MEDIA RELEASE
Eighth-ranked Johns Hopkins (4-2) hits the road for the first time since February 20 as the Blue Jays travel to Charlottesville to take on Virginia (3-5). Faceoff is set for 1:01 pm with a live national television audience on ESPNU.
A Look Back: Johns Hopkins ran its winning streak to three games with an 11-10 overtime victory against then third-ranked Syracuse last Saturday at Homewood Field. Virginia was on the other side of an overtime decision last Saturday as the Cavaliers dropped an 8-7 decision at second-ranked Notre Dame.
Series History: Johns Hopkins and Virginia are meeting for the 91st time in a series that dates to a 9-0 Johns Hopkins win in 1904. The Blue Jays lead the all-time series 59-30-1 and won the last meeting, 19-7, in the first round of the 2015 NCAA Tournament. Detailed series information can be found on page 12.
These are the Facts: Johns Hopkins enters this week’s game against Virginia with an all-time record of 959-317-15 (.749). The Blue Jays own nine NCAA titles, 29 USILA titles and six ILA titles for a total of 44 national championships.
Poll Position: Johns Hopkins is ranked eighth in this week’s USILA Coaches Poll and seventh in the Cascade/Maverick Media Poll. Virginia is among the teams listed as receiving votes in both the USILA Coaches Poll and the Cascade/Maverick Media Poll.
Playing for the Cup: The winner of this week’s game between Johns Hopkins and Virginia will be presented with the Doyle Smith Cup, which goes to the winner of the annual regular season game between the two teams.
Doyle Smith arrived at Johns Hopkins from Corvallis, Oregon in 1962 and served as the manager of the lacrosse team throughout his tenure at Homewood. He graduated from Johns Hopkins Phi Beta Kappa and worked under the guidance of Hall of Fame coach Bob Scott before moving to the University of Virginia, where he served as the Director of Media Relations for the men’s lacrosse program for 30 years.
Doyle’s devotion to the sport of men’s lacrosse was remarkable. He served as the information director for the USILA for many years and was the official statistician at the NCAA Men’s Lacrosse Championships for over two decades. He also was responsible for the standardization and accuracy of men’s lacrosse statistics and became the face and voice of the USILA during his time at Virginia. In 2000, he became the first non-player, non-coach to be inducted into the National Lacrosse Hall of Fame.
By a joint acclimation between Johns Hopkins University and the University of Virginia, it was established during the 2006 season that the regular-season game contested between the Blue Jays and the Cavaliers be known as the game for the Doyle Smith Cup.
Yes, It’s Pietramala’s Win: Johns Hopkins men’s lacrosse coach Dave Pietramala missed last week’s game against Syracuse, a game the Blue Jays won, 11-10, in overtime. Although the team was led that day by associate head coach Bill Dwan, per NCAA policy, Pietramala is credited with the victory.
Closing on 200: Last week’s win against Syracuse was the 196th in the college coaching career of Johns Hopkins men’s lacrosse coach Dave Pietramala. Pietramala improved his overall record to 196-81 (.708) and his record at Johns Hopkins to 173-64 (.730) with the win over Syracuse.
That’s Tough: Through games of March 23, Johns Hopkins had the toughest schedule in the nation based on the cumulative record of its past opponents to date. The Blue Jays’ six regular season opponents have posted a combined record of 27-10 (.722) through games of March 23.
Most Viewed – Part I: Johns Hopkins ranks second in the nation in average home attendance through games of March 23 as the Blue Jays have averaged 2,483 fans for their first four home games. Only Syracuse, which is averaging 3,512 fans through four home games, has a higher average home attendance than Johns Hopkins.
Most Viewed – Part II: Johns Hopkins has played two road games thus far (one road game at UMBC was postponed and has been rescheduled for March 30). In those two games, Johns Hopkins helped draw two of the hightest online viewership numbers in Patriot League Network (PLN) history. The Johns Hopkins-Navy game on February 9 drew a PLN-record 20,624 unique viewers, while the Johns Hopkins-Loyola game on February 20 drew just under 16,000 unique viewers.
Against the ACC: This week’s game against Virginia will be the 214th all-time for Johns Hopkins against a team currently in the ACC. Johns Hopkins is 129-82-2 (.610) all-time against current ACC schools. Note that not all of these games were played against teams while they were a member of the ACC.
Balanced Scoring: Through six games, Johns Hopkins is using a balanced scoring attack to average 12.2 goals per game. The Blue Jays, who rank 15th in the nation in scoring offense, have eight different players who have scored five or more goals and nine players with five or more points thus far.
In all, Johns Hopkins has gotten goals from 13 different players, assists from 14 different players and 17 players have at least one point. In the entire 2015 season, Johns Hopkins got goals from 14 players and assists from 15 players – marks the Blue Jays have nearly matched through just six games.
Brown, Stanwick on Tewaaraton Watch List: Senior attackman Ryan Brown and sophomore attackman Shack Stanwick are among the 65 men’s players listed on the 2016 Tewaaraton Watch List. Brown was among the 50 original players named on February 23, while Stanwick was among 15 players added to the list on March 17. The Tewaaraton Award annually honors the top male and female college lacrosse player in the United States.
Brown Has Nation’s Fifth-Longest Streak: Senior attackman Ryan Brown extended his point-scoring streak to 40 games with one goal and one assist in the 11-10 overtime victory against Syracuse. The streak ranks as the fifth-longest active streak in the nation entering this week’s game at Virginia and is the longest by a Johns Hopkins player since Terry Riordan had a 56-game streak from 1992-95.
New Faces on Defense: Juniors Nick Fields (D) and Joe Carlini (SSDM) are the only two players who saw extended regular playing time on defense last season for the Blue Jays who are back in the rotation this season. Fields is joined on close defense by freshman Patrick Foley, junior transfer Austin Spencer and graduate student transfer Ben Kellar. Kellar started the first three games, but Spencer got the nod in the last three games with Kellar coming off the bench. Spencer had been playing long stick midfield before moving down low.
Carlini’s regular linemates include freshman Robert Kuhn (LSM), senior Derrick Kihembo (LSM), sophomores Tal Bruno (SSDM) and Chris Hubler (SSDM) and senior Kelton Black (SSDM). Kihembo (1g) and Kuhn (1a) worked their way onto the scoresheet against Princeton.
Add in sophomore goalie Brock Turnbaugh, who is in his first season as a starter, and senior Matt O’Keefe, a man-down specialist, and the wholesale changes on that end of the field are even more obvious.
Extra-Extra: Johns Hopkins has scored at least two extra-man goals in five of its six games this season and is currently 14-of-22 (.636) in extra-man situations this season. Johns Hopkins currently ranks second in the nation in extra-man percentage and the Blue Jays are one of just three teams converting at better than 60%.
More Extra-Extra: Johns Hopkins scored 38 extra-man goals in 2015 and much of the damage was done by players who are back this season. In fact, players who accounted for all 38 Blue Jay extra-man goals are back, while 23 of the team’s 33 assists accumulated on the extra-man are also back. Hopkins converted 38-of-82 (.463) extra-man chances last season to finish 11th in the nation. The 38 extra-man goals the Blue Jays scored last season were the most for Johns Hopkins since 2003 (40).
Scoring Droughts: The Johns Hopkins defense contiues to improve as the season unfolds. After allowing a total of 35 goals in the first three games, the unit has held the opposition to a total of just 25 goals in its last three outings. A big part of the unit’s success has been its ability to hold the opposition scoreless for long stretches.
In fact, through six games, Johns Hopkins has already held the opposition without a goal for a stretch of 10 minutes or longer 11 times and 15 minutes or longer twice.
In Overtime: With last week’s win against Syracuse, Johns Hopkins is 23-13 (.639) all-time in overtime under head coach Dave Pietramala. The Blue Jays have currently won three straight overtime games.
One Goal Games: With last week’s win against Syracuse, Johns Hopkins is 48-24 (.667) in one-goal games under head coach Dave Pietramala.
In the Polls: The Blue Jays are ranked eighth in this week’s USILA Coaches Poll. The Johns Hopkins Athletic Communications Office uses the USILA Poll to represent JHU’s official ranking at the time of a game. Prior to falling out of the top 20 of the USILA Poll on April 26 and May 3, 2010 (JHU was receiving votes in both polls), the Blue Jays had been ranked in the top 20 in 367 consecutive polls dating back to the first poll in 1973.
More Polls: Including the most recent USILA Poll, there have been 442 weekly polls since the inception of the poll in 1973. Amazingly, JHU has been ranked in the top 20 in 437 of those 442 polls (98.9%). The Blue Jays have been in the top 10 in 401 of the 442 and the top five in 304 of those 442. Johns Hopkins has been ranked number one 104 times since the poll debuted in 1973.
Blue Jays Win First-Ever Big 10 Tournament: Johns Hopkins earned the first conference title in school history with the 13-6 win over Ohio State in last season’s Big Ten title game. The Big Ten sponsored men’s lacrosse for the first time in 2015. JHU shared the regular season title with Maryland, earned the top seed in the tournament via a head-to-head win against the Terps and then topped Penn State and Ohio State in the tournament to claim the league’s automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament.