Previewing Johns Hopkins’ 2020 men’s college lacrosse schedule

The Johns Hopkins Blue Jays are the 44th team in our 2020 men’s college lacrosse schedule preview series and the fourth team from the Big Ten. Johns Hopkins finished 8-8 overall in 2019 and 3-2 in Big Ten play. The Blue Jays lost to Penn State in the Big Ten Championship game and fell to Notre Dame in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.

Here’s their entire 2020 schedule:

Who’s In?

• Navy Midshipmen (3/14)

Who’s Out?

• Virginia Cavaliers (16-11 L)

Circle These Dates

• 2/22 vs. North Carolina: Last year’s game in Chapel Hill was a slopfest. Muddy players everywhere while rain kept pouring down on the grass field. Hopkins edged the Tar Heels by a goal, but history might not be on their side this year. The road team has won the last four meetings, and North Carolina has a new offensive weapon in Chris Gray.
• 2/29 at Princeton: The two teams are playing each other for the second straight season in New Jersey. The Blue Jays won a 14-12 come-from-behind victory last year thanks to a 7-1 Hopkins run. We’ll see Joey Epstein go up against one of the best players in the country in Michael Sowers, who looks to take Princeton to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2012.
• 3/7 vs. Syracuse: After splitting the last two meetings up in the Carrier Dome, Johns Hopkins returns to hosting the annual rivalry in Baltimore. Despite a fast start in last year’s game, the Blue Jays found themselves neck-and-neck with the Orange before Syracuse scored six of the seven fourth quarter goals for a 14-10 win. There’s a lot of optimism that the Orange can go back to Championship Weekend for the first time since 2013.
• 3/14 at Navy: Welcome back to the schedule, Navy! After a two-year hiatus due to scheduling conflicts, the Blue Jays and Midshipmen will play each other once again. With that change, the Doyle Smith Cup game against Virginia is now out. The Mids have a new look with Joe Amplo leading the way in Annapolis. And since 1998, eight of the 11 games played at Navy have been decided by a single goal.
• 4/11 vs. Penn State: When these two teams played each other up in Happy Valley in the regular season, Johns Hopkins looked dead in the water in a 20-9 loss. But after a couple of wins against Maryland, the two teams met again in the Big Ten Championship game and it was an entirely different Blue Jays team. Epstein racked up nine points in the overtime loss but single-handedly forced overtime with a hat-trick in the final 6:03 of regulation.
• 4/25 vs. Maryland: “The Rivalry” once again wraps up the regular season, perhaps the best game of the final weekend before most of the conference tournaments begin. Their two meetings last year turned around the Blue Jays’ season for a short bit, as Hopkins upset the Terps in College Park and in the Big Ten semifinals in Piscataway, each by five goals. Hopkins has also won the last three meetings against the Terps dating back to 2018.