After a well-deserved Spring Break, Hopkins is officially back and so are the sports! With another week comes more impressive performances from the Blue Jays as we get closer to the late stages of spring competition. Let’s take a look back at some of the outstanding performances from our athletes this week!
Women’s Lacrosse: W (17 – 8), W (22 – 8), L (5 – 18)
The Women’s Lacrosse team have staged a remarkable comeback this season after dropping two of their first three games!
Coming into the week, the Blue Jays were riding a six game winning streak and looked better than ever. The first matchup of the week came away against the 14th-ranked James Madison Dukes.
The Dukes came out hot and punched Hopkins first, scoring two of the first three goals of the game. However, senior Ashley Mackin began to take things into her own hands, scoring the next two goals and allowing Hopkins to take their first lead of the match… a lead they would not forfeit again.
Mackin continued her dominant stretch into the second quarter, piling on all three of the Jays’ goals in the period. With this burst of scoring, Hopkins began to run away from the trailing Dukes, building a lead as large as 10. JMU managed to rein the difference back to single digits, but it was far from enough to make the game competitive. Along with the win, Mackin’s impressive year continued as she set a school DI record with nine goals in a single game!
Their second match of the week was against a struggling Oregon team. Hopkins came out with their guns blazing and racked up nine goals in the first quarter, effectively ending the game before it even started. The second quarter was somewhat closer, but the Blue Jays still managed to rack up seven in the period, making it a 16 – 5 game at half. The contest would not get much closer as Hopkins closed it out with a 22 – 8 victory against the Ducks.
Mackin once again stood out with an eight goal, three assist performance, cementing her place at the top of the nation in both points and goals per game while also taking home the Division I Women’s Lacrosse Player of the Week by USA Lacrosse.
Unfortunately the winning streak came to a conclusion against #3 Northwestern in the Blue Jays biggest loss of the year. The Jays were never truly in the game after the Wildcats came out to a fast start, scoring 14 goals in the first half. Hopkins will be hopeful they can get back on track next week with their matchup against the Ohio State Buckeyes!
Baseball: W (11 – 10), W (9 – 0), L (7 – 9), W (5 – 4), W (12 – 9), W (9 – 0)
Now ranked fourth in the country, the Hopkins Baseball team is looking formidable.
The past week has seen them play six matches, taking home wins in five of them. In the first two games, against Hood College and Catholic University, the Jays amassed 20 runs en route to two victories. Amongst the many impressive performances, sophomore Drew Grumbles stood out, pitching 7.1 innings of scoreless baseball with 10 strikeouts against Catholic, a performance that has seen him recognized as the Centennial Conference Pitcher of the Week!
Hopkins then faced Franklin and Marshall in a double header away from home. After losing the first game in heartbreaking fashion from a two out walk-off home run, the Blue Jays bounced back. Graduate second baseman Jimmy Stevens had a great day, going 2 – 4 with an RBI triple in the ninth that would turn out to be the winning run.
After the double header, Hopkins faced Rutgers-Newark at Homewood field. The Blue Jays came out strong in the first inning with a 2 RBI home run from senior Dillon Souvignier. Rutgers would not rest though, scoring the next six runs of the game. However, a six-run eighth inning from the Blue Jays would see them take an unassailable lead and the win.
The final game for Hopkins was played against 13th ranked Gettysburg. Grumbles was on the mound again, and he looked just as locked-in as the game against Catholic. Once again, the sophomore spun seven innings of shutout baseball with eight strikeouts. He was supported by some great hitting from the batting lineup as the Blue Jays scored nine unanswered runs, allowing them to cruise to victory.
Heading into conference play, Hopkins should be able to continue to rack up the wins and gain some important momentum headed into the postseason.
Men’s Tennis: W (7 – 0)
The Men’s Tennis team didn’t have to travel too far to take on 30th ranked Salisbury this week.
After a couple of tough losses at the Stag-Hen Tournament in Claremont, California, the Blue Jays looked to bounce back into the winning column.
First up for the day were the doubles matchups, and Hopkins came out strong. The Jays won their #1 game in convincing fashion, thanks to an impressive performance from graduate Student Daniel Ardila and freshman Dylan Blenkiron. In the later matches, Hopkins were also able to secure a win in the #2 game, before losing the #3 in a close matchup.
The singles matches proved to be even less of a contest as Hopkins secured a clean sweep of all six games. Playing in the #1 game, sophomore Chakor Rajendra went down early in a tight first set that ended 7 – 6 (7 – 5). However, Rajendra staged an impressive comeback, winning the second set by similarly close margins, 7 – 6 (7 – 4), and then the tiebreaker 10 – 7. This proved to be the closest of the singles games, as Hopkins won the remaining five in straight sets, completing the 7 – 0 win.
Hopkins will look to build on their great performance this Friday against Carnegie Mellon University!
Women’s Track and Field: Raleigh Relays, Navy Invitational
The Women’s Track and Field team was back in action with two competitive meets this week.
At the Raleigh Relays, graduate student Annie Huang set a new personal best in the 800m, recording a time of 2:08.63. This time was also the fastest recorded by any DIII athlete so far this year, comfortably beating the next best by just under four seconds. Given her impressive performance, Huang was named Centennial Track Athlete of the Week!
Hopkins had more standout performances at the Navy Invitational, most notably from junior Erika Ezumba. Ezumba broke the Hopkins record in the Hammer Throw with a distance of 47.38m, winning her second place in the event. In addition to success in the Hammer Throw, Hopkins displayed strong performances in the 5000m event, taking six out of the top ten positions, led by freshman Storrie Kulynych-Irvin who posted a personal best time of 17:56.56.
Junior Emma Kothari won her race in the 800m event with a time of 2:12.86. She was also a part of the first-placed team in the 4x400m relay event along with Ryan Bigelow, Lianne Saussy, and Diana Valentini.
