NATION'S TOP TEAMS FACE OFF IN BALTIMORE

When Duke plays Johns Hopkins tonight in their much-anticipated matchup of the country’s top two teams, it will be yet another huge game for the perennially top-ranked Blue Jays, who last week beat then-No. 2 Virginia. For the Blue Devils, however, the game will mean a little bit more. A win against JHU—8-2 all-time against Duke—would be only the second win against a No. 1 team in the Blue Devils’ history. The Blue Devils would become the No. 1 team in the country for the first time ever, extend their record undefeated streak and likely guarantee themselves a bye in the first round of the NCAA Tournament. “It’s the biggest regular season game in the history of our program,” Duke head coach Mike Pressler said. “We will just leave it at that.” Perhaps most important for Pressler is the exposure his team will get just by showing up at Homewood Field. Anywhere from 7,000 to 10,000 fans are expected for the game, which will be broadcast nationally on ESPN’s college sports channel, ESPNU. From all accounts, it will be the biggest crowd a Duke team has ever played against in the regular season. And although Pressler would never say it, it would mean a whole lot for his team to post a good showing—against Johns Hopkins, the most storied program in the country, on the most hallowed field in the cradle of the lacrosse world, Baltimore. “Like I said to the guys, it’s two teams having great regular seasons to date,” Presser said. “Our goal was never to be No. 1 in the poll. Just like it was never to be undefeated. Certainly we are going to have fun with the game. “Hopkins certainly has its own pressure. Their home-game streak [is] on the line.” The buzz, which has surrounded Pressler and his team in 2005, was certainly not present in 2002 and 2003. Pressler watched the two best players from his 2002 squad transfer after the season and heard the criticisms of his coaching and his program that accompanied the departures. The following year’s team was the first Pressler squad to not make the NCAA’s since 1996. Last year’s team went 5-8, the worst record of any Pressler-coached Duke team ever. One of those transfers, attackman Matt Rekowski, now starts for the Blue Jays. Tonight he may run into Duke midfielder Kyle Dowd, who is in his first year with the Blue Devils since transferring from Hopkins. The program Rekowski and Matt Monfett, who now plays at Loyola, left behind was a nationally established one, albeit not a serious contender for the national championship year in and year out. Under the direction of Pressler, the Blue Devils have been a consistent top-10 team. They made the Final Four in 1997, beating a Hopkins team in overtime in the quarterfinals. From 1997 to 2002, Duke went to six straight NCAA tournaments and won two ACC championships. In addition, in that time Duke’s facilities, including its weight room, practice field and Koskinen Stadium were renovated and improved. In addition, the administration fully funded the team, bringing the number of team scholarships to 12.6, the number the rest of the ACC teams have given for years, Pressler said. “For all those years, we were behind,” Pressler said. “The Marylands, Hopkins, Virginias had more. Now we are dead even.... I’ve seen them all. Nobody has a better facility and a better situation than us now. “We can get to the point now that we can recruit to the very best players.” The recruits who Pressler has built the team around are the sophomore and junior classes, who make up all but two of the team’s starters. Quicker and better stick handlers, they are a different kind of players than the Blue Devils of the 1990s, who were known more for their size than speed. In 2005 Matt Danowski, Duke’s best attackman, is listed at 5-foot-9, 190 pounds. Starting defenseman Casey Carroll goes 6-foot-2, 175 pounds. By comparison, Terrence Keaney, a midfielder who graduated in 2002, went 6-foot-5, 220 pounds. “They used to look like the Green Bay Packers,” said Virginia coach Dom Starsia, whose team faces Duke next weekend. “[The Blue Devils are] not quite as big as they used to be. I certainly think it’s one of the faster, quicker Duke teams I’ve seen in a long time. “You would have to ask Coach Pressler if that was a willful transformation or a process of recruiting.”