Jordan Carr was about 80 yards away from goal against host UAlbany on Feb. 9 when the full range of lacrosse skills she has honed for years began connecting in a sequence of do-it-all brilliance.
The Johns Hopkins senior defender and second-year captain caused a turnover in the defensive zone. After scooping up the ground ball, Carr pushed the fast break. Seeing midfielder Charlotte Smith, Carr passed ahead and stayed running with the transition, signaling to Smith — Hey, I’m open.
Smith passed it back to an in-stride Carr, who put an exclamation point on the play with her first goal of the season. The score saw the Blue Jays close the first half on a 3-0 run for a 9-6 lead, and Hopkins carried the second half for a 14-10 victory.
“I think that’s pretty emblematic of the player Jordan is,” Hopkins head coach Tim McCormack said of Carr’s end-to-end display. “She is huge. Making the offensive player retreat, active stick, couple of knockdowns. She’s got a bunch of ground balls, she’s awesome with the caused turnovers, she’s on pretty much every draw control on the circle, making a massive impact on possessions.”
A cursory scouting report will clearly show that the 5-foot-7 Carr — 41 ground balls, 38 caused turnovers and 35 draw controls through 15 games — is a top-tier defensive player. She has been named Big Ten Defensive Player of the Week three times already this season for the Blue Jays (10-5 overall, 2-3 Big Ten entering play on April 18).
Go a layer deeper, and it might come as a surprise to outsiders that Carr played her first three college seasons as a midfielder. She has 34 career goals, 19 of which came just last year. There was an issue with Carr’s success in the midfield, though: midfielders need more rest breaks. Defensive players, by contrast, can be on the field for just about every play throughout a game.
Knowing this, when McCormack and his staff did a deep postseason analysis last summer with the goal of maximizing every player’s contributions for the Blue Jays, they couldn’t avoid what every indicator repeatedly showed.
“At every turn we had check marks by Jordan’s name on [the defensive] side of the ball,” McCormack said.
The Blue Jays knew they needed Carr on the field as much as possible, and that meant a full-time switch to defense. When approached last summer by McCormack and defensive coach Dorrien Van Dyke with a proposal for how she could maximize her role for the team’s benefit, Carr was immediately on board.
“Honestly, I was super stoked,” Carr said about moving to the defensive circle. “I’d have the energy to make some more plays, I can be a consistent voice on the defensive end, and I think it could be a great opportunity for me and the team. I definitely jumped on it.”
While many players might balk at trading goal-scoring stardom for relatively unsung defensive impact, Carr says she gets greater satisfaction from causing havoc for opponents on the defensive end.
“Getting a big interception or caused turnover and pushing that fast break to the goal, then passing that ball to your teammate who scores, that is so much more exciting for me than being on the offensive end and maybe getting a feed and finishing it,” Carr said. “So I find so much more joy and fun on the defensive end, definitely.”
According to co-captain Bailey Cheetham, Carr’s selflessness in accepting her new responsibilities is in her DNA as a teammate and leader.
“Whatever role she’s in, she’s putting the team first,” Cheetham said. “She lives our values every day.”
Those values — compete every day, control what you can control, love the game and have a we-over-me mentality — are the pillars of Carr’s approach.
“Her teammates respect her for the grittiness and the work ethic she shows, and the team looks up to her, including me,” Cheetham said.
McCormack agrees.
“Jordan comes with a sense of focus and pride in our defense every single day,” he said. “She’s a great teammate … always checking in to make sure teammates are getting what they need to be successful. A lot of that stuff goes unnoticed when you look at the stat sheet, but Jordan does all that and more.”
Those work-ethic intangibles, lacrosse skills, motivation and overall athleticism led Carr to Hopkins following a stellar high school career at Perryville. The native of Port Deposit, Md., was a captain in both volleyball and lacrosse at Perryville and was excited for a chance to stay local and play for Hopkins while remaining close to family.
And while she’ll be graduating this spring, Carr’s lacrosse journey is not over: She joined the England women’s lacrosse national program in December (Carr’s father was born and raised in Manchester), and she plans to join the national team for the European Women’s Lacrosse Championships in Portugal this summer.
Of course, there’s also the Big Ten tournament and a deep run in the NCAA Tournament on the mind of the Blue Jays. McCormack and Cheetham, who both described Carr as the proverbial player you want on your team but hate playing against, know Carr’s skills are an indispensable key to the Blue Jays’ postseason hopes.
“She’s somebody who’s just tough,” McCormack said. “We love having her out there.”
Said Cheetham, “Jordan is a do-it-all player. She has so much stability and calmness in her game, and she brings that to her defense. We need her on the field the entire time.”
For Carr, her values as a player will continue to guide her — and her teammates’ — success.
“I’ve always looked up to the girls who are super gritty and got it done with their head down and maybe didn’t get a lot of hype to their name,” Carr said. “That’s something I really try to embody. Be that girl on the field who your teammates are like, ‘She’s always working.’ No matter if it’s 20 degrees out and pouring rain or super sunny and a beautiful day, I’m always going to put in the work, and that’s all really for them. That’s definitely the player I try to be every single day and the energy I try to bring out to the field.”
Photo Credit: Courtesy of Johns Athletics Athletics
Originally published April 17, 2024