Opening Draw: It's a battle of local rivals as the No. 17 Towson women's lacrosse team makes the short trip up Charles Street to visit No. 19 Johns Hopkins on Saturday, April 2. Opening draw from Homewood Field is set for 1 p.m. Towson Sports Network's Ben Rosenbaum will have the call of the game starting at 12:45 p.m. Links to live stats/video/audio can be found on the schedule page of TowsonTigers.com. Fans can also follow the Tigers on Twitter (@Towson_WLAX) for updates.

Updating the Tigers: Towson will be looking to build on the momentum from its 7-6 overtime win over Delaware to open Colonial Athletic Association (CAA) play last weekend. Redshirt junior midfielder Michelle Gildea scored the game-winning goal with 1:06 to play in the extra session following a pair of big saves from freshman Angie Benson. Sophomore midfielder Kaitlyn Montalbano, who recorded the assist on the game-winning goal against the Blue Hens, leads the Tigers on the season with 26 points on 17 goals and nine assists. Freshman attacker Carly Tellekamp has contributed 15 goals and two assists for 17 points. Seven Tigers have scooped up 10 or more ground balls this season and that group is led by redshirt senior defender Nadia Podo, who has 17. Sophomore defender Tianna Wallpher leads the team with 14 caused turnovers. Senior midfielder Breanna Hamm, has pulled down a team-high 15 draw controls. Benson brings a 6.65 goals against average and a .449 save percentage into this
weekend's action.

Scouting Johns Hopkins: Johns Hopkins comes into the action having won five of its last six contests, following a 17-3 win over Furman last time out. Twelve Blue Jays scored in the win and that group was led by Shannon Fitzgerald who had three goals and an assist for four points. Dene' DiMartino does a little bit of everything for Johns Hopkins this season. DiMartino has 26 goals and seven assists for a team-high 33 points. She has also contributed a team-best 68 draw controls with 18 ground balls. Jenna Reifler has dished out a team-high 11 assists while Maddie Bodden has 22 caused turnovers. Caroline Federico has been strong in goal posting a 7.37 goals against average and a .519 save percentage with 23 ground balls.

Towson-Johns Hopkins Series History: Saturday's game will be the 22nd all-time meeting between the two schools. Johns Hopkins leads the series 14-7 and has won five straight over the Tigers. Towson's last win in the series came during the 2010 season at Homewood Field. Last year when the two teams met, the Blue Jays claimed a 11-10 come from behind overtime victory. Dene' DiMartino led Hopkins with two goals and two draw controls while Sarah Maloof had four goals and Kelsea Donnelly made a career-high 16 saves.
 
Greater Baltimore's Team: Towson enters the game against the Blue Jays, looking for a win against its third greater Baltimore team of the season. The Tigers have already defeated UMBC (14-4 on Feb. 17) and Loyola (9-5 on Feb. 28). If the Tigers can defeat Johns Hopkins, it would be the first time since 2010 and the second time in school history that the Tigers defeated all three schools in the same season.  

I'm Honored: Towson freshman midfielder Natalie Sulmonte was named the CAA Rookie of the Week on Monday. Sulmonte tied her career-high with a pair of goals against Delaware. Both of her goals came on free position shots. She also won a career-best six draw controls while helping the Tigers win nine of the final 10 draw controls in the game. The CAA Rookie of the Week award has now gone to a member of the gold and black attack in five of the seven weeks this season (Angie Benson-Feb. 16, Carly Tellekamp-Feb. 23, Mar. 8, Mar. 14 and Sulmonte-Mar. 28).

In the Polls: Coming off the overtime win over Delaware the Tigers maintained their foothold in the national rankings released on Monday. Towson held its spot in the
Intercollegiate Women's Lacrosse Coaches Association (IWLCA) poll, coming in at No. 17 for the third straight week. The Tigers slipped to No. 20 in the ILWomen.com Media poll and sits just outside the top 20, receiving votes in the Nike/Lacrosse Magazine poll this week.

Just the Way We Drew It up: Senior midfielder Breanna Hamm pulled down two draw controls in last Saturday's contest against Delaware. That raised her season total to 15 draw controls and her career total to 138 draw controls. Hamm currently sits fourth in career history at Towson for draw controls. She needs three more draw controls to move into a tie with Stephanie Howell (141, 2001-04) for third place on the career draw controls list at Towson.

Nifty Fifty: Sophomore Kaitlyn Montalbano recorded two points in last Saturday's win over Delaware. Montalbano has 17 goals and nine assists for 26 points in nine games this season. Last year she had 16 goals and eight assists for 24 points in 18 games. Montalbano recorded her 50th career point against the Blue Hens. It took her just 27 games to get half way to the century mark.

What's Next? Towson returns to CAA action with a visit to Elon on Sunday, April 10 at 12 noon.