Welcome to game day!
There are only four undefeated teams left in college lacrosse: #1 Denver Pioneers, #3 Syracuse Orange, #4 Yale Bulldogs, and #5 Brown Bears. Syracuse has had a strong season thus far, and looks to continue rolling with a win in Baltimore this weekend.
Hopkins had a rough start to the year. After barely squeaking past the Navy Midshipmen in its season opener, the Blue Jays fell to the Loyola Greyhounds and North Carolina Tar Heels in back to back games. The Hop rebounded with wins over Princeton and Towson to get the season back on track. After this weekend, Hopkins still has big matchups with Virginia, #19 Rutgers, Ohio State, #20 Penn State, and #6 Maryland.
The big news coming into todays matchup is the absence of Hopkins head coach Dave Pietramala. The boss man will be out with a lower back infection and will be replaced by associate head coach Bill Dwan. This is Dwan's 18th season as a member of the JHU coaching staff, and his 10th as an associate head coach.We wish Pietramala a speedy recovery and he will certainly be missed on the sidelines.
Matt Lane will be back after suffering from a muscle strain last week, and Nick Piroli will see limited time this week following a week of practice.
Johns Hopkins Players to Keep an Eye on:
#4 Ryan Brown, A
#32 Shack Stanwick, A
#91 Nick Fields, D
#29 Brock Turnbaugh, G
#40 Austin Spencer, LSM/D
#99 Holden Cattoni, M
#44 John Crawley, M
Recommended Reading:
Hopkins Syracuse Rivalry Primer
Baltimore Sun's Three Things to Watch
Lacrosse Magazine's Weekend Preview
Lacrosse Magazine on Syracuse Thriving
Leave your thoughts, wishes, dreams in the comment section, and keep an eye on our the game day open thread over at our sister site CollegeCrosse too.
G'Orange