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Opening day of the 2026 NCAA Division I men's lacrosse season is Jan. 31.
Throughout the month of January, we'll pose three burning questions for each team ranked in the USA Lacrosse Division I Men's Preseason Top 20, presented by CWENCH Hydration, starting with No. 20 Michigan and finishing with No. 1 Maryland.
Join the conversation on social media @USALMag (IG/X/FB). Wrong answers only.
It was a tale of two halves last season for Johns Hopkins. After jumping out of the gate with wins in five of its first six games, with the only loss being by a goal to UNC, Hopkins lost its final six games, including going 0-5 in the Big Ten. In four of their six losses to close the season, the Blue Jays were held under nine goals.
Addressing the late-season dive was an obvious necessity and it fueled offseason work until the players returned to campus.
“It's clearly got to be a discussion topic,” said Hopkins coach Peter Milliman. “But then you also have to get to a point where we stopped talking about last year and once we've been in fall this year, our focus is squarely on who this team is and what we're going to do together and what it's going to take to be an elite team in the spring of 2026.”
Hopkins returns its top three scorers led by All-American Matt Collison, and U20 standout Quintan Kilrain is the first junior to ever be solo captain in program history. The Blue Jays must replace graduated All-American FOGO Logan Callahan and Scott Smith, who is second in caused turnovers in program history.
Here are three questions going into 2026.
Ranked 54th in the country last year at 10.07 goals per game, only Rutgers was ranked lower among Big Ten teams. The Blue Jays graduated fourth-leading scorer Russell Melendez but have four of their top five scorers back. It was a balanced unit last year with Collison leading the way with 33 points (21G, 12A), Hunter Chauvette finishing with 31 points (23G, 8A) and Brooks English with 26 points (8G, 18A). Chauvette is part of a junior class that also includes Charlie Iler (13G, 9A) and Chuck Rawson (13G, 6A) who return after gaining their first real playing time last year. The emphasis has been on getting bigger and stronger and making smarter decisions, all things that seem more likely thanks to an older, more veteran unit.
“We have more experience there, we’ve got some more depth, some of the younger guys are pushing the envelope a little bit,” Milliman said. “The last piece of it, which is probably the most important, is that leadership from the senior class with Brooks and Collison and the rest of those guys that are going to hold high standards and maintain accountability throughout.”
You also have to get to a point where we stopped talking about last year.
Peter Milliman on the Blue Jays turning the page after losing the final six games of 2025.
There’s no bigger hole left than that of the departure of the second-team All-Big Ten selection Logan Callahan. Callahan took 91 percent of last year’s faceoffs and won 61 percent of them to help the Blue Jays rank 15th nationally. Joe Hobot, who was a freshman, took the rest, going 7 for 29.
“More than last year, we have to be a face-off unit, a face-off group,” Milliman said. “We've got to use the wings better. We've got to rely on the depth and the competitive balance of that position so that we can use multiple guys if we have to.”
Hobot is an obvious option coming off getting the only other FOGO reps last year, but the spot won’t be decided until the season starts. Carter Kryszak is a transfer from Mercer. John McKee transferred from Dickinson the year before, but sat out last season with an injury. Dan Sheppard is a junior and Nicholas Lane is a senior. Alexander Swinnie is a stellar freshman.
“It's kind of wide open when you have a guy that took 95 percent of faceoffs and graduates, so you're looking at a whole new crew to start to sort out that responsibility,” Milliman said.
Kilrain has been making history since he arrived from The Lawrenceville School. He was Hopkins’ first freshman starter on defense since 2017. He’ll head into his third season as a starter on close defense now with a new designation. He was voted the sole captain for the Blue Jays, the first solo captain in 37 years and first junior to ever earn serve alone.
“Since we made that move, he’s accepted it with humility and with great responsibility and has done a fantastic job so far,” Milliman said. “So I think we're all in line for the right reasons and guys are excited about him. He's one of those guys that takes that stuff the right way, more than recognition he takes it as an opportunity to make a big impact as he possibly can on this team and in this program as well and that's what we're starting with.”
Kilrain comes off a summer in which he was named All-World Team from the United States’s U20 silver medal squad. (Hopkins teammates Reece DiCicco and Parker Sorenson were named to the World Team as well from gold-medalist Team Canada.)
Justin Feil grew up in Central PA before lacrosse arrived. He was introduced to the game while covering Bill Tierney and Chris Sailer’s Princeton teams. Feil enjoys writing for several publications, coaching and running and has completed 23 straight Boston Marathons. Feil has contributed to USA Lacrosse Magazine since 2009 and edits the national high school rankings.
