Women's Lacrosse - B1G to add Johns Hopkins in 2017

The B1G news from the B1G office Wednesday afternoon was the addition of the Johns Hopkins Blue Jays women's lacrosse program as an affiliate member beginning with the 2016-17 academic year or, more pertinently, the 2017 season. The women's team will now join the John's Hopkins men's team, which shared the conference championship with Maryland and won the Big Ten Tournament as affiliate Big Ten members.

The addition of Johns Hopkins will expand the league to seven teams as pointed out by Big Ten Commissioner James E. (or as I like to think of him, B1G Jim) Delaney, "We are thrilled to add the Johns Hopkins women's lacrosse program as a sport affiliate member and look forward to seven women's teams competing for the Big Ten Championship beginning in 2017," he said.

Delaney also gave tacit acknowledgement to the growing popularity of the sport and the need for the conference to become a force on both the men's and women's side of the sport, "We are excited to add another strong program from a premier institution with a passionate fan base to continue growing the sport of lacrosse both in the conference and on the national scene."

Johns Hopkins competed as an independent in 2014 and reached the NCAA Tournament finishing with a 14-3 record after a 14-11 loss to future conference foe Penn State in the first round of that tourney. One of the Blue Jays' other three losses came at Homewood Field when they fell 17-9 to our very own Maryland Terrapins. The 2015 game was the first meeting between the schools since 2009.The Terps have faced Johns Hopkins a dozen times and never lost to the Blue Jays.