Johns Hopkins (4-2) welcomes Syracuse (3-1) to Homewood Field for a prime-time matchup featuring two of the top seven teams in the nation.

Last Time Out: Johns Hopkins slipped to 4-2 on the year with a 14-6 loss at Hofstra last Saturday night. Syracuse improved to 3-1 with a 15-12 win over Georgetown last Saturday at home.

Bouncing Back: Dating back to 1992, Johns Hopkins has lost a regular season game by six goals or more 10 times. In each of those instances the Blue Jays have bounced back to win their following game.

Series History: Johns Hopkins and Syracuse are meeting for the 48th time in a series that dates to a 4-4 tie in 1921. Johns Hopkins leads the all-time series 26-20-1, but the Orange have won the last three and four of the last five. A complete look at the series history can be found on page 9.

A First: This week's game between Johns Hopkins and Syracuse will be the first between the two teams at night at Homewood Field. JHU has played at the Carrier Dome at night several times (most recently in 2005), but SU has never played at Homewood in prime time.

Taking Out the Champs: Since the inception of the NCAA Tournament in 1971, Johns Hopkins has knocked off the defending national champion an amazing 18 times in the year following that team's championship (including games in the NCAA Tournament). Included in those 18 wins are seven against Syracuse (1989, 1991, 1994, 1996, 2001, 2003 -NCAA, 2005). Virginia ranks second with 16 wins against defending NCAA Champions.

Taking On the Champs: This week's game against Syracuse will mark the 29th consecutive year that JHU has played the defending national champion (obviously does not include years JHU won the title). In all, there have been 39 NCAA Championships since the inception of the tournament in 1971. Discounting the nine years following a Johns Hopkins title, the Blue Jays have played the defending national champion in the regular season in 28 of the 30 years after a team won the title and 29 of the 30 years if the NCAAs are included. The only time JHU did not play the defending champion was in 1972 (Cornell won the inaugural title in 1971).

These Are the Facts: Johns Hopkins enters this week's game against Syracuse with an all-time record of 896-285-15 (.755). The Blue Jays own nine NCAA titles, 29 USILA titles and six ILA titles for a total of 44 national championships.

That's 611 Games Over .500: The Blue Jays' all-time record is now 896-285-15 (.755) ... that's 611 games over .500. To put this in perspective: JHU has played an average of just over 15 games per season under head coach Dave Pietramala. Using a 15-game season as a reference, if the Blue Jays posted a 5-10 record for 120 straight seasons, they would still be 11 games over .500.

Home(wood) Sweet Home(wood): Johns Hopkins improved to 64-9 (.877) under Dave Pietramala at Homewood Field with last Tuesday's 16-10 win over UMBC. Included in those 64 wins are a school and an NCAA-record-tying 37-game winning streak from 2001-06 (ironically, it's Syracuse that also has a 37-game home winning streak to its credit).

Streaking: Johns Hopkins is 86-22 in its last 108 regular season games dating back to the end of the 2001 season and 102-28 overall since the start of the 2002 season.

Hopkins and Syracuse - The Measuring Sticks: The two programs that are used as the measuring stick of success in college lacrosse are Johns Hopkins and Syracuse. The Blue Jays and Orange have combined to win 20 of the 39 all-time NCAA Championships, including four of the last five, have made a combined total of 34 appearances in the NCAA Championship game and rank as the two winningest teams in college lacrosse history (JHU-896 wins / SU-796 wins).

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2010-03-19