The Johns Hopkins women?s lacrosse team spent this time last season consoling one another after just getting left out of the 16-team NCAA Division I tournament.
But, instead of staying down, the Blue Jays went out, upgraded their schedule this season and are now preparing for their first round game Sunday at Hofstra. Hopkins is making its third NCAA tournament appearance, joining Maryland ? which made the postseason for the 18th consecutive year ? as the only two state schools to make the field.
“We want to believe we are tournament-ready at this point of the season,” Hopkins coach Jannine Tucker said. “We?ve played a lot of strong teams, but right now it?s a whole new season and we need to take this week and prepare for this one game.”
Hopkins (11-7) earned the seventh seed, but must play at unseeded Hofstra (12-6) because Homewood Field will be used for graduation on Sunday. Still, Tucker said her team is just excited to be in the postseason after starting the year 6-5.
Hopkins has won five of its last seven games, including a 12-9 win over Atlantic Coast Conference champion and No. 3 Virginia (16-3) April 14. The Blue Jays only two losses in the last month have come against two-time defending national champion Northwestern.
Maryland (15-3) earned the fifth seed and will host Yale (13-3) at 1 p.m. Sunday at Ludwig Field. The Terps are 1-1 lifetime against the Bulldogs, but the two teams haven?t played since Yale won 6-5 in overtime in 1979.
This game pits Maryland?s potent offense against Yale?s stingy defense. Maryland enters the game ranked sixth in the nation in scoring offense (14.83) and are second in draw controls per game (14.83). Yale is currently seventh in the country in scoring defense (8.13) and is sixth in forcing nearly 11 turnovers a game.
“One of the neat things about the tournament is playing a team you haven?t seen in the regular season,” Maryland coach Cathy Reese said. “It really allows you to focus on yourself as there are a lot of great teams and contrasts of styles like we expect to find against Yale.”
Tucker said while Northwestern is still the team to beat, any one of a number of other teams are capable of pulling off an upset or two.
“You build for the postseason toward the end of the regular season,” Tucker said. “We?ve seen that on our team, especially with our midfield.”
The tournament quarterfinals will take place May 19 while the national semifinals and finals are set for May 25 and 27 respectively at Franklin Field in Philadelphia.
Tournament lineup
Complete first-round match-ups:
(All games will be played Sunday)
» Holy Cross (13-5) at No. 1 Northwestern
» Syracuse (12-5) at No. 8 Vanderbilt
» Yale at No. 5 Maryland (15-3)
» Boston U. (13-5) at No. 4 Penn (14-1)
» Princeton (10-6) at No. 3 Virginia (16-3)
» Richmond (14-5) at No. 6 UNC (15-4)
» No. 7 Hopkins (11-7) at Hofstra (12-6)
» LeMoyne (16-4) at No. 2 Duke (14-3)
