File photo

Every senior on the Terrapin men’s lacrosse team knows the history behind the Johns Hopkins rivalry.

It’s long — the two decorated programs have met 105 times and every year since 1946.

It’s storied — the in-state tradition is widely considered the greatest rivalry in all of college lacrosse.

But it’s also decidedly one-sided. The Terps have lost to the Blue Jays more than any other opponent in Terp history, and Johns Hopkins stands as the only team against which the Terps have a losing record.

This year’s graduating class feels that sting more acutely than most — no current Terp has ever won against the program’s archrival. When the No. 4 Terps (7-2) take on the No. 16 Blue Jays (5-5) tomorrow as part of the Day of Rivals at M&T Bank Stadium in Baltimore, a special kind of ignominy will be on the line for the team’s seven seniors.

A win would obviously mean a lot.

“Everything,” senior short-stick midfielder Bryn Holmes said. “It means everything. I want this game so bad. This is probably the most important game of the season to me.”

Despite the historical disadvantage, the Terps enter tomorrow’s match in familiar circumstances — as the on-paper favorite. The showdown marks the third time in four years the Terps face off against Johns Hopkins with a higher ranking.

It hasn’t mattered, though. The Blue Jays have won the last three contests between the in-state foes and eight of the last 10, including five one-goal games and three overtime victories.

Last year, in the first Day of Rivals event, the Terps fell to Johns Hopkins 10-9. Before that, they suffered a 10-4 pummeling.

In 2007, the year in which the current Terp seniors were first introduced to the rivalry, the result was especially crushing. Riding a three-game losing streak into Byrd Stadium, the Blue Jays somehow emerged with an 8-7 overtime victory that launched a run to a National Championship. The Terps, meanwhile, lost in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.

“I remember that,” senior goalie Brian Phipps said. “I have that picture from The Diamondback up in my room still. You hate losing, especially when you lose to your rival three years in a row. We’re going to try to do something differently this year to avenge that loss.”

“Especially in a rivalry like this, they’re going to bring their best game for us,” Phipps said. “They always have. In the past three years, their records have been just OK, and then they’ve played us and started going on a run.”

The Terps last beat Johns Hopkins in 2006, snapping a losing skid of their own to trump their nemeses.

Tomorrow, they’ll enter Baltimore having just snapped a two-game slide last Saturday with a win against Navy, a team that had also regularly troubled the Terps of late.

Before beating Albany 19-7 last weekend, Johns Hopkins had lost four in a row.

“You can throw all the records out,” Holmes said. “It doesn’t mean anything.”

Still, despite the history between the teams, the Terps said they wanted to take it as just the next game on their schedule. But circumstances are conspiring against them.

“They’re two programs that have been very, very good for a long time,” coach Dave Cottle said. “That’s what makes the rivalry special. Then on top of that, you throw it into a professional venue with 20,000 fans, that’s special, and it’s a doubleheader with Army-Navy, that’s special. So this Day of Rivals is something that has great appeal to lacrosse fans and to our players.”

There’s also the matter of statewide hegemony. The Terps have beaten every in-state foe this year, and the Blue Jays stand as the last obstacle before the Terps’ first regular season state sweep since 2001.

They haven’t managed a complete Old Line State sweep — including both regular and postseason games — since they did it in 1976.

In 1973, the Terps beat Johns Hopkins in the regular season and again in a double-overtime NCAA Tournament championship classic.

“This year as a team we can’t focus on everything in the past,” Phipps said. “We’ve just got to focus that it’s another game that we need to win. We’re trying not to focus on the huge importance of the rivalry, which it is for spectators and fans and alumni. In the locker room right now, we’ve got to focus on just beating the team we play [tomorrow].”

kyanchulis@umdbk.com