Feb. 6, 2006

BALTIMORE, MD - The Johns Hopkins women's lacrosse team is ranked #9 in the season's first Bounce Entertainment/Inside Lacrosse poll. NCAA defending national champion Northwestern earned the #1 spot.

Eight of the Blue Jays opponents in 2006 are ranked in the poll, including American Lacrosse Conference opponents Northwestern, Vanderbilt, and Penn State. Non-conference opponents in the top-20 include Princeton, Maryland, Georgetown, Towson and Penn.

The Blue Jays, who finished last year #10 in the final IWLCA, Inside Lacrosse, and womenslacrosse.com polls, return 10 starters including the nation's leading scorer, junior Mary Key. Johns Hopkins went 11-6 overall and 3-3 in the ALC last season. The Blue Jays earned an at-large bid to the NCAA tournament, where they faced defending champion Virginia in the first round and lost 10-8.

The Bounce Entertainment/Inside Lacrosse media poll comes out every Monday during the season and is comprised of pollsters from various media outlets throughout the country. Bounce Entertainment, the sponsor of the poll, is a conglomerate made up of entities geared toward expanding women's lacrosse and having a direct impact on the lives of girls playing lacrosse.

The Blue Jays open the 2006 season at George Washington on Sunday Feb. 26 at 1:00 p.m. Hopkins debut at home on Saturday Mar. 4 at 5:00 p.m. in a double-header with the JHU men's lacrosse team.

Bounce Entertainment/Inside Lacrosse Women's Media Poll 1. Northwestern-318 Points (14 first place votes) 2. Duke-300 (2 first place votes) 3. Princeton-270 4. Maryland-250 5. North Carolina-241 6. Dartmouth-234 7. Virginia-218 8. Boston University-213 9. Johns Hopkins-204 10. Penn State-200 11. Georgetown-166 12. Loyola-148 13. Syracuse-123 14. Vanderbilt-111 15. Towson-97 16. Cornell-88 17. Stanford-57 18. Richmond-38 19. Pennsylvania-24 19. Pennsylvania-24?20. Hofstra-18

??Others receiving votes: Temple 14, Delaware 6, Notre Dame 6, Rutgers 5, Yale 4, Colgate 2, William and Mary 2, Pennsylvania 1, James Madison 1, George Washington 1? ?