The last time the Johns Hopkins men?s lacrosse team lost three consecutive games head coach Dave Pietramala had just finished his career at Hopkins as a player. The No. 9 Blue Jays ultimately finished that 1990 losing streak with four losses in a row, something they are trying to avoid after Saturday?s 11-9 loss to No. 4 Duke (9-2).
Heading into the game, Hopkins (4-4) knew it had to account for the Duke attack tandem of Matt Danowski and Zack Greer. With six goals from Greer and four assists from Danowski, the Blue Jays could not contain the Blue Devils? volatile attack.
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“We did not do a good enough job accounting for them,” Pietramala said of Danowski and Greer. “That is on me.”
Outside of a brief lapse in the second quarter and the beginning of the third quarter, Hopkins played one of their best games all season and Pietramala expressed the pride he had in his team?s effort.
“If we had played this hard and this competitively in all our other games, then we would not find ourselves in this situation,” Pietramala said. “We have our backs to the wall now.”
The win at Homewood builds Duke?s resurgence from 2006?s canceled season. It is just the third time in 13 meetings that the Blue Devils have come away with a victoryand it also marks the first time since 1996 that Hopkins has lost three home games in a season.
“Anytime you can win at Homewood it is special,” said Duke head coach John Danowski. “Anybody who is a lacrosse historian and has a sense of history knows how difficult it is to win here because of the greatness and tradition at Hopkins.”
It is because of that history of success that Hopkins junior midfielder Stephen Peyser and his teammates are not used to being on a three-game skid.
Before this season, Pietramala had never lost back-to-back games at Hopkins.
“You never want to lose one game, let a lone three,” Peyser said. “We have got a real special thing going here… and we have a big week here coming up. This team is going to come through stronger than ever.”
BLUE JAYS? BLUES
» Stephen Peyser and freshman Steven Boyer led the Blue Jays with two goals each in the loss.
» Hopkins has struggled on face-offs this year, but they took a slight edge over Duke in the game. The Blue Jays won that battle, 13-10, but lost the fight for ground balls to the Blue Devils, 39-28.
» John Danowski has a career mark of 4-12 coaching against Hopkins, but has managed to down the Blue Jays two seasons in a row.
