Capital Athletic

GOUCHER Coach: Kyle Hannan, ninth season (76-54 at Goucher, 129-102 overall) 2008 record: 11-5 Conference: Landmark The Baltimore Sun's take: Although the Gophers return five of last year's top nine scorers - including senior A Sam Fitzpatrick (28 goals, 22 assists) - there are still some holes to fill, especially on attack. The offense could get relief from senior G Austin Main, who ranked third in the nation with a 6.04 goals-against average. HOOD Coach: Curt Foxx, first season as college coach 2008 record: 0-17 Conference: Capital Athletic The Baltimore Sun's take: Foxx, who succeeds Eric Dummann, takes over a program that is searching for its first victory in its four-year history, a span of 46 games.

Hello, old friend. That may as well be the greeting Salisbury has when York visits Sea Gull Stadium in Salisbury at noon Saturday in a NCAA tournament second-round game. The contest will be the third meeting this season between Capital Athletic Conference rivals. “There's good and bad,” Sea Gulls coach Jim Berkman said Thursday morning. “I guess you could say that we definitely know their tendencies. And they know ours, so that's probably not so good. It's tough to play anybody three times in any sport and especially in our game when the reality is, the game is meant to be played one time a year and two at the most.

Host Loyola scored the first eight goals and went on to beat UMBC, 21-6, yesterday at Diane Geppi-Aikens Field. Grace Gavin scored a game-high four goals for Loyola (2-1). Abby Rehfuss and Colleen O'Keefe added three each. Meg Taylor took a pass from Gavin, scoring the game's first goal 39 seconds into the game. Loyola's defense held UMBC to eight shots in each half and forced 20 turnovers. Amanda Pappas (Chesapeake-AA) led the Retrievers (1-2) with two goals. No. 9 Georgetown 11, Johns Hopkins 7: : The visiting Hoyas (2-0)

For the second straight year, Frostburg State finished fourth in the Capital Athletic Conference, earning for the program the right to play host to a league tournament quarterfinal. Last spring, the fourth-seeded Bobcats fell, 11-6, to No. 5 seed Mary Washington. Coach Tommy Pearce is hoping for a vastly different result when St. Mary's visits on Wednesday. “It's a great achievement,” Pearce said of hosting a conference tournament game. “We did have that happen last year, and last year, we beat Mary Washington and then they came back up that following Wednesday and beat us. So we know it's really hard to beat a team twice and St. Mary's is a good team.

John Keysor scored the game-winner off a feed from Chris Unterstein 5:40 into the fourth quarter yesterday as host Hofstra upset No. 8 Princeton, 9-8, dropping the Tigers to 0-3. Hofstra (2-3) won its second straight against a ranked opponent. The Pride defeated No. 13 North Carolina on Wednesday. Peter Trombino led Princeton with two goals and two assists. No. 7 Navy 11, Colgate 6: The Midshipmen (5-1, 2-1 Patriot League) - led by Nick Mirabito's hat trick - scored six straight and outscored the Raiders (3-2, 0-1)

Andrew Washington scored 16 points and Harding Nana added 11 points and 11 rebounds last night as host Delaware handed the Towson men's basketball team its eighth straight loss, 65-55. The Tigers (5-19, 2-12 Colonial Athletic Association) cut Delaware's lead to 53-51 with 7:15 left in the game, but the Blue Hens (10-15, 7-7) scored the next eight points to seal the win. Cantrell Fletcher led the Tigers with 13 points. Johns Hopkins 82, Haverford 56: Danny Nawrocki had 16 points and 11 rebounds and started a 20-3 run, scoring 10 points, as the host Blue Jays (14-7, 11-4 Centennial Conference)

TTC :CollegesSt. Frances' Karcher commits to VillanovaSt. Frances forward Mark Karcher, The Sun's boys basketball Player of the Year last season, orally committed to Villanova. Karcher, 6 feet 5, led the Panthers to their first No. 1 ranking, averaging 24.4 points, 8.7 rebounds and 6.6 assists."I'm pretty sure of my decision," Karcher said. "I like the campus, the coach, the team and academic program." Karcher, who hadn't made any other official visits, had narrowed his choices to Villanova, Kentucky, Clemson, Miami (Fla.

Division III Goucher 2001 record: 13-3 Coach: Kyle Hannan (13-3, second season) Conference: Capital Athletic Top returning point-getter: Phil Anthony, senior A (36 goals, 31 assists). Also back: Ashley Tarran-Jones, junior A; Qadir Stern, junior M; Todd Litterbrant, junior M; T. Paul Powell, junior LSM; Mike Weed, junior D; John Hanley, sophomore D; Michael Amash, senior G. Key additions: Tim Pistel, junior A (transfer from Harford CC); Mike Medley, junior M (transfer from CCBC-Essex)

The NCAA Division I track and field championships will be held tomorrow and Saturday at the Hoosier Dome in Indianapolis, and several men and women with local ties have scoring potential.Heading the women is Maryland's Marchelle Payne, a junior from Richmond, Va. who is one of the nation's hottest triple-jumpers. She won the ACC with a record leap of 43 feet, 9 1/4 inches, and added an ECAC title last weekend in Syracuse.Morgan State's Andrea Thomas, a junior from Jamaica by way of the Bronx, won the ECAC 400, and she'll be running in the NCAAs in that event along with another of the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference's best, UMES senior Jessica Hudson.

Salisbury coach Jim Berkman is as candid as any coach in lacrosse. That honesty came through as he discussed the No. 2 Sea Gulls' surprising 8-7 overtime loss to Capital Athletic Conference foe Christopher Newport on Wednesday. “We didn't get it done on Wednesday,” Berkman said Friday morning. “We just weren't sharp. We weren't passing and catching well. We talked about a trap game all week, and we didn't play well. We threw numerous balls out of bounds playing catch with guys next to us on Wednesday that we hadn't done all season.

Salisbury has not missed an NCAA tournament since 1988, capturing the championship 10 times - including in each of the last two seasons. With a 14-4 record and the No. 4 ranking in the South region, the program is in solid position to extend its consecutive streak to 25 appearances. But that is not how coach Jim Berkman feels. He said the team is determined to defeat St. Mary's (11-6) in the Capital Athletic Conference tournament final at Sea Gull Stadium on Sunday and seize the automatic qualifier to the NCAA tournament.

When reigning national champion Salisbury opens a semifinal contest of the Capital Athletic Conference tournament against Mary Washington this Saturday at Sea Gull Stadium, 10 days will have passed since the team's last game - a 7-6 setback to then-No. 12 Washington College on April 17. Coach Jim Berkman is hoping that the Sea Gulls (13-4), who slipped from No. 5 to No. 7 in the latest United States Intercollegiate Lacrosse Association poll because of that loss to the Shoremen, will still be sharp when they take the field Saturday.

Frostburg State took all the guesswork out of its placement in the Capital Athletic Conference tournament, thrashing Wesley, 17-9, last Saturday to capture the No. 4 seed. Not only did the Bobcats improve to 11-5 overall and 3-3 in the league, but they earned the right to play host to Mary Washington (8-6, 2-4) in a first-round game in the conference tournament for the first time in school history. Had the team lost to the Wolverines Saturday, Frostburg State still would have earned the No. 4 seed thanks to its head-to-head tiebreaker over the Eagles.

The disappointment of St. Mary's 15-4 loss to No. 5 Salisbury, the reigning Division III national champion, last Saturday has given way to the excitement surrounding the team's upcoming home contest against Capital Athletic Conference foe York this Saturday. The Seahawks (9-5 overall and 4-1 in the conference) are battling the Spartans (12-3, 4-1) for the No. 2 seed in the CAC tournament, which begins next Wednesday. A victory would give either side a first-round bye in the six-team field and at least one home game.

Reigning national champion Salisbury was rewarded for Saturday's 15-4 rout of St. Mary's with the program's 17th Capital Athletic Conference regular-season title. The Seahawks (1993-94) and Stevenson (2009 and 2011) are the only other teams that have captured league championships, and the Sea Gulls (13-3 overall and 6-0 in the conference) assured themselves of the top seed and home-field advantage throughout the tournament. But Salisbury will not know its semifinal opponent until the upcoming weekend.

Reigning national champion Salisbury has captured 17 league titles in the 20-year history of the Capital Athletic Conference (CAC), but this season's campaign may be the most critical to the program. Wednesday night's 10-8 loss to No. 3 Stevenson dropped the No. 6 Sea Gulls to 10-3 and may have endangered the team's bid for an at-large berth in the South Region of the NCAA tournament. Coach Jim Berkman also pointed out another side effect of the setback. “We might have lost the opportunity to host some playoff games,” he said.

Et cetera Drexel's Lee is CAA Player of the Week Drexel guard Damion Lee (Calvert Hall) was named Colonial Athletic Association Player of the Week in men's basketball after recording his first double double of the season with a team-best 26 points and a season-high 11 rebounds in a 69-58 victory over Davidson on Saturday. The 6-foot-6 sophomore shot 8-for-17 from the field and was 8-for-8 on free throws. He also had four assists. Lee has 15 or more points in his past eight games.