May 23, 2007

Johns Hopkins-Delaware Men's Lacrosse Notes in PDF Format
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Setting the Scene: Third-seeded Johns Hopkins (11-4) and Delaware (13-5) meet for the first time in 23 years in the NCAA Semifinals at Baltimore's M&T Bank Stadium. The Blue Jays and Blue Hens will play in the first semifinal with faceoff scheduled for 12:05 pm.

Looking Back: Johns Hopkins sprinted out to a 6-1 halftime lead and cruised to a 14-6 win over sixth-seeded Georgetown. Hopkins had opened its NCAA Tournament run with an 11-10 win in overtime against Notre Dame in the first round. Delaware continued its magical run with a 10-6 win over UMBC in last week's quarterfinals. That followed a 14-8 win at defending national champion Virginia in the first round.

Poll Position: Johns Hopkins is ranked fifth in the USILA Coaches Poll and fifth in the Nike/Inside Lacrosse Media Poll. Delaware is ranked 15th by the coaches and 14th by the media. The Johns Hopkins Sports Information Office uses the USILA Poll to reflect JHU's official ranking at the time of a game.

These are the Facts: Johns Hopkins enters the game against Delaware with an all-time record of 869-272-15 (.758). The Blue Jays own eight NCAA titles, 29 USILA titles and six ILA titles for a total of 43 championships.

Blue Jays Advance to Semifinals for 27th Time: Last week's 14-6 win over Georgetown in the NCAA Quarterfinals moved Johns Hopkins into the NCAA Semifinals for the fifth time in six years, the seventh time in nine years and the 27th time overall. For comparison, only three other teams (Maryland-30, Virginia-30, Syracuse-27) have even qualified for the tournament 27 or more times.

Hopkins Earns Top Four Seed: Johns Hopkins earned the number three seed in the 2007 NCAA Tournament to extend its streak of top four seeds to 11 years. The Blue Jays have been seeded in the top four every year since 1997. Only one other team in the nation (Georgetown) has even qualified for the NCAA Tournament every year since 1997. The next longest streak of consecutive years earning a top four seed belongs to Virginia, which was seeded in the top four for the third straight season.

Johns Hopkins Earns 36th Straight NCAA Tournament Bid: The Blue Jays ran their NCAA record streak of qualifying for the NCAA Tournament to 36 straight years with their selection to this year's tournament. Johns Hopkins' current streak of 36 straight appearances in the NCAA Tournament is more than three times longer than the next longest active streak (Georgetown - 11).

Packing the Whites: For all the streaks the Blue Jays have that speak of their consistency through the years, there might be one that breaks is down to the most basic form. Johns Hopkins will wear its white jerseys against Delaware, a symbol that means the Blue Jays are the higher seeded team in the game. Amazingly, this will be the 19th consecutive NCAA Tournament game the Blue Jays have played (all under Dave Pietramala) as the higher seeded team. The last time Johns Hopkins played an NCAA Tournament game as the lower seeded team was in the 2000 NCAA Semifinals, when the fourth-seeded Blue Jays fell to top-seeded Syracuse 14-12.

Pietramala Stands Alone: Johns Hopkins head coach Dave Pietramala is the only person in lacrosse history who has won an NCAA Division I Championship as a player (1987) and a head coach (2005). He is also the only person who has been named the national player of the year and the national coach of the year.

More Petro: Head coach Dave Pietramala coached his 100th game at Johns Hopkins against Loyola and improved his record at JHU to 83-19 (.814) with the win over Georgetown. His overall record now stands at 106-36 (including a 23-17 mark in three seasons at Cornell). Only Hall of Famers Bob Scott and Henry Ciccarone have won more games at Hopkins than Pietramala.

The Edge in Experience: Johns Hopkins head coach Dave Pietramala will bring the youngest team to this week's Final Four and two of the three other coaches have been on the sideline for more than twice as many games as he has. However, he does have a significant experience advatnage in games coached in the Final Four. Saturday's game against Delaware will be the seventh game he has coached on lacrosse's biggest stage (fifth semifinal / two championship games). The other three coaches have coached a combined total of zero games in the Final Four.

Streaking: Johns Hopkins is 65-11 in its last 76 regular season games dating back to the end of the 2001 season and 75-15 overall since the start of the 2002 season.

Streak Snappers: Johns Hopkins is riding the crest of a seven-game winning streak entering this week's NCAA Semifinal game against Delaware. The Blue Jays' last two wins have come against teams that entered their game against Johns Hopkins with impressive winning streaks of their own as both Notre Dame and Georgetown carried eight-game winning streaks into the game against JHU. Delaware, JHU's opponent in the NCAA Semifinals, will carry a seven-game winning streak into the game vs. Hopkins.

One-Goal Turnarounds: The 11-10 overtime win against Notre Dame improved Hopkins' recent run of success in one-goal games as JHU is 29-6 in one-goal games under head coach Dave Pietramala. The Blue Jays have won 16 of their last 18 and 20 of their last 23 one-goal games. In the five seasons prior to Pietramala arriving (1996-2000) the Blue Jays were 5-8 in one-goal games.

More One-Goal Notes: The Blue Jays have come from behind to win 14 times during their last 16 one-goal wins. In 10 of those 14 come-from-behind one-goal wins the Blue Jays have come back from a deficit of two goals or more. The latest of these come-from-behind one-goal wins came against Notre Dame, when the Blue Jays erased a 4-1 second-quarter deficit.

Blue Jays Continue Overtime Roll: Johns Hopkins continued an amazing run of success in overtime games with the win against Notre Dame. The Blue Jays improved to 13-2 in overtime under head coach Dave Pietramala and have currently won nine straight games that have gone to extra time. More impressively, the Blue Jays are 6-1 in road games that have gone to overtime under Pietramala.
Junior Paul Rabil became the first player in school history to score two game-winning goals in overtime in one season as he had previously netted the deciding goal in the second overtime of a 7-6 win against Princeton this season before nailing the winner against the Terps.
Records indicate that Johns Hopkins played its first overtime game in the 1973 NCAA Championship game ... a 10-9 double overtime loss to Maryland. Hopkins boasts an overall record of 22-13 in 35 all-time overtime games.
Players on the 2007 team who have scored game-winning goals in overtime:

• Junior Kevin Huntley punched home the game-winner in the second OT against Duke in 2005.

• Sophomore Brian Christopher scored 1:22 into OT against Loyola on May 6, 2006.

• Junior Paul Rabil fired home the game-winner 56 seconds into the 2nd OT against Princeton on March 3 and tallied the game-winner 43 seconds into overtime in at Maryland (4-14-07).

• Freshman Michael Kimmel became the first freshman in school history to score an overtime goal in an NCAA Tournament game when he netted the game-winner one-minute into overtime against Notre Dame.

Comeback Kids: Johns Hopkins has come from behind to win eight times this season, including six times during the current seven-game winning streak. The only three games the Blue Jays have not trailed in this season were against UMBC, Hofstra and Mount St. Mary's.

More Comeback Kids: The three-goal deficit (4-1) the Blue Jays overcame to knock off Notre Dame is the largest deficit Hopkins has overcome to win since erasing a 7-1 deficit in a 12-11 overtime win at Syracuse on March 18, 2005.

A Final Comeback: The three-goal deficit (4-1) the Blue Jays overcame to knock off Notre Dame is the largest Hopkins has overcome to win an NCAA Tournament game since erasing deficits of 3-0 and 4-1 against Syracuse in the 2004 NCAA Semifinals.

May Day: Johns Hopkins is 21-5 in the month of May under head coach Dave Pietramala. The Blue Jays are a perfect 12-0 at Homewood Field in the month of May under Pietramala and have won 20 straight home games in the month of May dating back to a 14-13 loss to Towson in 1992.

Balanced Extra-Man Scoring: The Blue Jays were successful on 1-of-2 extra-man opportunities in the win over Georgetown and have converted 14-of-40 (.350) EMO chances this season. The Blue Jays currently rank 15th in the nation in extra-man offense.
All six players on JHU's extra-man unit have registered at least three points with Kevin Huntley's seven points leading the way. All six players have scored at least one extra-man goal and have totaled at least three extra-man points. Johns Hopkins has finished in the top 10 in the nation in extra-man offense four times in the last five years (2002-T4th, 2003-1st, 2004-5th, 2006-9th).

Player Notes of Interst and Additional Information Available in PDF Version

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