The Game
•  Johns Hopkins opens the 2025 season as the Blue Jays head to Denver to take on the Pioneers in the season opener for both teams.  Faceoff is set for 12 pm (MT) on Saturday, February 1.

When Last We Saw Them
•  Johns Hopkins posted an 11-5 record, won the outright Big Ten regular season title and advanced to the NCAA Quarterfinals last season.
• Denver finished the 2024 season with a 13-4 record and advanced to the NCAA Semifinals before falling to eventual national champion Notre Dame.

The Facts
•  This is the 138th 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 1,027-375-15 (.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.

Oh Captain, My Captain
•  Three individuals were selected to serve as Blue Jay captains during the 2025 season.
• Graduate students Dylan Bauer (M), Patrick Deans (LSM) and Scott Smith (D) will lead the team this season after a vote of their teammates.
• This is the first season any of the three have served as a team captain.

Poll Position
• Johns Hopkins collected several preseason national rankings as the Jays check in at number eight in the Inside Lacrosse Media Poll and number nine in the USA Lacrosse Poll.  
• In the USILA Preseason Poll, the Blue Jays also drew a #8 ranking.
• Denver checked in at #9 in the USILA Preseason Poll and  #10 in the Inside Lacrosse and USA Lacrosse Polls.

Blue Jays First in B1G Preseason Poll
•  For the second consecutive year, Johns Hopkins was picked to finish first in the Big Ten Preseason Poll of the league's head coaches as the Blue Jays topped the 2025 poll released on January 29.  
• The Blue Jays earned a share of the 2023 B1G regular season title (with Penn State) and won the 2024 regular season title outright.
•  Since the formation of the Big Ten in 2015, Johns Hopkins has won the Big Ten Tournament title twice (2015, 2018) and advanced to the title game two other times (2019, 2021).
• The Blue Jays are 9-1 in Big Ten regular season play over the last two seasons with the only blemish during that time a 12-11 double overtime loss at Penn State in 2024.

2025 B1G Preseason Poll
1 - Johns Hopkins
2 - Maryland
3 - Penn State
4 - Michigan
5 - Ohio State
6 - Rutgers

Against the BIG EAST
• Johns Hopkins has played 18 all-time games against teams currently in the BIG EAST.
• The Blue Jays are 15-3 all-time against BIG EAST teams with nearly half of those 18 games coming against Villanova.
• This week's game at Denver will be the first of two for the Blue Jays against a BIG EAST team this season (Georgetown - Feb. 8).

For Openers
•  The Blue Jays are 19-5 in their last 24 season openers.
•  Johns Hopkins has won 14 of its last 17 season openers and is 2-2 in openers under head coach Peter Milliman.
•  Johns Hopkins has scored at least 10 goals in its season opener in 15 of the last 17 years and at least 12 goals in nine of the last 13.

That's Early
•  This week's game against Denver on February 1 will be the earliest, by game date, in Johns Hopkins men's lacrosse history.
• Prior to this season, the earliest game in program history came in 2024, when the Blue Jays hosted Denver on February 3.

In February
• This week's game against Denver will be the 62nd all-time for Johns Hopkins in the month of February.
•  JHU is 40-21 (.656) all-time in games played in the month of February.
•  Johns Hopkins played its first game in the month of February in 1998, didn't play again in February until 2004 and has now played at least one game in the opening month of the season every year since 2006.

Roster Breakdown
•  The Blue Jays' 58-man roster includes nine graduate students, 11 seniors, 10 juniors, 17 sophomores and 11 freshmen.

Strength of Schedule
• The Blue Jays' 13 regular season opponents combined to post a 131-80 (.629) record in 2024 with JHU's eight non-conference opponents rolling up an 86-46 (.652) record.
• Using the Preseason USILA Coaches Poll, the Blue Jays will play nine games against teams ranked in the top 17 in the nation.  The nine include Syracuse (3rd), Virginia (4th), Maryland (6th), Denver (9th), Georgetown (11th), Penn State (12th), Michigan (15th), North Carolina (16th) and Towson (17th).  Three of the Blue Jays' other opponents this season - Ohio State, Loyola and Rutgers - are among the teams receiving votes in the USILA Preseason Poll.

More Strength
• The Blue Jays will play eight games, including three straight to open the season, against teams that qualified for the NCAA Tournament in 2024.
• Of the eight games against 2024 NCAA Tournament teams on tap, three are against teams that advanced to the Final Four (Denver, Virginia, Maryland), and two others (Georgetown, Syracuse) are against teams that advanced to the NCAA Quarterfinals.

Strange But True
• The first three opponents on Johns Hopkins' 2025 season - Denver, Towson and Georgetown - all posted a 13-4 record last season.  Translation:  the Blue Jays' first three opponents of the 2025 season combined to post a 39-12 (.765) record in 2024.

Causing Trouble
• Johns Hopkins caused 132 turnovers in 16 games during the 2024 season, an average of 8.25 per game.  The 8.25 CTs/game were the most in program history, while the 132 overall CTs rank second in program history (CTs became an official statistic in 2009).
• The top three caused turnover totals in Johns Hopkins history have come in the last three years (122 in 2022 | 135 in 2023 | 132 in 2024) and the top four averages for caused turnovers per game have come in the last four years under the direction of current defensive coordinator Jamison Koesterer.

Defensive Notes of Interest
• The Johns Hopkins defense held 15 of 16 opponents under its season scoring average last season.
• The Blue Jay defense held the opposition scoreless for a stretch of 10 minutes or longer 28 times in 16 games last season.
• In 64 full quarters during the 2024 season, Johns Hopkins held the opposition scoreless in five quarters, held them to one goal in 10 quarters and to two goals in 24 quarters.  Translation, in 39 of 64 full quarters last season (61% of quarters played), the Blue Jays held the opposition to two goals or less.

Bookending Things
• Johns Hopkins outscored the opposition 50-38 in the first quarter last season and 47-30 in the fourth quarter for a 97-68 scoring advantage to open and close the game.
• The middle two quarters were nearly even for the Jays as the second-quarter scoring in their 16 games was 43-43 and they held a slight 43-40 advantage in the third quarter.

Offensive Notes of Interest
• Since the start of the 2022 season, the Blue Jays are 25-5 when they score 12 or more goals.
• Last season, in 64 full quarters (does not include overtime periods), the Blue Jays scored two or more goals in 50 quarters and four or more in 25 quarters.

Lacrosse's Winningest Program
•  Johns Hopkins enters this week's game with an all-time record of 1,027-375-15 to rank as the all-time winningest program in college lacrosse history.
• With the win against Loyola on February 19, 2022, Johns Hopkins became the first men's college lacrosse program to reach 1,000 all-time wins.
•  JHU is one of just seven schools with 800+ wins and one of two that has won 900 or more games.
•  The seven schools with 700+ wins in Division I men's lacrosse history are listed below.

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 are tied for 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 144-72-1 (.666) all-time against teams currently competing in the Big Ten.