Cadets

Centennial girls basketball coach Tony Miceli just wants his team to be in every game this season.In their first three games, the Eagles (1-2) have accomplished that -- even in yesterday's 32-30 loss to Frederick.The host Eagles fell behind 14-3 in the first quarter but rebounded to pull within one point of the Cadets midway through the fourth quarter."I think they're glad to know they're in the ball game and not getting stomped," said Miceli, a first-year coach who inherited a team that went 1-13 last season.

If ever there was a lesson on overlooking an opponent, the Liberty volleyball team got a quick review last night. The 12th-ranked and host Lions rallied from a 2-games-to-1 deficit to outlast winless Frederick, 13-15, 15-11, 5-15, 15-10, 15-11, in Eldersburg. Senior outside hitter Lauryn Smith led the way for Liberty with a match-high 17 kills and six blocks, and sophomore setter Laura Shand added 37 assists, but the 0-4 Cadets forced their Central Maryland Conference rival to earn the 2-hour, 10-minute victory.

Western's leading scorer, Latia Few, hit only one basket in last night's state Class 4A semifinal at UMBC, but it was the biggest shot of the game.With 11 seconds left, Few drove for a layup that stopped a Frederick rally and sealed the No. 5 Doves' 47-42 win over the Cadets."

RECEIVING A free college education from U.S. taxpayers is the main benefit of enrolling in a service academy. The vast majority of graduates are commissioned as officers and repay their education through years of military service. For the relatively few midshipmen and cadets who don't graduate, some repay the government, some serve in the military and a number never pay back anything.The unevenness of the treatment of some recently separated midshipmen is raising eyebrows. One of the mids expelled in a 1995 drug scandal persuaded his senator to wipe out his $86,000 debt.

WEST POINT, N.Y. -- Army used a stifling man-to-man defense to limit Navy to its lowest point total of the season, enabling the Cadets to earn a 64-56 Patriot League victory before 3,286 at Christl Arena yesterday.The win, only Army's third in 17 games, ended a school-record-tying losing string of 13 games.Army's Spencer Staggs, a freshman guard, matched his career-high with 19 points. Sophomore David Ardayfio followed with 17, making 13 of 19 free throws to go with two baskets. He was 9-for-12 at the line in the second half, when the Cadets thwarted their archrivals by making 21 of 30 attempts.

School board member resigns from economic development panel Konrad M. Wayson, the South County businessman tapped to clean up the Anne Arundel Economic Development Corp. in 1999, resigned from the Board of Directors yesterday, citing his recent appointment to the county's school board. Gov. Parris N. Glendening appointed Wayson to the school board Tuesday at the request of County Executive Janet S. Owens. Wayson said he decided to step down from the economic development organization because time constraints would not allow him to serve on both boards.

BRING ME MEN. For 38 years, those words greeted cadets at the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs. During the last 27 of those years, the 2-foot-high aluminum lettering, on a stone arch under which cadets march, assumed a meaning it did not originally intend: To some viewers, it silently spelled out a rebuke to women entering the academy. Past recommendations to remove the sign fell on deaf ears. The excuse? Tradition. In a symbolic gesture, the academy removed the sign last week.

WASHINGTON - A Pentagon investigation of reported harassment by Christian cadets and teachers found that the U.S. Air Force Academy had failed to accommodate people of non-Christian beliefs but had not engaged in "overt religious discrimination," a report released yesterday said. The conclusions by a team from Air Force headquarters acknowledged that religious slurs, jokes and disparaging remarks had been directed at non-Christian cadets. It said Christian professors used their positions as officers and authority figures to promote their faith.

Not that any event in the Army-Navy rivalry needs added importance, but last night's lacrosse game had it anyway.Both unranked, the teams came into the game knowing the winner likely would be invited to the NCAA tournament, while the loser would stay home.Army it is. The Cadets defeated the Mids, 14-12, before 6,299 at Navy-Marine Corps Stadium, the largest crowd in Navy's lacrosse history, to keep alive their hopes for a tournament bid.Army (8-4) has two games remaining, Tuesday against Lafayette and next Saturday against Rutgers.

WORCESTER, Mass. -- Joanne Groth tied a career high with 25 points and grabbed seven rebounds as Navy defeated Army, 65-57, yesterday in the first round of the Patriot League women's tournament.Julie Graham added 13 points for the Midshipmen (19-8), and Kim Hanson led the Cadets (6-21) with 13. Navy's win was its third of the season over Army.The Mids held a 28-22 halftime lead and sealed the win by making 16 of 20 free throws.Navy will play second-seeded Holy Cross in the quarterfinal round today at noon.