35-0 record in 2019 and a 31-0 start to the 2021, Troy and the Blue Jays set a then NCAA Division III record with a 66-match winning streak.
« Including his first stint at JHU, Troy is now 223-37 as the head coach at Johns Hopkins and 356-95 overall including his six-year run at Mary Washington.

Streaking
«  Johns Hopkins enters this week's Elite Eight riding the crest of a 22-match winning streak.  The 22-match run is the second-longest active winning streak in the nation (behind Juniata's NCAA-record 94-match run).
« The current 22-match winning streak is also the second-longest in school history.  Only the 66-match run from 2019-21 is longer than the 22-match streak the Blue Jays have currently put together.

Sets-n-Stuff
«  In 32 matches this season, the Blue Jays ...
• Have won in straight sets 24 times (24-0) and in four sets eight times (8-2).  The Blue Jays have not played a match that has gone five sets this season.
• Have won the first set 29 times and lost the first set five times.

« JHU last played a match that went to five sets in the 2023 NCAA Quarterfinals against Hope.  In that match, the Blue Jays fell behind 2-0 before rallying to force a fifth and deciding set that Hope pulled out 15-12.
« The Blue Jays have won 20 consecutive sets dating back to November 6, when they dropped the second set at Dickinson (27-25).

It's All Academic
«  In addition to winning the Centennial Conference and NCAA Baltimore Regional titles and advancing to the Elite Eight for the third consecutive year, the Blue Jays are also excelling in the classroom as well.
« While grades for the current semester are not yet available, the Blue Jays had two current players post a perfect 4.0 in the spring (Roxy Karrer and Helena Swaak) and the team posted a combined GPA of 3.74 in the spring.  In all, nine returning players have a 3.60 cumulative GPA or better.

An Experienced Group
«  In 2022, Johns Hopkins advanced to the Elite Eight with a relatively young team. A majority of that team returned last season and helped guide the Jays back to the Elite Eight, where the Blue Jays fell to Hope in five sets.
« Now, head coach Matt Troy will bring a veteran group to the final eight, one that includes nine players who appeared in the Elite Eight match against Northwestern-St. Paul in 2022 (Adam, Batista, Carlsen, Chiakpo, Karrer, Onukwugha, Pater, Swaak, Yu) and nine who appeared in the Elite Eight match against Hope last season (Adam, Batista, Carlsen, Chiakpo, Karrer, Onukwugha, Pater, Swaak, Yu).

Instant Impact
«  While the core of the team that advanced to the Elite Eight in 2022 and 2023 is back, the Blue Jays have bolstered their lineup with three players who have made an instant impact in 2024.
« Graduate student transfers Kate Danaher and Jilienne Widener along with freshman Nicole Tuszynski have meshed seamlessly into an experienced lineup to give head coach Matt Troy his deepest lineup.
« Danaher (team-high 674 assists, 196 digs, 21 aces) and Widener (249 kills, 93 blocks) were teammates at Brown before transferring to Johns Hopkins this season.  Tuszynski has emerged as the starting Libero and counts 171 digs in 73 sets played; she is the only freshman who has earned a regular role on the experienced team.

Just Sayin'
«  The NCAA reseeds teams at the Elite Eight and Johns Hopkins drew the number two seed behind top-seeded and unbeaten Juniata.
« This is the second time the Blue Jays have earned the number two seed in four trips to the Elite Eight.  The only other time the team was seeded second was in 2019.  Johns Hopkins parlayed that number two seed into three consecutive wins, including a sweep of top-seeded Emory in the championship match, to win its first national title.