Dave Pietramala

Johns Hopkins men's lacrosse coach Dave Pietramala agreed to a contract extension Thursday that will run through the 2016 season. Pietramala, who will enter his 11th season at Hopkins and 14th overall as a college head coach this year, was previously under contract on a deal that ran through the 2015 season. "We have enjoyed a great deal of success under his leadership over the last 10 years, and we look forward to working with him as continues to build on the storied history of Johns Hopkins lacrosse," athletics director Tom Calder said.

When Maryland takes the field at Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium in Annapolis for Saturday's NCAA tournament quarterfinal matchup against No. 2 seed Johns Hopkins, Goran Murray will likely move to a spot opposite Zach Palmer and shadow the Blue Jays' junior attackman incessantly. That's been the role that the 6-foot, 175-pound defenseman has played in his freshman campaign. Having tangled with the likes of Virginia senior Steele Stanwick, Colgate junior Peter Baum, and Lehigh senior David DiMaria, being asked to contain an opponent's top attackman has become a matter of routine for Murray.

Dave Pietramala, a 1990 graduate of Johns Hopkins, enters his fourth season as head coach at his alma mater. Johns Hopkins finished with a 14-2 record and lost in the NCAA championship game to Virginia last year. Baltimoresun.com: What do you like about your team? Dave Pietramala: I like that we are more versatile in our ability to attack in different ways We're a little more athletic between the lines. We return all three face off guys from last season and that's an important piece of our puzzle.

These two teams will meet for the first time in an NCAA tournament first-round contest. Stony Brook (7-9) is one of two participants in the 16-team field with a sub-.500 record, but the Seawolves did capture their third America East tournament crown and second in the last three years. Johns Hopkins (11-3) is 11-2 all-time in first-round games and is 8-1 in the first round under coach Dave Pietramala. Here are a few factors that could play a role in the outcome at Homewood Field in Baltimore Sunday afternoon.

If familiarity breeds contempt, then the Book of Cliches never encountered lacrosse. With the hiring of Dave Pietramala at Johns Hopkins last June, what was already an insular game in Baltimore and beyond is cozier than ever before. When Pietramala did two stints as a Blue Jays assistant, his boss was Tony Seaman, who moved up Charles Street to Towson. "Petro" also spent a season at Loyola, so he has learned from Dave Cottle. Pietramala's coach when he played for Hopkins was Don Zimmerman, who's now the boss at UMBC.

Dave Pietramala has stomped back into town, seeking to restore the luster of his alma mater's lacrosse program while bringing with him a chunk of history. A storied player in the sport, Pietramala accepted the head coaching job at Johns Hopkins a month ago and seems intent on putting a little grit into the Blue Jays. Hopkins alumni must think back more than a decade to recall the school's last national championship, but Pietramala has a solid reminder of the program's glory days. As a sophomore defenseman in 1987, he saved a 2-inch circular tuft of grass from Rutgers Stadium, his only keepsake from the day the Blue Jays celebrated their NCAA-record seventh and last title.

The 108th meeting of a Maryland-Johns Hopkins series featured an appearance by a pair of NFL coaches. The Ravens' John Harbaugh and the New England Patriots' Bill Belichick stood on the sideline of the annual clash between the No. 10 Terps and the No. 5 Blue Jays at Homewood Field in Baltimore on Saturday night. Both coaches were positioned along the Johns Hopkins sideline. It's well known that Belichick and Blue Jays coach Dave Pietramala have become close friends. Pietramala attended the Patriots' win over the Ravens in January's AFC championship as the New England coach's guest.

The Johns Hopkins men's lacrosse team wasn't ready to cede its foothold in Baltimore just yet. Despite losing three of their last four games, the No. 13 Blue Jays maintained their lofty local status as they knocked off top-ranked Loyola, 10-9, in overtime Saturday at Ridley Athletic Complex. Sophomore midfielder Rob Guida's one-timer off a pass from junior attackman Zach Palmer with 2.3 seconds left in the extra session helped Johns Hopkins improve to 10-3 and tag the Greyhounds with their first loss in 13 games this season.

PROJECTED NCAA SEEDS 1. Duke Atlantic Coast Conference Last season: 14-6, NCAA semifinalist Coach: John Danowski (sixth season, 80-19; 30th season overall, 299-158) Top returning scorer Jordan Wolf, sophomore A (31 goals, 20 assists) Other key returnees Christian Walsh , sophomore A (21, 13) David Lawson, junior M (23, 9) C.J. Costabile, senior LSM (4, 5; 95 ground balls, 23 caused turnovers)

Senior attackman Chris Boland has been ruled out for No. 2 Johns Hopkins' road contest at Princeton on Friday. The Jessup native and Boys' Latin graduate has sat out two games since injuring his shoulder in the season opener against Towson Feb. 17. Boland has returned to practice, but coach Dave Pietramala declined to outline a timetable for his return. “He's doing well,” Pietramala would only say Wednesday morning.

By now, many folks in the lacrosse community have already written off Stony Brook as a major player in the NCAA tournament after the Seawolves won the America East tournament crown despite a sub-.500 overall record (7-9). Plus, they must take on No. 2 seed Johns Hopkins at Homewood Field in Baltimore Sunday afternoon. That's not the approach Blue Jays coach Dave Pietramala is taking, especially with Stony Brook's first midfield. Junior Jeff Tundo and seniors Robbie Campbell and Russ Bonnano rank 2-3-4 on that offense in points with 42, 38 and 32, respectively.

Six games have passed since Chris Boland returned from a broken collarbone suffered in Johns Hopkins' season-opening victory over Towson on Feb. 17. During that span, the fifth-year senior attackman has recorded nine goals and nine assists, including two assists in the team's 10-9 overtime upset of Loyola on April 28 and three goals and two assists in a 13-6 thumping of Army last Saturday. Boland acknowledged last week that it took some time for him to gain confidence in dodging and landing on the collarbone, which was how the original injury occurred.

After Lee Coppersmith's three-goal performance in Johns Hopkins' 12-11 win against Virginia on March 26, 2011 while spelling then-sophomore midfielder John Greeley who had left because of a concussion, the clamoring for Coppersmith to join the starting midfield had begun. With Greeley suffering on April 21 a season-ending injury in the left knee in which he had torn the anterior cruciate ligament last summer, Coppersmith has gotten his chance, joining sophomore Rob Guida and junior John Ranagan on the first line.

After setting a school record for wins and matching another program mark for best start, the Loyola men's lacrosse team reaped a coveted reward: the top overall seed in the NCAA tournament. The 14-1 Greyhounds, who captured their first Eastern College Athletic Conference tournament crown and are ranked third in the latest Sun rankings, will meet Canisius (6-7), the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference champion, in the first round. The game is scheduled for Saturday at 5 p.m. at Ridley Athletic Complex.

The situation facing No. 8 Johns Hopkins on Saturday afternoon felt a little familiar to the Blue Jays. Army displayed a few techniques in hopes of obtaining the same result as Navy did against Hopkins a few weeks ago. Like Navy, No. 20 Army used a deliberate offense and stayed within striking distance for most of the first half Saturday, but Hopkins had two scoring spurts in the second half to turn a close game into a 13-6 victory before a...

Dave Pietramala's reputation for being cautious and methodical precedes him as he takes to the recruiting trail every summer. The Johns Hopkins coach cast that aside when it came to wooing Zach Palmer. In 2008, Pietramala received an email from former Georgetown standout Brodie Merrill, the coach at The Hill Academy, a prep school in Ontario, Canada. Embedded in the email was a four-minute video clip of a small, fast attackman who dodged, dippedand dazzled against his opponents.

Zone defense is the flavor of the month. What was once thought to be a "less macho" approach is being used by Top 20 teams. Teams who have historically utilized man-to-man schemes have showcased zone defense this spring. North Carolina shut down Maryland for three quarters with a zone defense and won. Expect Johns Hopkins to copy the Tar Heels' strategy and give the Terps a dosage of zone. Georgetown nearly upset Syracuse with a zone. Princeton, Hopkins, Syracuse and even Virginia are playing zone defense in 2011.

Anyone who watched John Greeley crumple to the turf after intercepting a pass untouched in the second quarter of Johns Hopkins' 8-2 loss to Navy on April 21 grimaced and knew that the junior midfielder would miss an extended period of time. That period of time has turned into the remainder of the season, according to coach Dave Pietramala. Greeley, who had recorded seven goals and seven assists in 12 starts this season, will undergo surgery to repair the left knee in which he had torn the anterior cruciate ligament last summer.

Time will tell if No. 13 Johns Hopkins' 10-9 overtime win against top-ranked Loyola will prove to be a turning point for the Blue Jays. But to help the team snap out of a 1-3 skid, coach Dave Pietramala and defensive coordinator Bill Dwan took the players on a little journey to the past. “[O]ne of the things we did was, I asked Bill Dwan, who does a lot of our film study, if he would make a highlight film for the guys,” Pietramala said during his post-game conference. “I think it was Princeton, Syracuse and Virginia, and we just put it on in the locker room and let it run. And it was all good plays.