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Last week's desertion by Rider College having dealt yet another blow to the unstable East Coast Conference, Towson State athletic director Bill Hunter will be meeting with the commissioner of the North Atlantic Conference this week in LTC hopes of renewing efforts to enter the New England-based league.Hunter and North Atlantic commissioner Stu Haskell have agreed to meet in Orono, Maine, at a time yet to be determined. The Towson athletic director will further explore ways to get his school into the league that last month voted -- for financial reasons -- not to accept the Tigers for the upcoming academic year.

It is an important week for Towson State sports, but all of the events occurring around the Tigers are not positive.Athletic director Bill Hunter points out that the Tigers are the only school in the nation with a lacrosse team in the Final Four and a baseball team in the NCAA regionals. But that good news is tempered by the fact that Towson State must begin shopping for another conference following Rider's announcement that it will move from the East Coast Conference to the Northeast in 1992.

NEWARK, Del. -- Glenn Smith scored seven goals, including the go-ahead score, as eighth-ranked Towson State broke an 8-8 third-quarter tie and cruised to a 15-9 East Coast Conference victory over Delaware yesterday.The win at Delaware Stadium gave Towson its fifth ECC lacrosse championship in the past nine years and should assure the Tigers (9-3, 4-0 in ECC) of a berth in the National Collegiate Athletic Association Division I tournament. Pairings are to be announced today.The game was the final ECC event for Delaware (6-10, 3-1)

The East Coast Conference accepted State University of New York at Buffalo yesterday as its seventh member for the 1991-92 season, prompting commissioner John Carpenter to say last night that the league was stable.Buffalo was voted in yesterday afternoon in a vote of the six school presidents, including Towson State president Hoke L. Smith, at league headquarters in Bordentown, N.J."Our immediate concern was to get things stable," Carpenter said. "Seven gives us more flexibility. I think our league has gained a lot of credibility for salvaging things."

Towson State, the defending champion, and No. 1 seed, opened a 5-1 lead, then turned to a delay game to thwart the upset bid of the University of Maryland Baltimore County, 8-5, in the semifinals of the ninth annual East Coast Conference women's lacrosse tournament at Towson yesterday.Delaware, a four-time titlist, set up a rematch of last year's final when it pulled away from Drexel in the second half for a 14-6 triumph in the other semifinal. The two winners will play for the title today at 1 p.m.Senior Kelly Bush, the ECC's leader in assists (37)

Bob Mumma, UMBC's sophomore catcher from Rising Sun, has been named the Most Valuable Player in the East Coast Conference. He takes a .413 batting average, 14 home runs and 54 RBIs into the double-elimination conference tournament, which begins today at Mercer County Park in West Windsor, N.J.Two other Retrievers sophomores, outfielder Greg Elliott and designated hitter Greg Deares, joined Mumma on the ECC all-star team selected by the coaches. UMBC also had the ECC batting champion in John Burns, a sophomore shortstop from Owings Mills who hit .445.

A shaky financial picture in New England led the North Atlantic Conference to postpone expansion plans yesterday, leaving Towson State in the East Coast Conference for the 1991-92 school year.A member of the ECC since 1982, Towson State applied for membership in the North Atlantic in February. Eight athletic directors from that conference met in Boston yesterday, but before considering Towson State's application, they instead decided to table any expansion plans.Athletic director Bill Hunter said Towson State remains interested in the North Atlantic.

It's time for the University of Maryland Baltimore County baseball team to ante up as it opens East Coast Conference play against Hofstra today with a doubleheader at Catonsville Community College."

The East Coast Conference, which will lose two members this year, announced yesterday that Brooklyn College will become a member this fall, a move that will give back to the conference its automatic bid to the National Collegiate Athletic Association men's basketball tournament.The University of Delaware and Drexel are leaving the ECC for the North Atlantic Conference, which would have left the conference with just five teams, one below the minimum required by the NCAA for an automatic bid to the tournament.

The University of Delaware (18-11) saw a 13-point lead cut to four in the final two minutes, but the Blue Hens held on for a 60-52 victory over Hofstra (4-26) and their record-setting third consecutive East Coast Conference championship.No other East Coast Conference basketball team, men's or women's, had won three straight titles, and Delaware has won 10 consecutive games at the Towson Center (six in ECC tournaments and four regular-season games against Towson State).Delaware appeared to be on its way to an easy win when it turned a 10-point halftime lead into a 41-25 margin in less than four minutes.