Season Opens for Top-Ranked Blue Jays
"Our scheduling philosophy is to
play the most difficult schedule in the nation," says Dave
Pietramala, right, now in his fifth season as head
coach.
PHOTO BY HIPS/JAY VANRENSSELAER
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Hopkins will play seven of its 12 games this year at
Homewood Field
By Greg Rienzi The Gazette
The
Johns Hopkins men's lacrosse
team enters its 118th
season ranked No. 1 in a pre-season coaches' poll and
confronted with arguably the nation's toughest schedule,
which kicks off on Saturday at Princeton.
The Blue Jays return eight starters from last season's
team, which ended the regular season ranked No. 1 and
earned the top seed in the NCAA Tournament for the third
consecutive year. The 2004 team went 13-2 and advanced to
the national semifinals before falling to eventual champion
Syracuse.
Hopkins will play seven of its 12 games this year at
Homewood Field, where it has won 27 straight games and is
28-1 under Coach Dave Pietramala.
Pietramala, now in his fifth season as head coach, was
an All-American defensive player for the Blue Jays in the
late 1980s.
Highlighting the 2005 schedule are games against each
of the other three teams that advanced to the 2004 Final
Four, Princeton, Navy and Syracuse, all of which are ranked
in this year's pre-season top five. The Blue Jays will also
play 2004 NCAA Tournament qualifiers Maryland, North
Carolina, Towson and Albany.
Players in practice at Homewood
Field two weeks before the season opener.
PHOTO BY HIPS/JAY VANRENSSELAER
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"Our scheduling philosophy is to play the most
difficult schedule in the nation," Pietramala said. "We are
excited to welcome seven outstanding teams to Homewood
Field, and all five of our road games are against teams
that qualified for the NCAA Tournament. Playing this type
of schedule is one reason why student-athletes come to
Johns Hopkins, and it prepares our team for the
post-season."
Steeped in lacrosse history, the Blue Jays have
enjoyed a level of success that is virtually unmatched in
any sport at the collegiate level. Johns Hopkins counts 42
national championships, including seven NCAA titles, to its
credit. The 171 First Team All-Americans are an all-time
national record, while the current streak of 33 consecutive
appearances in the NCAA Tournament ranks as the longest
active streak of qualifying for the NCAAs in any Division I
team sport. Hopkins' nine straight NCAA championship game
appearances from 1977 to 1985 are more than twice as long
as any other streak in lacrosse.
The JHU class of 2005 — which includes seniors
and team standouts Kyle Barrie, Peter LeSueur and Kyle
Harrison — has a chance to be the first class in 18
years to appear in the Final Four during each of its
seasons at Homewood.
In addition to the seven regular season games
scheduled for Homewood Field, the venue will host the NCAA
South Quarterfinals on May 21. Game times are tentatively
noon and 3 p.m.
College Sports Television, a cable network, will once
again show live NCAA lacrosse games, including the Johns
Hopkins-Princeton season opener. The games against
Virginia, Duke, Navy, Towson and Loyola will be carried
locally by ABC2 and nationally by ESPNU. The April 15
Maryland-Johns Hopkins game, known as the greatest rivalry
in lacrosse, will be aired on Fox Sports.
For more about men's lacrosse and other Blue Jays
sports, go to
hopkinssports.collegesports.com.
Blue Jays 2005 Schedule
March 5 — @Princeton, 3 p.m.
March 8 — UMBC, 7 p.m.
March 12 — Hofstra, 1 p.m.
March 18 — @Syracuse, 7 p.m.
March 26 — Virginia, 1 p.m.
April 2 — @UNC, 1 p.m.
April 5 — Albany, 3 p.m.
April 8 — Duke, 8 p.m.
April 15 — @Maryland, 8 p.m.
April 23 — Navy, 1 p.m.
April 30 — @Towson, 1 p.m.
May 7 — Loyola, 3 p.m.
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2005
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