May 12, 2004

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The Game: Top-seeded and top-ranked Johns Hopkins (11-1) opens play in the 2004 NCAA Tournament as the Blue Jays host Providence in the first round. Game time at Homewood Field is set for 1:00 pm on Saturday, May 15.

A Look Back: Johns Hopkins ran its winning streak to six games with an 11-7 win at Loyola last Saturday. Providence secured its first appearance in the NCAA Tournament with an 11-6 win over Manhattan in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC) Championship Game.

The Coaches: Dave Pietramala is in his fourth season as the head coach of the Blue Jays. The 2002 USILA National Coach of the Year, he sports an overall record of 68-26 (.723), including a 45-9 (.833) record at Johns Hopkins.

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Pietramala spent three years as the head coach at Cornell (1998-2000) before returning to his alma mater prior to the 2001 season. He is the only person in the history of college lacrosse who has earned NCAA Division I National Player of the Year honors (1989) and NCAA Division I National Coach of the Year honors (2000 & 2002).

Pietramala has guided the Blue Jays to the NCAA Tournament in each of his four seasons as the head coach at Homewood. This is his fifth straight appearance in the tournament as a head coach as Cornell advanced to the tournament in his final season as the head coach of the Big Red (2000).

Chris Burdick, a 1991 graduate of the University of Delaware, is in his sixth season as the head coach at Providence and sports a 42-52 record since taking over in 1999. Burdick guided the Friars to a share of the 2003 MAAC regular season title before grabbing the tournament title and subsequent automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament this season.

Prior to coming to Providence Burdick spent time as an assistant coach at Notre Dame, Delaware and Cornell. While at Notre Dame he helped the Fighting Irish to a pair of appearances in the NCAA Tournament.

Hopkins Lacrosse on the Radio: Johns Hopkins men's lacrosse games can be heard on WJFK-AM 1300 in Baltimore. The Johns Hopkins Lacrosse Game of the Week presented by Morgan Stanley begins with a pre-game show 15 minutes prior to faceoff and includes a 15-minute post-game show. All NCAA Tournament games will be broadcast. Joe Miller handles the play-by-play, while former JHU standout Larry Quinn handles the color commentary.

Hopkins Lacrosse on Television: There is no television broadcast scheduled for this week's Johns Hopkins-Providence game. The Blue Jays did play six games on television this season and won all six. JHU is 24-7 under head coach Dave Pietramala in televised games.

Hopkins Lacrosse on the Web: The official web site for Johns Hopkins athletics is located at www.HopkinsSports.com.

These Are The Facts: Johns Hopkins enters this week's game with an all-time record of 831-262-15 (.757) in 116 seasons of play. The Blue Jays own seven NCAA titles, 29 USILA titles and 6 ILA titles for a total of 42 national championships.

Captain My Captain: Senior attackman Conor Ford (Timonium, MD/St. Paul's), senior midfielder Kevin Boland (Jessup, MD/Gilman), senior LSM Corey Harned (Holbrook, NY/Sachem), senior defenseman Greg Raymond (Corning, NY/Corning East) and junior defenseman Chris Watson (Yorktown, NY/Yorktown) have been selected as team captains for Johns Hopkins this season.

All In the Family: For the fourth consecutive season, the Johns Hopkins coaching staff consists entirely of Johns Hopkins' graduates. Head coach Dave Pietramala and assistant coaches Seth Tierney (class of 1991), Bill Dwan (1991) and Pat Miller (2001) all earned their degree at JHU. Prior to the 2001 season when Pietramala, Tierney, Dwan and Howard Offit comprised the Blue Jay coaching staff, the last time the entire coaching staff was made up of JHU graduates was 1984, when the Blue Jays were coached by Don Zimmerman (1976), who was assisted by Jerry Pfeifer (1966), Joe Devlin (1978), Fred Smith (1950), Joe Cowan (1969), and Dennis Townsend (1966).

Tough: Johns Hopkins once again played the most difficult schedule in the nation (as rated by the Face-Off Yearbook/Under Armour Strength of Schedule Rankings). The Blue Jays played the three other teams that advanced to the Final Four last season (Syracuse, Maryland and Virginia), all four ACC schools (Virginia, Duke, North Carolina and Maryland), in-state rivals Towson, Loyola and Navy and Hofstra, Penn and Albany. Ten of those teams were ranked in the preseason top 20 and the other two (Penn and Albany) were receiving votes.

More Tough: The game against Towson on May 1 was the Blue Jays' eighth straight against a team ranked in the top 20 in the nation at the time of the game and the ninth overall against a team in the top 20.

A Final Tough: Five of Johns Hopkins' 12 games thus far have been played against teams ranked in the top five in the nation at the time of the game. The Blue Jays were 5-0 in those five games.

OK, One More: Johns Hopkins played eight games against teams that qualified for the 2004 NCAA Men's Lacrosse Championships. JHU was 8-0 in those eight games.

Brother Act: The Blue Jays have six players on this year's team whose brother previously played for Hopkins. Senior LSM Corey Harned (Chris), junior attackman Peter LeSueur (Paul), sophomore middie Greg Peyser (Mike), sophomore attackman Joe Benson (Bobby), sophomore goalie Scott Smith (Todd) and sophomore defenseman Andrew DiConza (P.J.) all followed older brothers to Johns Hopkins.

Home Sweet Home: Johns Hopkins has won 26 straight games at Homewood Field and is 27-1 at home under head coach Dave Pietramala. The Blue Jays' only home loss under Pietramala was a 9-8 loss in four overtimes to Virginia during the 2001 season. The current 26-game home winning streak is the longest for Johns Hopkins since the Blue Jays won 31 straight home games from 1982-85.

More Home: Johns Hopkins outscored its seven opponents at Homewood Field last season, 126-41. Through seven home games this season the Blue Jays have outscored their opponents, 95-52 (13.6 - 7.4).

Anytime, Anywhere: Including the win at 2nd-ranked Navy, 33 of the last 35 games Johns Hopkins has played away from Homewood Field have been against teams ranked in the top 20.

Regular-Season Roll: Johns Hopkins is 36-3 (.923) in its last 39 regular season games. This is the best 39-game regular season run for Johns Hopkins since JHU won 36-of-39 regular season games covering a span from 1982-86.

More Rolls: Dating back to the 2002 season, Johns Hopkins is 34-4 (.895) in its last 38 games (including the NCAA playoffs). Hopkins' four losses during that time have come by a total of six goals.

One-Goal Turnarounds: JHU is 16-4 in one-goal games under head coach Dave Pietramala (since the start of the 2001 season) and the Blue Jays have won 4-of-5 one-goal games this season. From the final game of the 1994 season through the 2000 season Johns Hopkins was 11-9 in one-goal games. Four of JHU's last six games have been one-goal games.

Overtime Notes: Johns Hopkins improved to 1-1 in overtime games this season with the 10-9 overtime victory over Navy. The Blue Jays are 5-2 in overtime under head coach Dave Pietramala.

This Looks Familiar: The Blue Jays are currently 11-1 on the year with the lone loss coming by one goal, on the road against the defending national champion (Virginia). At this same point last season, the Blue Jays were 11-1 with the lone loss coming by one goal, on the road against the defending national champion (Syracuse). Last season, JHU got its season-ending run to the NCAA Championship game started with a 6-5 victory on the road. On April 10 the Blue Jays picked up a, you guessed it, 6-5 victory on the road (Duke).

Younger Than You Think: Despite fielding a team that boasts starting experience at virtually every position, the Blue Jays are still not what you would consider a senior-laden team. In fact, of the players listed on the starting attack, the first two midfields, the starting defense, the top two goalies and the defensive midfield, only three are seniors.

Lucky Number Eight: Hopkins returns eight of its top 10 scorers from last season. Only Bobby Benson (41g, 12a) and Adam Doneger (28g, 7a) are gone from the Blue Jays' top 10 scorers from last season, when JHU led the nation in scoring offense (14.0 gpg.).

I'm Honored: Juniors Kyle Barrie and Kyle Harrison and senior Kevin Boland all garnered STX/USILA All-America honors last season. Barrie was the only sophomore to earn first team honors, while Harrison earned second team status and was the only sophomore among the five finalists for the Tewaaraton Award. Boland garnered third team honors for the second straight year.

Stars and Stripes: The Blue Jays had four current players who were members of the 2003 United States Under-19 World Championship Team. Sophomores Greg Peyser, Kyle Dowd and Matt Pinto and freshman Eric Zerrlaut all helped lead the red, white and blue to U-19 title.

Quick Starts: JHU outscored the opposition, 55-29 in the first quarter last season and 114-59 in the first half. Through 12 games this season the Blue Jays hold a 78-40 scoring advantage in the first half. The margin stands at 39-19 in the first quarter and 39-21 in the second quarter.

A Pesky Bunch: Johns Hopkins, which currently ranks 11th nationally in scoring defense (7.33 goals/game), had its consecutive games streak of holding the opposition to less than 10 goals snapped at 18 when Maryland's Bill McGlone scored with 26 seconds remaining in the 14-10 win over the Terps. Prior to Maryland, the last team to score 10 goals against the Blue Jays was North Carolina (3-29-03).

More Pesky: The last team to score more than 10 goals against Johns Hopkins was Syracuse, which scored 15 in a 15-14 victory over the Blue Jays on March 15, 2003. The current streak of holding the opposition to 10 goals or less now stands at 24 games for the Blue Jays.

Player Notes of Interest

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