A team that began the season 6-1 with a marquee win over Loyola and only an overtime loss to Penn is now fighting just to extend its season.
That’s the case for Johns Hopkins, which barely hung onto the No. 20 position in this week’s rankings following a crushing 16-15 loss to Penn State on Thursday night. Hopkins trailed by six in the second half, but rallied to tie the game with under five minutes to play before falling.
Now Hopkins is faced with the daunting task of heading to No. 2 Maryland to try and qualify for the Big Ten tournament. Even if the Blue Jays upset Maryland, they’ll need Rutgers to beat Penn State to earn the No. 4 seed for the tournament, which they will host.
A win over Maryland wouldn’t guarantee Hopkins a spot in the Big Ten tournament, but it would obviously put them in a much less precarious situation for a NCAA tournament berth.
As the Big Ten teams jockey for conference tournament position, the league that dominates the top of the rankings, the Atlantic Coast Conference, opens its tournament on Wednesday at Boston College.
The ACC has five of the top seven teams in this week’s rankings, and as a result, we’re treated to a big-time Syracuse-Virginia showdown in the league quarterfinal round.
Another key game to watch is Virginia Tech trying to hang onto its NCAA tournament hopes. The Hokies, which led Virginia by three in the second half on Saturday only to lose, currently sit at 8-9 for the season and need two wins in order to be at least .500 to be eligible for the NCAA tournament. Tech has the unenviable task of needing to beat a hot North Carolina team and then beat either Notre Dame or Duke in the semifinals.
The Pac-12 also hosts its tournament this weekend with the top three seeds — USC, Colorado and Stanford — all looking to boost their profiles. USC and Stanford sit in this week’s Top 20 with Colorado just missing out.
A league that is starting to clear up is the Ivy League, which now features Princeton and Dartmouth in a tie for first place. They were among the teams moving up in this week’s rankings with Dartmouth going up two spots and Princeton climbing back into the Top 10.
Nike/US Lacrosse
Division I Women’s Top 20
April 22, 2019 |
W/L |
Prev |
Next |
|
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Boston College | 17-0 | 1 | 4/24 vs. Louisville (ACC QF) |
| 2 | Maryland | 16-0 | 2 | 4/27 vs. No. 20 Johns Hopkins |
| 3 | North Carolina | 12-3 | 3 | 4/24 vs. Virginia Tech (ACC QF) |
| 4 | Syracuse | 14-3 | 4 | 4/24 vs. No. 7 Virginia |
| 5 | Northwestern | 11-4 | 5 | 4/25 at Ohio State |
| 6 | Notre Dame | 13-3 | 6 | 4/24 vs. Duke |
| 7 | Virginia | 12-5 | 7 | 4/24 vs. No. 4 Syracuse |
| 8 | Michigan | 14-2 | 8 | 4/23 at Detroit Mercy |
| 9 | James Madison | 14-3 | 9 | 5/3 vs. TBA (CAA QF) |
| 10 | Princeton | 11-3 | 11 | 4/27 at Cornell |
| 11 | Loyola | 12-4 | 12 | 4/26 at Holy Cross |
| 12 | Dartmouth | 10-4 | 14 | 4/27 at Yale |
| 13 | Navy | 13-3 | 13 | 4/25 at Boston University |
| 14 | Penn | 10-4 | 10 | 4/27 at Harvard |
| 15 | Denver | 12-2 | 15 | 4/26 at Villanova |
| 16 | Florida | 10-6 | 16 | 4/27 vs. Cincinnati |
| 17 | Stony Brook | 11-4 | 17 | 4/23 at Penn State |
| 18 | USC | 14-3 | 18 | 4/26 vs. TBA (Pac-12 SF) |
| 19 | Stanford | 12-4 | 20 | 4/25 at Oregon (Pac-12 QF) |
| 20 | Johns Hopkins | 10-6 | 19 | 4/27 at No. 2 Maryland |
Also considered: Colorado, Duke, High Point, Hofstra, Penn State, Virginia Tech
Nike/US Lacrosse Rankings
Division I Men | Division I Women
Division II Men | Division II Women
Division III Men | Division III Women
HOT
Dartmouth (+2)
A battle between two of the three Ivy League co-leaders turned into another Dartmouth showcase. The Big Green used a pair of four-goal runs to key a 9-5 halftime advantage over Cornell and then scored the first three goals of the second half to take command of a 15-8 victory.
Dartmouth and Princeton are tied atop the league standings at 5-1 though Princeton holds the tie-breaker for the No. 1 seed for the league tournament as the league enters its final week of regular season play.
Princeton +1
A midweek victory over Penn and a dominating win over Yale has moved Princeton back into the Top 10. The Tigers have now won six straight games since a puzzling loss to Brown and can win at least a share of the Ivy League regular season championship for the sixth straight season with a win over Cornell this weekend.
Northwestern (+0)
With earlier losses to the four teams ahead of it in the rankings, Northwestern didn’t do anything to improve its No. 5 ranking, but it was another impressive week for the Wildcats. Coming off of an emotional loss to Maryland, Northwestern regrouped to beat No. 8 Michigan 14-11 on Thursday and just two days later handled No. 6 Notre Dame 15-11. Selena Lasota combined for nine goals in the wins and has 59 for the season.
NOT
Penn (-4)
The Quakers lost to rival Princeton on Wednesday and two of their better wins of the season — Johns Hopkins and Duke — continued to lose value. Hopkins lost to unranked Penn State and Duke was throttled by North Carolina, the Blue Devils fifth consecutive ACC loss.
The Quakers have already clinched a spot for the Ivy League tournament, which begins May 3 at Columbia.
Johns Hopkins (-1)
How daunting is the task in front of Johns Hopkins as it looks to qualify for the Big Ten tournament after losing to Penn State on Thursday? The Blue Jays are 0-17 all-time against Maryland, the team it needs to beat to have a chance of moving into the league tourney.