When Michigan men’s lacrosse visited Johns Hopkins’ Homewood Field last May, the Wolverines walked away with their first Big Ten Tournament championship.
The Blue Jays made sure Michigan did not leave with a similar euphoric feeling in its return trip to Baltimore. No. 8 Johns Hopkins outscored the No. 14 Wolverines, 7-4, in the second half to forge a 15-11 victory Saturday before an announced 2,776.
Senior attackman Russell Melendez recorded three goals and two assists in the first half, and graduate student attackman Jacob Angelus had two assists in the first half and two assists and one goal in the second to lift the Blue Jays (7-3, 2-0 Big Ten). Defensively, graduate student goalkeeper Chayse Ierlan saved a game-high 15 shots.
With Michigan returning to the scene of last year’s triumphant run to the conference championship, Johns Hopkins emphasized preventing the Wolverines from rediscovering those vibes.
“We didn’t want to overstate it, but it was definitely a factor,” coach Peter Milliman said. “They were going to have a confidence and [a] good feel for being out here. So it was just going to be about our guys and making sure they stayed together, stayed focused on what we’re doing, and didn’t try to do too much or go off-script or anything like that.”
Added Angelus: “We know that this is our field, and we want to protect it. They’re a great team. They’ve won some games lately, but we just focused on us and focused on what we can do on this field and protecting our field. That was a big thing all week.”
The game’s turning point occurred after halftime. Nursing an 8-7 lead at the break, the Blue Jays scored the first two goals of the third quarter and three of four in the period. Then they notched three of the first four goals in the final frame.
The offense took advantage of an 8-for-12 showing from the faceoff unit that contributed to a 22-16 difference in shots in the second half. Angelus, who assisted on four of five Johns Hopkins goals bridging the two halves, credited a pivotal second quarter for jump-starting the offense.
“I think we woke up a little in the second quarter,” he said. “We started moving better, taking care of the ball better, and shooting to score and winning our matchup. From the second quarter on, I think that was something we did very well at. Obviously, there’s stuff we’ve got to focus on, but happy it worked out.”
The Blue Jays led by one at halftime despite Michigan winning all eight faceoffs in the first quarter and 6 of 9 in the first half. At one point in the second quarter, Wolverines senior Justin Wietfeldt won all 10 faceoffs he took and collected eight ground balls en route to finishing 17 of 25 on faceoffs with 11 ground balls.
Johns Hopkins’ inability to consistently produce on faceoffs put the onus on Ierlan and the defense to stop the Wolverines and get the ball to the offense.
“If you don’t stop them, it’s going to result in some make-it, take-it lacrosse,” said Ierlan, who stopped a season-high 17 shots in a 16-14 win at Virginia on March 2. “But it’s tough. You don’t want to get over your skis and get ahead [with], ‘What if the next faceoff?’ and the next one after that. We knew it was going to be a battle coming in. so all week, we were just worried about one stop at a time, get it to the offense, and then we’ll go from there.”
The Blue Jays caused 13 turnovers with three each from graduate student defenseman Beaudan Szuluk and senior short-stick defensive midfielder Brett Martin. With 61 caused turnovers in his career, Szuluk joined defenseman Tucker Durkin (65 from 2010 to 2013) and long-stick midfielder Michael Pellegrino (63 from 2012 to 2015) as the only players in program history to reach 60.
Senior attackman Michael Boehm and junior midfielder Ryan Cohen each compiled two goals and three assists for Michigan (6-4, 1-1), but coach Kevin Conry found the team’s 17 turnovers too troubling to overlook.
“We had 17 turnovers, and that really hurt us, especially in the middle quarters,” he said. “I thought we battled, we scrapped. Just having those turnovers, you can’t let a team like that have extra possessions. That’s a real skilled group, and you’ve got to give them credit.”
Since a 10-9 overtime loss at home to Navy on March 15, the Blue Jays have defeated a pair of ranked Big Ten foes in No. 19 Rutgers and now Michigan. Angelus acknowledged that the setback to the Midshipmen shook him and his teammates.
“It woke us up a little where we just had to move on and realize how when we play bad, we’re not a great team,” he said. “I think a lot of teams are like that. We had a rough wake-up call, but I think we’ve responded to that call, and we’ve played well these past couple weeks and [have] just got to keep moving forward.”
No. 10 Johns Hopkins women 21, No. 9 James Madison 13
Six unanswered goals spanning the first and second quarters Saturday evening vaulted the Blue Jays to their first victory over a top-10 opponent in five years.
Sophomore attacker Ava Angello’s career-high eight points on six goals and two assists lifted Johns Hopkins (9-3) to its sixth win in the past seven games and its first triumph in a matchup of top-10 teams since Feb. 16, 2019, when that squad upended No. 9 Loyola Maryland, 13-11.
“It’s honestly such a huge point in our season because the [14-12] win over [then-No. 12] Stony Brook [on March 9] proved a lot to ourselves,” senior defender Jordan Carr said. “I think this is the first season where we all have faith in each other and know that we can do big things. We’ve just got to do it together for a full 60 minutes.”
The Blue Jays had not beaten the Dukes in three previous meetings and had reached double digits in goals only once. But they became the first opponent to tag James Madison with 20 goals since Feb. 20, 2014, when Florida routed the Dukes, 21-8.
Johns Hopkins enjoyed long offensive bursts of 6-0 in a 7:42 stretch bridging the first and second quarters, 4-0 in a 2:17 span in the second frame, and 4-0 in a 6:21 stretch that initiated a running clock. The offense finished with a school-record 16 assists, eclipsing the previous mark of 14.
Angello scored four goals and added two assists before halftime, but shared credit with her teammates.
“It’s all of us working together,” she said. “I might be finishing it, but it’s the girls who pass me the ball and find me in the middle, the girls who are working hard off-ball to keep the defenders occupied. So I give it all to my teammates. They make me a better player.”
Angello was one of six players to accumulate at least four points. She was joined by graduate student attacker Maeve Barker (four goals and two assists), senior attacker Campbell Case (four goals and one assist), senior midfielder Abbey Hurlbrink (two goals and three assists), graduate student midfielder Bailey Cheetham (five assists), and junior attacker Ashley Mackin (three goals and one assist).
That distribution delighted coach Tim McCormack.
“That’s what we’re after,” he said. “It’s never going to be a one-person thing with us. It’s always going to be an across-the-board thing, and when it’s that many, that’s the cherry on top. We’ll always look to try to spread it out.”
The defense also contributed. The unit didn’t surrender its 10th goal until the first minute of the fourth quarter and kept a Dukes offense that averaged 16.7 goals scoreless for stretches of 10:22, 6:50, and 15:16.
“Just trusting each other to do our jobs,” said Carr, who finished with five ground balls, four caused turnovers and one goal. “A few times, we struggled with that because we want to help each other out a little more. But I think this was the first game where we really had trust in each other to do our jobs. Everyone bought in, did what they needed to do, and came up with big turnovers.”
As significant as the win was, the Blue Jays still have matchups against No. 1 Maryland (10-2) on April 10, No. 2 Michigan (11-1) on April 14 and No. 19 Penn State (6-5) before the Big Ten and NCAA tournaments. McCormack said the players and coaches have a larger task ahead of them.
“This could be one of those things that helps propel you, but it’s also hard to sustain,” he said. “This comes with a whole new set of challenges now because we’ve got to manage our expectations, and we’ve got to make sure we understand what brought us to this point and come out and continue to keep the focus on each day to get better and enjoy our time together.”
Three goals each by senior attacker Isabella Peterson (Hereford) and Olivia Mattis paced James Madison (8-3), which suffered its third setback in its last five games.
No. 4 Penn State at No. 8 Johns Hopkins men
Saturday, 2 p.m.
TV: ESPNU
No. 10 Johns Hopkins at Rutgers women
Saturday, 4 p.m.