News-Letter

Media Credit: Shiv Gandhi [Click to enlarge]

Media Credit: Robin Shaw [Click to enlarge]

Ask ten Hopkins students to name our biggest rival in men's lacrosse, and you'll probably hear ten different answers. Because we play in Division I, pretty much all of the teams we face are, objectively, at least decent.

But each year, games against certain opponents inspire more excitement, passion and outright outrage than others. They cause fans to stand up from their seats and scream chants that are by turns inspiring and of questionable taste. And most of all, they produce high-quality play on the field, where athletes amp up their performances in response to the rousing atmosphere.

Why are these schools such intense rivals, and why do we care so much?

The annual championship game is a good place to start. Along with Hopkins, either Princeton, Syracuse or Virginia has appeared in every championship since 1991 -- not coincidentally, these schools are three of our biggest rivals.

In total, Hopkins has appeared in 16 of the 36 NCAA championships since they began in 1971, with an even win-loss record.

A handful of matches keep turning up, though: Syracuse (two wins, two losses), Maryland (one win, two losses), and Cornell and Virginia (one win, two losses against each) account for all but three of those games.

Based on these statistics, you'd expect Maryland and Cornell to be added to the list (and you'd be right).

Some of those championship games were particularly excruciating. With one exception, Hopkins has never lost a championship by more than two points.

The Blue Jays' first appearance in the NCAA championship, in 1972, ended in a close 12-13 loss to Virginia.

The 1973 loss to Maryland (9-10) happened after the Terps scored two surprise goals in overtime. (The Blue Jays came back the following year to beat Maryland 17-12 for the title.) The lone exception to the two-point rule, a crushing 8-16 loss to Cornell in 1977, solidified Hopkins' rivalry with Big Red.

Even winning years have seen intense rivalry. Four of the Blue Jays' wins have been by five points or more, including both defeats of Maryland.

Hopkins came back from a close 16-17 loss to Syracuse in the 1983 championship (the highest-scoring final Hopkins has ever played in) to beat Syracuse in 1984 and 1985 by huge margins, 13-10 and 11-4, respectively.

The other Syracuse game, in 1989, was lost by only one point, 12-13.

But it isn't only the teams we routinely face in the championship round. One of Hopkins' biggest rivals is Duke, which we have only played once in the final (a 9-8 victory in 2005). Local rivalries include Loyola, Towson and Navy, in addition to Maryland.

The always hard-fought Navy game, which is also usually the Hopkins homecoming, is one of the more one-sided rivalries: Hopkins has won every game since 1975, for a total of 32 victories against Navy (and counting).

Princeton is another familiar rival the Blue Jays have never faced in a championship.

There is enormous amount of excitement leading up to this year's game, part of a double-header at M&T Bank Stadium on March 3, because last year's Princeton game ended the Blue Jays' multi-year winning streak of 17 games and 37 home games.

The most historic rivalry for Hopkins lacrosse is probably Maryland, though. The Blue Jays first played the Terps in 1895, beating them 10-0 in one of the earliest intercollegiate lacrosse games in the United States.

This winning streak against Maryland would last another eight years. For much of the 20th century, before the official NCAA championship series began, the Hopkins-Maryland game was one of the biggest of the year, and the winner would often be crowned the unofficial national champion.

As for why we care so much -- that seems to be more of a metaphysical question, one of those unknowable things.

To be sure, past defeats can leave bad blood between schools, and hard-fought games can inspire a sort of grudging admiration for even our biggest rivals.

The big lacrosse games of the year seem to be one of the few times we Blue Jays can show our school spirit -- and what better excuse than in unified opposition (or sometimes in downright hatred) against another school?

Hopkins is scheduled to play all of our main rivals this year, so we'll see how the record of rivalries continues.

Men's returners hope to undo last year's mediocre showing

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