There is no telling how much of a boost Michigan’s 13-10 defeat of Johns Hopkins on Sunday will give the Big Ten’s youngest program.

In the moments after the Wolverines knocked off the Blue Jays for the first time in school history, coach Kevin Conry was only fully certain about one thing that would follow up the victory: Sammy’s chicken parm as the postgame meal.

“That’s about as good as it’s going to get,” a happy — and hungry — Conry said.

Conry, a 2004 Hopkins graduate, knows the lay of the land when it comes to restaurants in the neighborhoods surrounding Homewood Field. Now in his fourth year at Michigan after a stint as a Maryland assistant, he’s also well aware of how the Big Ten stacks up.

The Wolverines (2-5) won a Big Ten road game for only the second time since the league began sponsoring lacrosse in 2015 and the first time since the 2018 season finale at Penn State.

They did so because of balance, with Jake Bonomi and Josh Zawada both scoring three times and Avery Myers adding two goals. They did so with steady defense, as John Kiracofe made 16 saves — including a riveting sequence of three in a row.

And they did so even as their inexperience showed with 20 turnovers (a whopping 14 in the first half) and a 1-for-5 showing on extra man. They played well but know they can do better.

“It was huge,” said Kiracofe, who has a .589 save percentage over his last four games. “We hadn’t had a road victory yet this year, and we lost a couple in the first half of the season. So to get this one out of the way [was good]. I know we have one more against Penn State at the end we hope to get. Now we get to go home with a little momentum, and we tend to play better at home. I think this is a huge step for us.”

Michigan welcomes Maryland (7-0) — now the only Big Ten team it has yet to defeat since the league was formed — to Ann Arbor on Saturday for a rematch of a 20-9 loss to the Terrapins to open the season. With two wins in their last three games, the Wolverines are playing better now as they continue trying to match the level achieved by some of the sport’s bluebloods.

Sunday marked a major milestone on that front.

“We’re 10 years old as a varsity program,” Conry said. “Ultimately, we’re still building. We’re still growing. But when you get a win over Johns Hopkins, we feel pretty good about it. It’s special.”

Hopkins seeks steadiness on offense

Johns Hopkins heads into Saturday’s trip to Ohio State on a three-game losing streak, and the Blue Jays (2-5) have continued to tinker with their offensive lineup.

Coach Peter Milliman moved graduate student Cole Williams from midfield to attack and inserted junior Garrett Degnon into the starting midfield for a March 28 game at Penn State. Then on Sunday, senior attackman Luke Shilling made his first career start while junior Joey Epstein was used coming out of the box.

Shilling had a goal and an assist, and Epstein had three assists in the 13-10 loss to Michigan.

“We’re trying to figure out the right combo,” Milliman said. “We’re still trying to mix things up. We’re trying to find guys who are playing consistently well and making good decisions, guys that are not costing us opportunities, guys that are helping us.”

The circumstances at Hopkins — a first-year coach, no organized fall practices, a conference-only schedule — are challenging. Nonetheless, the Blue Jays’ best performances so far have been a solid first half at Maryland on March 6 and a 13-6 drubbing of Penn State a week later. At that point, Hopkins was 2-2 and averaging 11.25 goals.

Since then, Hopkins has averaged nine goals and has lost to both of the teams it beat in the first round of Big Ten play.

“It’s a pretty simple formula,” Milliman said. “I’ve been coaching offense this way for a while. I think coach [John Grant Jr.] is very similar in that regard. It’s not so much derived from guys who can be quote-unquote playmakers, it’s guys that are not hurting us. Just keep the ball moving. We’re not throwing the ball very well, so guys aren’t catching great passes, and when they do get good passes, they’re not catching them well. When they do have opportunities, we don’t shoot well. It’s three pretty big areas. It’s not anything that we have to redraw our Xs and Os.”

Red Foxes’ wait continues

Everybody had a longer offseason than they would have liked. It turned out to be a little longer for teams like Bucknell and Massachusetts, but both eventually got onto the field last month and have played regularly ever since.

While there are teams sitting out the season altogether, they at least knew what their situation was by mid-February. Then there’s the situation Marist finds itself in, one just about everyone can sympathize with this year.

The Red Foxes beat Detroit 15-11 in their March 6 opener, only for their next game to be postponed when Quinnipiac had to pause for a positive virus test. But Marist enacted a campus-wide pause on March 17, one that’s now been extended through at least Monday and has wiped out all athletic activity. That has postponed four more games, plus the makeup date of one of the delayed games.

NUMBERS OF NOTE

4

There are four undefeated teams remaining in Division I after the weekend. Duke (10-0), Maryland (7-0), Lehigh (5-0) and Marist (1-0) are the only teams among the 65 who have played a game who have yet to take a loss.

4-1

Monmouth is 4-1 after Saturday’s 10-8 defeat of Quinnipiac, the best start through five games in the program’s eight-year existence. The Hawks play host to Detroit on Friday in a matchup of two of the three teams (along with Manhattan) that current sit atop the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference.

23

Hobart goalie Kevin Holtby made 23 saves in a 11-10 victory at Bryant on Saturday, the most for any Statesman since Max Silberlicht had 23 against Syracuse on March 23, 2010.

258

Denver attackman Ethan Walker has 258 career points after collecting a goal and two assists in the Pioneers’ 16-6 rout of Marquette. The fifth-year senior broke Wesley Berg’s Division I school record of 255 when he scored with 40 seconds left in the first half.