Nov. 23, 2005

BALTIMORE, MD -- Johns Hopkins men's lacrosse coach Dave Pietramala announced today that four players have been selected to serve as team captains for the upcoming 2006 season. Johns Hopkins will open the 2006 season at home on Saturday, February 25 against Albany.

Seniors Greg Peyser (Lloyd Harbor, NY/Cold Spring Harbor), Matt Pinto (Baltimore, MD/Loyola) and Matt Feild (Phoenix, MD/Boys' Latin) and junior Jake Byrne (Potomac, MD/Landon) were all selected to serve as team captains for the 2006 season. This will be the first time any of the four has served as a captain for the Blue Jays.

Peyser finished fifth on the team in scoring last season as he had 17 goals and six assists for 23 points from his midfield position. He also won 75-of-121 (.620) faceoffs and added 63 ground balls. His goal, point and ground ball totals were all career highs and he would have ranked among the top five in the nation if he had taken more faceoffs on the year (players must take at least 40% of the team's total faceoffs to qualify among the national leaders). Peyser won 13-of-23 faceoffs, had 15 ground balls and scored a pair of goals in Final Four victories over Virginia and Duke and earned a spot on the NCAA All-Tournament team for his efforts. He now has career totals of 35 goals and 21 assists for 56 points to go along with 163 ground balls. He has also won 208-of-337 (.617) faceoffs.

Pinto started all 16 games last season and all 31 games in the last two years on close defense. He earned Honorable Mention STX/USILA All-America honors last season as he helped anchor a JHU defense that finished second in the nation in scoring defense (6.94) and held 14 of 16 opponents to nine goals or less and 10 opponents to seven goals or less. He had a career-high 26 ground balls to his credit last season and JHU has allowed more than nine goals just four times in his 31 starts over the last two years.

Feild played in all 16 games as a short-stick defensive midfielder last season and has played in all 47 games over the last three years (most of any returning player in 2006). He had nine ground balls during the 2005 season and is the only member of the senior class who has played in every game over the last three years. He teamed with now-graduated Benson Erwin to give the Blue Jays one of the top short stick defensive midfield tandems in the nation last season and was a key figure on a JHU defense that finished second in the nation in scoring defense (6.94).

Byrne earned Honorable Mention STX/USILA All-America honors on attack last season after playing midfield as a freshman. He finished third on the team in assists (10) and points (32) and fourth in goals (22) to run his career totals to 30 goals and 20 assists for 50 points. He scored two goals against Virginia in the NCAA Semifinals and one against Duke in the NCAA Championship game. His second goal against Virginia came with just 1.4 seconds remaining in regulation and helped force overtime, while his goal against Duke with 13:35 remaining in the fourth quarter proved to be the game-winner.

Under Pietramala's guidance the Blue Jays posted a 16-0 record last season and claimed the program's eighth NCAA Championship with a 9-8 win over Duke in the title game. The Blue Jays are 55-6 since the beginning of the 2002 season and 63-10 since Pietramala arrived in 2001. Johns Hopkins has advanced to the Final Four in each of the last four years.

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