May 7, 2004

The Team: Johns Hopkins finished its regular season 12-4 overall and 4-2 in the American Lacrosse Conference after falling at No. 18 Penn State, 12-9, Saturday.

The Coach: Janine Tucker is 134-49 (.732) in her 11th season at Hopkins. Tucker is the all-time winningest coach at Homewood and has led the Blue Jays to double-digit win totals in each of her 11 seasons.

This Week: Hopkins is idle this week. The Blue Jays will hope to make their first appearance in the NCAA Division I Tournament. The field will be announced Sunday at 6:30 p.m. on College Sports Television. NCAA First Round games will be held on Thursday, May 13.

Last Week: Eight different Nittany Lions scored goals as the No. 18 Penn State women's lacrosse team used a balanced attack to defeat Hopkins, 12-9, Saturday. Mary Key (Stevensville, MD/St. Mary's of Annapolis) scored a game-high four goals while Heidi Pearce (Chestertown, MD/St. Andrew's-DE) added three goals and five draw controls. Kate Gilland (Medford, NJ/Shawnee) led the Hopkins defense with four ground balls and three caused turnovers, while Lacey-Leigh Hentz (Hampstead, MD/North Carroll) added three ground balls and two caused turnovers and Julia Kleene (Brighton, NY/Brighton) won three draw controls. Lauren Riddick (Crozet, VA/St. Anne's-Belfield) made a career-high 12 saves in the Hopkins goal.

Hopkins Fall To No. 10 In IWLCA Poll: The Blue Jays received 165 points and fell to No. 10 in the IWLCA Poll.

Blue Jays Finish Third in ALC: Vanderbilt defeated Northwestern, 10-9, in double overtime Thursday to finish 5-1 in the American Lacrosse Conference, while the Wildcats were also 5-1 and Hopkins was third with a 4-2 mark.

Hopkins Faced Challenging Schedule: The Blue Jays split their eight games this season against teams ranked in the IWLCA Poll. Hopkins defeated No. 19 Ohio State, 13th-ranked Boston University, No. 9 Vanderbilt, and sixth-ranked Notre Dame, while falling to seventh-ranked Maryland, No. 6 Duke, No. 11 Northwestern and No. 18 Penn State. The sixth-ranked Fighting Irish were the highest-ranked team ever defeated by Hopkins.

A Dominant Start: Hopkins won its first 10 games of the season for the first time in six years at the Division I level. The Blue Jays won their first four games during the 1999 season but dropped their season-openers in each of the next four years. The last time JHU opened the season with at least 10 wins was in 1994, when the Blue Jays started 16-0 in Janine Tucker's first season at Homewood. The 10-game winning streak was also the longest since Hopkins moved to Division I. The Blue Jays won eight in a row from March 10 to April 5 in the 2000 season.

Hopkins In The NCAA: The Blue Jays entered the week ranked ninth in Division I with 12.81 goals scored per game, 10th with 25.63 ground balls per game and 11th with a +3.81 scoring margin. Mary Key ranked ninth in the nation with 4.44 points per game and 10th with 3.25 goals per game, while Lacey-Leigh Hentz was 14th with 3.19 ground balls per game.

Hopkins In The ALC: The Blue Jays lead the conference with 25.62 ground balls per game. Hopkins also ranks second with 12.81 goals per game and with 9.00 goals allowed per game, fourth with 12.00 draw controls per game and fifth with 8.81 caused turnovers per game. Below are the Blue Jays ranked among the conference individual leaders.

Jays Among National and Conference Leaders:
Player	Stat	No.	Nation	ALC
Lauren Riddick	GAA	9.01	-	2nd
	SV%	44.0	-	6th

Mary Key	PPG	4.44	9th	1st
	GPG	3.25	10th	1st
	APG	1.19	-	5th
	DCPG	1.69	-	9th

Heidi Pearce	PPG	3.44	-	7th
	GPG	2.38	-	T-6th
	APG	1.06	-	7th
	DCPG	1.81	-	4th
	GBPG	2.56	-	4th
	CTPG	1.31	-	3rd

Kate Gilland	GBPG	2.50	-	6th
	CTPG	1.25	-	4th

Lacey-Leigh Hentz	GBPG	3.19	14th	2nd
	CTPG	1.81	-	2nd

Pearce Moving Up Career Charts: Heidi Pearce ranks seventh at Hopkins with 147 career goals, eighth with 195 career points and ninth with 48 career assists. She ranks second on the Division I career goals list and is third in both career points and career assists.

Key Continues Impressive Season: Mary Key scored a game-high four goals at Penn State and leads the Blue Jays with 52 goals, 19 assists and 71 points this season. Key's 71 points are one shy of the Hopkins Division I single-season points mark - Danielle Maschuci posted 72 during the 2000 season.

Pearce Named To Tewaaraton Nominee List: Heidi Pearce is one of 20 Division I players nominated for the Tewaaraton Award, given annually to the top women's lacrosse player in the nation.