Johns Hopkins is 13-1, but did suffer its one loss at the hands of Syracuse, a 15-14 setback at the Carrier Dome on March 15. Since then, the Blue Jays have won 10 straight. Hopkins easily enters the tournament as the hottest team in the country. Over its final six games, including NCAA tourney wins over Army and Towson, Hopkins average margin of victory has been 11.2 goals.

Since starting the season 7-2, Syracuse has won just three of its last six games. The Orangemen lost three straight games to Rutgers, Hofstra and Massachusetts before edging Georgetown 12-10 in its final regular season game. After surviving 13-11 at home against surprising Dartmouth in the first round of the NCAAs, the Orange played one of their best games of the season in last week's 15-5 win over Princeton, a rematch of the last three championship games. Syracuse is attempting to become the first team to repeat since Princeton won three straight titles from 1996 to 1998.

Virginia is 13-2, but both losses came to teams playing this weekend. The Cavaliers fell to Johns Hopkins and Maryland by identical 8-7 scores in late March. The Cavaliers have since won eight straight games, including a 12-7 win over Georgetown in the semifinals. The Cavaliers faced one of the nation's toughest schedules this year (12 of their 15 games against ranked opponents), but the Georgetown game was their first against a Top 10 opponent (in the final USILA poll) since losing to Maryland on March 29. Last year's semifinal loss to Syracuse, when Virginia had possession of the ball and a one-goal lead in the final minute, will provide plenty of motivation.

Maryland is probably the best defensive team in the country. The Terps allowed more than eight goals only once all season, a 10-6 loss to North Carolina. But the key to the Terps success will be scoring goals. Maryland is 8-0 when scoring at least 10 goals and just 4-3 when it is held to single digits. That could put the spotlight on a freshman - Joe Walters - who is Maryland's leading scorer with 33 goals and 13 assists.

Ending a Drought?
Johns Hopkins and Maryland will have plenty of local support playing in their home state and both schools are looking to end long championship droughts. Hopkins, which has won seven NCAA championships, is looking for its first since 1987 when current head coach Dave Pietramala was a player. Maryland hasn't won the title since 1975, though it did finish as the runner-up three times from 1995 to 1998.

Powell Production
After averaging 77 points per season in his first two seasons, Syracuse junior attackman Michael Powell might be heating up at just the right time. The reigning Tewaaraton Trophy recipient, and a finalist this year, Powell enters the semifinals with a career-low 62 points (31 goals, 31 assists), but he has averaged 5.5 points per game in the NCAA tourney. Powell had four goals and three assists in the quarterfinal win over Princeton and also had a goal and three assists in the first round win over Dartmouth.

Nip and Tuck
Unlike last year's NCAA Division I men's tournament, when six of the final seven games were decided by a goal, there have been very few down to the wire games in this year's tournament. The average margin of victory in the quarterfinals was 7.3 goals. But if things return to normal, the advantage will go to Johns Hopkins and Virginia. The Blue Jays are 3-1 in one-goal games this year and Virginia was 3-2. Maryland went 1-2 and Syracuse was just 1-4 with two overtime losses.

Re-match City
The Division II and III finals on Sunday at M&T Bank Stadium will have a definite re-match feel. The Division II final pits Limestone against unbeaten New York Tech. Limestone ended New York Tech's unbeaten season last year to win its second championship in the last three years. In Division III, Middlebury and Salisbury will meet in the championship game for the third time in the last five years. This is Middlebury's fifth straight trip to the championship game and the Panthers are looking for their fourth straight title. Salisbury beat Middlebury for the 1999 title, but then fell to the Panthers in 2000. Middlebury beat Gettysburg for the crown the last two years.

A New Season
The NCAA women's season came to an end with Princeton and Amherst capturing the Division I and III titles, respectively, but there's little rest before the official off-season begins. The 70th annual US Lacrosse Women's Division National Tournament takes place at Lehigh University in Bethlehem, Pa., this Saturday and Sunday. Over 30 regional high school all-star teams will participate with many of the nation's top college coaches on hand to begin next year's recruiting efforts. The 2003 U.S. U-19 team will also play five games on Saturday, including a 7:30 p.m. exhibition against a team of high school all-stars.