By Katherine Dunn The Baltimore Sun

12:31 p.m. EDT, March 11, 2013

Maryland held onto the No. 1 spot and Johns Hopkins debuted in the Top 10 of this week's Inside Lacrosse/deBeer women's media poll released Monday.

The Blue Jays jumped from No. 11 to No. 10 for their first Top 10 ranking in any poll since they were No. 8 early in the 2008 season. They started off 4-0, including an impressive 11-8 win at then-No. 9 Loyola, before falling in their American Lacrosse Conference opener to No. 4 and defending national champion Northwestern, 18-8, on Saturday.

The Terps hold the top spot for the third straight week, rolling their record to 7-0 with wins over UMBC, 17-10, and No. 9 Penn State, 20-10, last week. The Terps have beaten four Top 10 teams in the first month of the season, including No. 5 Duke, No. 7 Syracuse and then-No. 8 Virginia. They average 17.86 goals and are outscoring the competition by 8.57 goals per game.

Loyola and Navy held on at No. 12 and No. 15, respectively. Towson, which has gone 1-4 against a tough opening schedule, dropped from No. 16 to 18.

Three new teams debuted in the Top 20 this week: Cornell, in a No. 16 tie with Stony Brook, and No. 19 Rutgers and No. 20 Connecticut.

Inside Lacrosse/deBeer Women’s Media Poll

Rank/School/W-L/Pv./

1. Maryland/7-0/1

2. Florida/9-0/2

3. North Carolina/5-1/3

4. Northwestern/4-1/4

5. Duke/6-1/5

6. Notre Dame/5-0/6

7. Syracuse/3-2/7

8. Georgetown/4-1/8

9. Penn State/4-2/9

10. Johns Hopkins/4-1/11

11. Virginia/2-4/10

12. Loyola/2-3/12

13. Dartmouth/4-1/13

14. Massachusetts/5-2/14

15. Navy/6-0/15

T-16. Cornell/4-0/--

T-16. Stony Brook/4-1/17

18. Towson/1-4/16

19. Rutgers/5-1/--

20. Connecticut/5-0/--

Also receiving votes: Louisville, Drexel, Boston College, Ohio State, Stanford, Princeton, Penn, James Madison, Denver.