May 10, 2005

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2005 NCAA Division I Men's Lacrosse Bracket in PDF Format
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The Game: Top-seeded Johns Hopkins (12-0) opens play in the 2005 NCAA Division I Men’s Lacrosse Tournament as the Blue Jays host tournament newcomer Marist (8-7).

Last Time Out: Hopkins completed its first undefeated regular season since 1995 as the Blue Jays knocked off Loyola, 12-6 in the regular season finale last Saturday. Marist is coming off a a 10-6 win over Mount St. Mary’s in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference Championship game. Marist earned the MAAC’s automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament with the victory.

These are the Facts: Johns Hopkins enters this week’s game with an all-time record of 845-263-15 (.759) in 118 seasons of play. The Blue Jays own seven NCAA Championships, 29 USILA titles and six ILA titles for a total of 42 national championships.

34 In a Row: This year’s tournament bid is the 34th straight for the Johns Hopkins men’s lacrosse team. This is not only the longest streak in lacrosse it is the longest active streak of qualifying for an NCAA Tournament in any Division I Team Sport (see page 5 sidebar for more information).

Blue Jays Earn Top Seed: Johns Hopkins locked up the number one seed in the NCAA Tournament with the win over Loyola last Saturday. The Blue Jays have been seeded number one in each of the last four years and 11 times since the tournament began in 1971. This is the second time in JHU history the Blue Jays have been seeded number one in four straight tournaments. Hopkins earned the top seed in 1983, 1984, 1985 and 1986. These represent the only two times in the history of the tournament a team has earned the number one seed four straight times.

And the Winner Gets: The winner of the Johns Hopkins-Marist first round game will play the winner of the Syracuse-Massachusetts first round game. That game will be played at Johns Hopkins (regardless of who wins the JHU-Marist game) on Saturday, May 21. Homewood Field is the predetermined site of the south quarterfinal doubleheader. The other game that day will pit the winner of the Navy-Delaware game against the winner of the Virginia-Albany game.

Fastest 50: With the win over Hofstra, Dave Pietramala tied Ray Van Orman (1926-34) as the third-fastest coaches to reach 50 wins in Johns Hopkins history. Don Zimmerman (1984-90) won 50 of his first 57 games, while Henry Ciccarone (1975-83) won 50 of his first 59. Van Orman needed 60 games to get 50 wins, a mark Pietramala tied with the win over Hofstra. Pietramala now sports an overall coaching record of 81-27 (.750), including a 58-10 (.853) mark. He moved into sixth place on JHU’s career coaching victories list with last week’s win over Towson.

Brother Act: The Blue Jays have one set of brothers on this year’s team, while five other players have older brothers who previously played at Hopkins. Junior midfielder Greg Peyser is the older brother of freshman midfielder Stephen Peyser, while senior attackman Peter LeSueur (Paul), junior midfielder Joe Benson (Bobby), junior goalie Scott Smith (Todd), junior defenseman Andrew DiConza (P.J.) and freshman attackman Michael Doneger (Adam) all followed older brothers to Johns Hopkins.

Chip Off the Old Block: Freshman attackman Kevin Huntley doesn’t have an older brother who played at Hopkins, but he is following in the footsteps of his dad, Dave Huntley, who was a standout midfielder for the Blue Jays from 1976-79. Dave Huntley earned All-America honors three times during his career and was the national midfielder of the year as a senior. Dave Huntley is JHU’s career goal-scoring leader among midfielders with 100.

Another Family Tie: Senior goalie James Maimone-Medwick is the nephew of Bob Maimone, who played at Johns Hopkins from 1974-77. Bob Maimone ranks among JHU’s all-time leaders in ground balls and is one of the top faceoff specialists in school history as well.

Classic Comeback: The Blue Jays’ come-from-behind win over Syracuse on March 18 was Hopkins’ biggest come-from behind victory in over six years. JHU trailed 7-1 late in the 2nd quarter before rallying for a 12-11 overtime victory. The last time JHU had erased a six-goal deficit to win a game was on March 6, 1999, when the Blue Jays erased a 9-3 deficit and beat Princeton, 12-11.

Home Sweet Home: The win over Loyola extended Hopkins’ school-record home winning streak to 34 games. The last time the Blue Jays lost a game at home was on March 24, 2001 when Virginia slipped past the Blue Jays, 9-8 in quadruple overtime. That game ranks as the longest in both Johns Hopkins and Virginia history and also represents the only game the Blue Jays have lost at Homewood Field under head coach Dave Pietramala.

Below is a list of JHU’s all-time longest home winning streaks.

Johns Hopkins All-Time Longest Home Winning Streaks

From Until # of Games

April 3, 2001 Active 34

April 24, 1982 May 19, 1985 31

April 29, 1978 March 20, 1982 30

More Home Sweet Home: In addition to boasting the longest active home winning streak in the nation and the longest home winning streak in school history, JHU’s current 34-game home winning streak is the second-longest in Division I history (since 1971). Since 1971, when the NCAA began tracking such records, Johns Hopkins boasts three of the four all-time home winning streaks of 30 or more games. Below is the list of the five longest home winning streaks in Division I history:

All-Time Longest Division I Home Winning Streaks (1971 - Present)

Team Dates Wins

Syracuse April 24, 1982 - March 18, 1987 37

Johns Hopkins April 3, 2001 - Active 34

Johns Hopkins April 24, 1982 - May 19, 1985 31

Johns Hopkins April 29, 1978 - March 20, 1982 30

Syracuse April 18, 1987 - May 20, 1990 26

Other Home Notes of Interest

• Johns Hopkins has defeated three teams during its current 34-game home winning streak that entered the game ranked number one in the nation.

• Johns Hopkins has defeated 10 teams during its current 34-game home winning streak that entered the game ranked in the top five in the nation.

• Johns Hopkins has defeated 15 teams during its current 34-game home winning streak that entered the game ranked in the top 10 in the nation.

• Johns Hopkins has defeated 21 teams during its current 34-game home winning streak that entered the game ranked in the top 20 in the nation.

• Johns Hopkins has won nine, one-goal games during its current 34-game home winning streak.

• Johns Hopkins has won four overtime games during its current 34-game home winning streak.

• The current seniors on the Johns Hopkins lacrosse team are 30-0 at home

• During the current 34-game home winning streak the Blue Jays have outscored the opposition, 445-238

• Over the last 25 seasons (1980-present) Johns Hopkins is 163-25 (.867) at home

Pulling Rank: Johns Hopkins is ranked first in this week’s GEICO/STX Coaches Poll. Johns Hopkins has ended the regular season ranked number one in each of the last four years. The Blue Jays were ranked number one for nine weeks last season (out of 11), including the last five. Since the beginning of the 2002 season, Johns Hopkins has spent 32 of 42 weeks ranked number one. From 1996-2001 the Blue Jays were ranked number one for a total of one week.

The Johns Hopkins Sports Information Office uses the GEICO/STX Coaches Poll as the official poll when listing a team’s ranking.

Wire-to-Wire: Johns Hopkins is the first team to go through an entire season ranked number one since Princeton turned the trick in 1997.

Regular-Season Roll: Johns Hopkins is 48-3 (.941) in its last 51 regular season games. This is the best 51-game regular season run for Johns Hopkins since JHU won 49-of-51 regular season games covering a span from 1977-82.

More Rolls: Dating back to the 2002 season, Johns Hopkins is 48-5 (.906) in its last 53 games (including the NCAA playoffs). Hopkins’ five losses during that time have come by a total of 12 goals.

One-Goal Turnarounds: JHU is 19-4 in one-goal games under head coach Dave Pietramala and the Blue Jays have won 10 of their last 11 one-goal games. In its previous 23 one-goal games (covering a span from 1992 through 2000), Hopkins was 13-10.

Overtime Notes: Including the victory over Navy, the Blue Jays are 8-2 in overtime under head coach Dave Pietramala.

Tough: Johns Hopkins is once again playing the most difficult schedule in the nation. For the second consecutive year the Blue Jays topped the Face-Off Yearbook/Under Armour Strength of Schedule Rankings. The Blue Jays’ S.O.S rating of 165 edged second-place Virginia, which had a rating of 161.

A quick look at the NCAA Tournament bracket reveals just how difficult the Blue Jays’ schedule is. The Blue Jays played the teams that are seeded second (Duke), third (Maryland), fourth (Virginia), fifth (Navy) and seventh (Towson) and also played Syracuse and Albany, which earned bids to the tournament as well.

Blue Jays Reach Season High: The 19 goals the Blue Jays scored in the win over Albany are a season-high and the most Hopkins has scored since the 2003 NCAA Semifinals, when Hopkins knocked off Syracuse, 19-8.

Player Notes of Interest Included in PDF Version