The Game
• Johns Hopkins (9-5) opens play in the 2026 NCAA Men's Lacrosse Tournament as the Blue Jays head north to Ithaca, New York to take on seventh-seeded Cornell (11-4).
• Faceoff for the first meeting between the two teams in 14,229 days is set for 5 pm on Saturday, May 9 (ESPNU).
What's on the Line
• The winner of the this week's first round game between Johns Hopkins and Cornell will advance to the NCAA Quarterfinals at Hofstra on Saturday, May 16.
• The Hopkins-Cornell winner will take on the winner of the Notre Dame-Jacksonville game in the quarterfinals.
When Last We Saw Them
• Johns Hopkins fell to Penn State, 16-8, in the Big Ten Championship game last Saturday (May 2) at Rutgers.
• Cornell dropped a 19-9 decision to Princeton in the Ivy League Championship game on Sunday (May 3) at home.
The Facts
• This is the 139th 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 1,042-388-15 (.726).
• 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.
On this Date
• Since 1950, this week's game at Cornell will be the seventh for Johns Hopkins on May 9.
• In that time, the Blue Jays are 4-2 in games played on this date, including a 12-11 win over Brown in the first round of the 2009 NCAA Tournament.
Poll Position
• Johns Hopkins checks in at number nine in this week's USILA Coaches Poll and the KANE Inside Lacrosse Media Poll. USA Lacrosse did not issue a poll after last week's conference tournaments were completed.
• The Johns Hopkins Athletic Communications Office uses the USILA Poll to denote JHU's official ranking at the time of a game.
• Cornell is ranked sixth in the USILA Poll and fifth in the KANE Inside Lacrosse Media Poll.
Poll Notes of Interest
• Including this week's poll, the USILA has issued 581 polls since the debut poll in 1973. Johns Hopkins has appeared in the top 20 in 556 of those 581 polls and has been ranked in the top 10 in 456 of the 581.
NCAA Tournament Talk
• Johns Hopkins is making its record 50th appearance in the NCAA Tournament. The Blue Jays missed the initial NCAA Division I men's lacrosse tournament in 1971, then qualified for the tournament for 41 straight years before missing 2013.
• Johns Hopkins' 41-year streak of qualifying for the tournament from 1972-2012 is the longest such streak in Division I men's lacrosse history.
• Johns Hopkins is 73-40 all-time in NCAA Tournament play, including 17-5 in the first round.
• The Blue Jays have made 29 appearances in the NCAA Semifinals and 18 trips to the national championship game. JHU's 29 trips to the NCAA Semifinals rank second all-time, while the 18 appearances in the national championship game are tied for the most.
Against the #7 Seed
• Johns Hopkins is 9-2 all-time against the team seeded #7 in the NCAA Tournament.
• Nine of the 11 games JHU has played against the #7 seed came when the Blue Jays were seeded #2; JHU is 8-1 in those nine games.
• The Blue Jays are 1-1 against the #7 seed as the unseeded team in a first round game. Johns Hopkins topped seventh-seeded Virginia, 19-7, in the first round in 2015 and fell to seventh-seeded Notre Dame in the first round in 2019.
Against the Defending National Champion
• Since the NCAA began sponsoring the national championship in 1971, Johns Hopkins has played the defending national champion 48 times, including 13 times in the NCAA Tournament.
• The Blue Jays are 23-25 all-time against the defending national champion, including 7-6 in the NCAA Tournament.
• Johns Hopkins eliminated the defending national champion in the following year's NCAA Tournament in 1973 (Virginia), 1974 (Maryland), 1978 (Cornell), 1983 (North Carolina), 1984 (Syracuse), 1987 (North Carolina) and 2003 (Syracuse).
Defensive Notes of Interest
• The Blue Jays have held the opposition scoreless for a stretch of 10 minutes or longer 21 times in 14 games. Eleven of those 21 stretches are 15 minutes or longer.
• 11 of JHU's 14 opponents to-date have been held under their season scoring average by the Blue Jays.
• In 14 games, Johns Hopkins has held the opposition to two goals or less in 32 of the 56 quarters that have been played.
• The two goals the Blue Jays allowed against Robert Morris in the season opener were the fewest JHU has allowed in a game since 2014, when the Blue Jays topped Mount St. Mary's, 14-2, on April 14, 2014.
• JHU held Robert Morris scoreless for a stretch of 38:11, the longest scoreless stretch by a Blue Jay opponent since Mount St. Mary's went 44:56 without scoring in that same game on April 14, 2014.
• The Blue Jays held Towson scoreless for the final 15:25 in a 13-11 win and then held Loyola scoreless for a stretch of 26:08 bridging the second and fourth quarters.
• In the regular season meeting, JHU held Penn State scoreless for 24:10 in the second half. During that stretch, the Blue Jays outscored the Nittany Lions 7-0 to grab an 11-9 lead in what became an 11-10 win.
Offensive Notes of Interest
• Since the start of the 2022 season, the Blue Jays are 35-6 when they score 12 or more goals.
• JHU has scored 11 or more goals in eight of 14 games this season. The Blue Jays are 8-0 in those seven games.
• The 17 goals the Blue Jays scored against Robert Morris are the most in a season opener since 1990, when JHU scored 20 in a 20-8 win against Princeton.
• In 56 quarters this season, the Blue Jays have scored at least two goals in 44 quarters, three or more goals in 31 quarters and four or more goals in 19 quarters. JHU has scored a season-best six goals in a quarter three different times.
Pole Goals
• In 14 games this season, the Blue Jays have gotten six goals from long poles as Quintan Kilrain (2), Parker Sorenson (2), Tyler Eye (1) and Charlie Hazard (1) have all found the back of the net.
• In 14 games last season, the Blue Jays got just three pole goals (Tyler Eye, Quintan Kilrain, Scott Smith).
Non-Offensive Scoring
• In 14 games this season, Johns Hopkins has gotten at least one point from 10 players who are not classified as offensive players.
• The ten have combined for 13 goals and nine assists for 22 points - 12 more than the group totaled in 2025. Sophomore faceoff specialist Joe Hobot (3g, 1a), junior defenseman Quintan Kilrain (2g, 2a), junior SSDM Warry Colhoun (1g, 2a) and freshman LSM/defenseman Parker Sorenson (2g, 1a) lead the way with 14 combined points.
• Last season, in 14 games, Johns Hopkins got a total of 10 points (5g, 5a) from non-offensive players.
First Midfield Producing
• The Blue Jays' first midfield unit of Matt Collison, Chuck Rawson and Brooks English has been among the most productive first lines in the nation this season.
• The trio has combined for 54 goals and 50 assists for 104 points, an average of 7.43 points per game thus far.
• Collison ranks second on the team in points (40) and goals (27), while Rawson has 21 goals and 14 assists for 35 points to rank third on the team in points, second in assists and fourth in goals. English, who had career-best five-point efforts against Loyola (1g, 4a) and Virginia (1g, 4a), has 29 points on six goals and a team-high 23 assists through 14 games.
DiCicco Leading the Nation
• Sophomore Reece DiCicco has emerged as one of the top short-stick defensive middies in the nation this season.
• Through 14 games, DiCicco has one assist, 51 ground balls and 22 caused turnovers to his credit. He leads the team in GBs and CTs entering this week's NCAA Tournament game against Cornell.
• DiCicco's 22 CTs also currently lead the nation among players who play with a short stick and are a school single-season record for a non-long stick player. Below are the national leaders in CTs among non-long sticks.
Record-Tying Rally
• The Blue Jays rallied from an 11-4 third-quarter deficit to top then 13th-ranked Virginia on February 28 in Charlottesville.
• JHU outscored the Cavaliers 10-2 in the final 24:22 of the game, including 6-1 in the fourth quarter.
• The rally from a seven-goal deficit marked just the second time in program history that Johns Hopkins has come from seven down to win a game.
• The only other documented seven-goal comeback in Johns Hopkins history came on March 24, 2018, when the Blue Jays erased a 9-2 halftime deficit at Virginia and won 15-13.
Another Rally
• Johns Hopkins trailed Penn State 9-4 with 12 minutes remaining in the third quarter on April 4 before rallying for an 11-10 victory.
• The Blue Jays scored seven straight goals in a span of just over 16 minutes to turn the 9-4 deficit into an 11-9 lead.
For Just the Second Time
• With a seven-goal comeback at Virginia (Feb. 28) and a five-goal rally against Penn State (Apr. 4), Johns Hopkins did something that had only been done once before in program history.
• With those two rallies in place, JHU has rallied from a deficit of five goals or more twice in the same season for just the second time.
• The only other time Johns Hopkins has turned this trick twice in one season was in 2018, when the Blue Jays rallied from a seven-goal deficit (9-2) at Virginia and then topped Georgetown in the first round of the NCAA Tournament after trailing by five (8-3).
Don't Leave Early
• Fans at Johns Hopkins lacrosse games shouldn't leave early as it's likely the game will be decided in the final 10 minutes.
• JHU recently played four straight games against Rutgers, Penn State, Ohio State and Maryland that were, to coin a baseball term, decided in walk-off fashion:
• The game against Rutgers was decided in double overtime, while junior Warry Colhoun deflected a Penn State shot high over the crossbar at the buzzer. Against Ohio State, Buckeye goalie Caleb Fyock made a point-blank save in the final 10 seconds to seal the victory for OSU, while the Blue Jay defense made a last-second stand to hold off Maryland.
• Close games are nothing new for the Blue Jays under head coach Peter Milliman. Dating back to the start of the 2023 season (a span of 62 games), the Blue Jays have played 37 games that have been decided by three goals or less, including 20, one-goal games, seven games decided by two goals and 10 others that have been decided by three goals.
• Since the start of the 2024 season (44 games), 29 Blue Jay games have been decided by three goals or less with 16 decided by one goal, five decided by two goals and eight decided by three goals.
• 11 of Johns Hopkins' 14 games last season were decided by three goals or less with five, one-goal games and six, three-goal games. Only three Johns Hopkins games last season - an 11-6 win against Georgetown, a 14-10 loss to Ohio State and a 10-4 loss at Penn State - were decided by more than three goals.
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