As Johns Hopkins men’s lacrosse junior attackman Russell Melendez was growing up in Severna Park, he played a little of everything — basketball, volleyball, soccer and even gymnastics — in addition to lacrosse.
But Melendez knew lacrosse was his passion. His mother, Christine, played the sport at Loyola and passed down her love of the game. His father, Israel, put a net around the Melendez yard so Russell could practice with ease.
“That gave me the freedom to play all the time, not have to chase balls. Just having a back yard and time on my hands, that’s all I would do,” Russell Melendez said on Glenn Clark Radio April 19. “I would just play lacrosse growing up and that’s where I imagined everything. You talk about big-time players and it’s all visualization. They’ve been there before. So I’m kind of just seeing it play out as I did when I was thinking about it as a kid.”
Melendez undoubtedly thought of playing in big-time rivalry games in college, and that will come to fruition on April 22 when Johns Hopkins takes on defending national champion Maryland at SECU Stadium in College Park. The Blue Jays enter the contest 10-4 overall and 3-1 in the Big Ten, while the Terps come into the game at 8-3 overall and 3-1 in the league. The winner earns at least a share of the Big Ten regular-season title.
Melendez has been a big part of Hopkins’ success in 2023. The Archbishop Spalding graduate began his college career at Marquette, where he posted 12 goals and 9 assists across two injury-plagued seasons before transferring to Hopkins. Now healthy, the 6-foot-1, 200-pound attackman has scored 26 goals and dished out 9 assists in 13 games (12 starts) for the Blue Jays this season.
Melendez has long had an eye on Hopkins, dating back to when his dad was working on his PhD there. Melendez was 5 years old when he got his first lacrosse stick at a Hopkins game. He said it is “still surreal” that he is playing at Homewood Field.
“When you look at the roster, every kid on the team is exceptional. They’re beyond good. I had a feeling. I accepted the challenge,” Melendez said of his decision to transfer to Hopkins. “A lot of people were like, ‘Don’t look at Hopkins with the history and the past,’ but I looked at it as not only a challenge but what a great opportunity to show everybody what we’re made of. I’m grateful that I got the chance, that [assistant coach Jamison Koesterer] called me up and gave me an opportunity. I think we’re all accepting the challenge, and we know what Hopkins is. We’re kind of embracing that right now.”
This season marks Hopkins’ first winning campaign since 2018 and the first under third-year head coach Peter Milliman. The Jays struggled offensively in their first two seasons under Milliman, who brought in former Hopkins star midfielder John Crawley to take over as offensive coordinator after the 2022 season. The results have been positive:
| Goals Per Game | Shots Per Game | Shot % | Shot On Goal % | |
| 2021 | 10.4 | 35.4 | 31.5 | 63.3 |
| 2022 | 10.9 | 40.6 | 26.9 | 57.2 |
| 2023 | 12.4 | 38.4 | 32.3 | 64.1 |
Hopkins boasts six double-digit goal scorers in Melendez, graduate attackman Garrett Degnon (32), freshman midfielder Matt Collison (20), junior midfielder Brendan Grimes (17), senior attackman Jacob Angelus (12) and junior midfielder Johnathan Peshko (12).
Melendez credits Milliman’s hire of Crawley for kicking the Jays into gear.
“That’s a huge part to this team that people might look over. What’s the difference from last year to this year? It might be adding a couple transfers, but you have to also take into account that Coach Crawley came in,” Melendez said. “He gave us that free-flowing offense and the freedom to make plays and play how we need to and also play to our strengths. We have so many talented players on our offensive line. He lets us play free and we can utilize all of our strengths to our advantage, so I think that plays a huge role into it.”
Melendez will get his introduction to the oldest rivalry in college lacrosse on April 22, and the Blue Jays will have revenge on their mind when they travel down to College Park. The Terps beat the Jays, 22-7, at Homewood Field to close out the regular season last year en route to a national title. The 15-goal margin is the largest in the history of the rivalry since Maryland became a varsity team in 1924.
The Jays couldn’t be playing much better heading into this one, considering they’ve won six of seven and the lone loss was a double-overtime thriller at Penn State.
“Everyone’s like, ‘This is the biggest rivalry. This is the most heightened it’ll get. This is when you’ll feel it the most.’ But in reality, Coach Crawley talks to us. He says, ‘Preparation to play Maryland doesn’t start this week. We’re not playing them just on that day. We do this at 4:50 in the fall when we’re getting up in the morning preparing for days like this.’ I trust my preparation. I’m just excited to play, and I think nothing different from that in any other game I play in.”
Melendez and his teammates aren’t focused on anything beyond Maryland at this point, but they do have big goals for the rest of the season.
“Everything we’re doing is in preparation for a national championship,” Melendez said. “With that in mind, if you shoot for the moon you land somewhere in the stars. We’re going for it all, and I think we’re completely capable of that.”
For more from Melendez, listen to the full interview here:
Photo Credit: Courtesy of Johns Hopkins Athletics