M. Lacrosse still No. 1 after two wins

The Blue Jays continued their rule of the number one spot in Division I Lacrosse this past week with wins over Albany and the University of North Carolina.

With a 19-6 win over Albany Tuesday afternoon at Homewood field the Blue Jays tied the school record for home wins, which currently stands at 31. Sophomore attacker Jake Byrne scored a career-high five goals and added two assists against the Great Danes. Senior midfielder Joe Malo also scored a career-high four goals in Johns Hopkins' seventh win of the season. The Blue Jays currently hold a 7-0 record, while Albany dropped to 5-3.

"Albany's a top 20 team and that's the way we prepared and went into the game," said senior midfielder and co-captain Kyle Harrison. "They have some talented players and are capable of beating some of the best team in the nation. Fortunately, we came out with emotion and energy, and we were able to jump out to an early lead." With one goal and five assists for a career-high six points Harrison surpassed the 100 career point mark against Albany. He now has 66 goals and 38 assists.

Hopkins led right from the start in the match-up. After the first quarter they were up 7-1 after goals from Malo, freshman midfielder Paul Rabil, Byrne and Harrison. Hopkins controlled seven of eight face offs during the period. Overall they won 17 of 29 face offs. The Jays led in all aspects of the game, except in saves. Sophomore Jesse Schwartzman made nine saves and allowed four goals before freshman Graydon Locey went into goal in the final minutes of the fourth quarter and made two saves. Albany's goalie made 13 saves. Schwartzman and the Hopkins defense have now held six of their seven opponents to seven goals or less this season. Their overtime 12-11 win at Syracuse was the only exception.

17 seconds into the second quarter sophomore Jamison Koesterer scored a goal before freshman attackman Kevin Huntley started a 10-0 run just under a minute later, continuing Hopkins' dominance of Albany. Ten different Blue Jays scored goals in the win and 11 different players registered one point or more against Albany.

Last Saturday the Jays faced the 17th-ranked Tar Heels on their home field in North Carolina. Hopkins defeated UNC 7-5, led by three goals from Rabil and two from senior attackman Peter LeSueur. Harrison and Huntley each scored a goal a piece.

"UNC's record thus far isn't very good [2-6], which is strange because they have such a talented team," said Harrison. "On any given day that team could beat anyone in the country, and we didn't want it to be us Saturday."

After a scoreless first quarter, Hopkins got on the board with back-to-back goals by Rabil in less then two minutes.

In the third quarter LeSueur scored back to back goals on his own in just 62 seconds to lead Hopkins over UNC 5-2. Entering the half, Hopkins was up 2-1. The three combined goals are the fewest in the first half of a Hopkins game this season.

Right after Harrison's goal, which increased the lead to 3-1, the teams were ordered off the field on account of weather conditions for almost an hour.

"It was a low scoring game because of the weather conditions," said Harrison. "It's difficult to play on a slippery surface, and rain also changes your stick, so the weather had an impact."

Offensively the Jays were without senior attackman and All-American Kyle Barrie who is out with an ankle injury. In his place Huntley has played for the Jays in the past three games, starting with Virginia on March 26.

"It's tough [to be without Kyle] because he is such a talented player and such a large part of our offense, but Kevin Huntley has done a great job stepping in and producing for us," said Harrison.

Huntley scored one goal in the win over UNC, his fourth in the past two games. The Hopkins offense barely outshot the Tar Heels, 33-32, while they won a convincing 12-of-16 faceoffs and 33-29 of ground balls.

Defensively the Tar Heels suffered. Hopkins' starting line-up of senior co-captain Chris Watson, senior Tom Garvey and junior Matt Pinto held UNC's first string attack unit to one goal and two assists overall. Schwartzman made 12 saves overall, including seven in the second half of the game.

The five goals scored by UNC were the lowest number allowed by the Hopkins defense this year.

Friday night the Jays again face a No.2-ranked team, this time undefeated Duke. The Blue Devils and the Blue Jays are the only two undefeated teams in D-I Lacrosse at this point in the season. Before Virginia's loss to Hopkins all three were undefeated.

Hopkins hosts Duke at 8 p.m. "It'll be a playoff type atmosphere, and we're all excited to have the No. 2-ranked team in the country come to Homewood," said Harrison. As with the Virginia home game, record crowds of students in the new student section, "the Nest," are expected.