The Game
• Third-seeded Johns Hopkins (10-4) welcomes Lehigh (10-6) to Homewood Field for a first round game in the 2024 NCAA Division I Men's Lacrosse Tournament. Faceoff is set for 12 pm on Sunday, May 12 (ESPNU).
When Last We Saw Them
• Johns Hopkins dropped its last game, 10-7, against Michigan in the Big Ten Semifinals on Thursday, May 2.
• Lehigh knocked off Boston University, 11-10, in the Patriot League title game on Sunday, May 5.
How They Got In
• Johns Hopkins earned an at-large bid into the field of 17. The Blue Jays received one of the eight at-large selections into the NCAA tournament.
• Lehigh grabbed one of the nine automatic bids into the tournament as the Mountain Hawks won the Patriot League title with tournament wins against Navy (12-8) in the semifinals and Boston University (11-10) in the final.
The Facts
• This is the 137th 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 1,026-374-15 (.730).
• 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 in the top five in the nation in both major national polls as the Blue Jays are third in the USILA Coaches Poll and third in the Inside Lacrosse Media Poll this week.
• Johns Hopkins was #3 in the final RPI ranking prior to the start of the NCAA Tournament.
• Lehigh is ranked 18th in the USILA Coaches Poll and 17th in the Inside Lacrosse Media Poll.
Poll Notes of Interest
• Including this week's poll, the USILA has issued 544 polls since the debut poll in 1973, Johns Hopkins has appeared in the top 20 in 524 of those 544 polls and has been ranked in the top 10 in 445 of the 544.
• The Johns Hopkins Athletic Communications office uses the USILA Poll to reflect JHU's official national ranking at the time of a game. The poll dates to 1973 and is the longest-running, continuous men's lacrosse poll in the nation.
Series History
• Johns Hopkins and Lehigh will be meeting for the 36th time this week. The Blue Jays lead the series, which dates to a 6-0 Johns Hopkins victory in 1889, 24-11. The teams last met in 1925 with Johns Hopkins grabbing a 3-2 victory.
• A complete look at the all-time series history can be found on page 19.
On This Date - May 12
• This week's game will be the eighth all-time game for Johns Hopkins on May 12.
• The Blue Jays are 3-4 all-time on this date, including 2-1 in the NCAA Tournament.
• All three of Johns Hopkins' NCAA Tournament games played on this date came against Notre Dame in 1996, 2007 and 2019. The Blue Jays won the games against the Irish in 1996 and 2007 with ND holding serve in 2019.
Tournament #49
• Johns Hopkins is making its record 49th NCAA Tournament appearance this season. Since the tournament debuted in 1971, the Jays have appeared in all but four tournaments (1971, 2013, 2021, 2022).
• The only other programs to appear in the tournament more than 40 times are Maryland (46), Virginia (43) and Syracuse (41).
As the #3 Seed
• Johns Hopkins drew the number three seed in the NCAA Tournament for the fourth time in its tournament history. The Blue Jays were previously seeded third in 1976, 2007 and 2011.
• Johns Hopkins advanced to the NCAA Semifinals as the number three seed in 1976, won the NCAA Championship as the three seed in 2007 and advanced to the NCAA Quarterfinals from the three spot in 2011.
NCAA Tournament History
• A complete look at Johns Hopkins' NCAA Tournament history, including all-time results, statistics and more, can be found in the back of this week's game notes.
Offensive Notes of Interest
• Since the start of the 2022 season, the Blue Jays are 24-5 when they score 12 or more goals.
• This season, in 56 full quarters (does not include overtime periods), the Blue Jays have scored two or more goals in 43 quarters and four or more in 23 quarters.
• Johns Hopkins is averaging 11.57 goals per game this season with at least 11 goals scored in 10 of 14 games thus far.
• In 14 games, the Blue Jays have gotten goals from 15 different players and 20 different players have at least one point.
• Johns Hopkins averaged 12.56 goals per game in 2023. That output was the highest scoring average for the Blue Jays since 2015, when Hopkins averaged 13.0 goals per game. The 12.56 goals per game are also the second-best mark at JHU since 2004.
• As a team, Johns Hopkins shot 32.9% in 2023, a mark that ranked 14th in the nation. The 32.9% shooting percentage was the highest for JHU since 2015 (.331).
44 Straight For Degnon
• Graduate student attackman Garrett Degnon will carry a school-record 44-game goal-scoring streak into this week's game against Lehigh in the first round of the NCAA Tournament after he scored three goals in the Big Ten Semifinals against Michigan. The streak is currently the third-longest active streak in the nation.
• During his 44-game goal-scoring run, Degnon has scored 118 goals and has 37 multi-goal games and 29 games with 3+ goals to his credit.
• Degnon's 44-game run is the longest in school history after he broke the previous record of 37 earlier this season against Navy. Terry Riordan originally set the mark at 37 games from 1992-95 and Ryan Brown matched that with a 37-game run from 2013-16.
• The 44-game goal-scoring run for Degnon and the 37-game runs for Brown and Riordan are the only three goal-scoring streaks of 30+ games in Johns Hopkins history.
Causing Trouble
• Johns Hopkins tied the program record with 14 caused turnovers in the recent 9-8 overtime win against Penn State - this came one week after notching 13 CTs in a win against Michigan.
• In 14 games thus far, the Blue Jays have 119 caused turnovers to their credit (8.5/game) with 10 coming in the 13-5 win against Towson, nine in the 11-9 win at Georgetown, 12 against Loyola and 11 at Virginia to go along with the efforts against Michigan (13) and Penn State (14). The 14 CTs against Penn State marked the 24th time in program history that the Blue Jays have been credited with 10 or more CTs in a game (CTs became an official stat in 2009).
• JHU currently ranks 24th in the nation - and third in the Big Ten - with its 8.50 caused turnovers per game.
• The 135 CTs the Blue Jays amassed last season are a JHU single-season record, while the 7.50 CTs/game narrowly missed the school-record of 7.63 (2022). Caused turnovers were first kept as an official statistic in 2009.
Defensive Notes of Interest
• Johns Hopkins has held 13 of its first 14 opponents below its season scoring average. Nine of the 14 opponents have been held more than two goals below their season scoring average.
• The Blue Jays have held their first 14 opponents scoreless for a period of 10 minutes or longer a total of 26 times ... 17 of those 26 streaks have been 12+ minutes in length.
• In five regular season Big Ten games plus the Big Ten Semifinals, JHU held the opposition scoreless for at least 10 minutes 12 different times with 10 of those stretches covering at least 12 minutes.
• In the last 13 games, the opposition has gone scoreless for a stretch of 10 minutes or longer 25 times with four of those coming against Towson, three against Maryland and two each against Georgetown, Loyola, North Carolina, Rutgers, Michigan (reg. season), Penn State and Ohio State.
• Dating back to the start of the 2023 season, the Blue Jays have held their 32 opponents scoreless for a period of at least 10 minutes 50 different times - 40 of those have come in the last 25 games.
• This season, in 56 full quarters (does not include overtime periods), the Blue Jays have allowed two or less goals in 35 quarters and four or more in just nine quarters.
• The five goals the Blue Jays allowed against Towson were, at the time, the fewest JHU has surrendered since Hopkins topped Ohio State, 6-5, in the 2018 Big Ten Semifinals.
• The five goals the Blue Jays held Maryland to in the regular season finale were the fewest for the Terps in a game since they suffered a 5-4 loss to Notre Dame early in the 2017 season.
• Johns Hopkins is 23-2 under head coach Peter Milliman and defensive coordinator Jamison Koesterer when holding the opposition to 10 goals or less.
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