Liberty

The No. 2 Liberty girls repeated as the Class 2A state champions on Saturday, but it wasn't an easy task. The Lions gathered points in an array of events to rally late and win the title at Morgan State. Michelle Keller led the final push that helped Liberty finish with 73.5 points and beat out Largo (62). Last year, Liberty edged out North Hagerstown by 3 1/2 points. This year, Keller finished second in both the high jump and shot put for 16 crucial points to push Liberty ahead.

No one needed to look at the scoreboard when this match was over.The North Carroll girls jumped for joy. The Liberty girls sat on the floor and cried.North Carroll coach Linda Richards wiped away tears of happiness. Liberty coach Helen Derwin couldn't stop the tears of disappointment.The Panthers slammed the Lions, 15-5, 15-13, 10-15, 15-10, last night at Liberty in a tense duel that matched North Carroll's power game against Liberty's quickness and overall talent.With the victory, North Carroll replaced Liberty as Carroll County volleyball champion and gained a share of the Central Maryland Conference title with the Lions, who also are the defending CMC champions.

It was one of the most improbable endings in the history of the state softball tournament. Liberty let several crucial scoring opportunities slip away in the first six innings of Friday's Class 2A state championship against McDonough at Maryland's Robert E. Taylor Stadium. The Lions, however, refused to quit and loaded the bases in the seventh with no outs and trailing by two runs. Rebecca Oneto tied the game with a single up the middle. Sammy Bost then stole third, but slid past the bag. The third baseman missed the tag, allowing Bost to get to her feet, and instead of trying to get back to the bag, she just took off for home, sliding safely for the walk-off 3-2 victory as three McDonough players scrambled around her. The Lions, who were appearing in their first championship game in 29 years, clinched their first-ever softball title.

Fourth-seeded Glenelg used its height advantage to dominate play at the net and score a 15-9, 7-15, 15-1, 15-6 victory over top-seeded and host Liberty in a Class 2A, Region I semifinal last night.Glenelg (12-4) will meet third-seeded Allegany, which defeated second-seeded North Carroll in the other region semifinal, in the region final.Liberty, which lost to Mount Hebron in last year's state final, finished 11-5.Marisa Davidson and Debbie Snyder helped the Gladiatorcontrol play at the net. Davidson used a variety of kills, dinks and blocks and Snyder relied on blocks and thunderous kills.

North Carroll scored 11 runs in the first two innings and junior pitcher Kandi Lippy took care of the rest by no-hitting visiting Liberty in an 11-1 win yesterday.The Panthers sent 12 batters to the plate in a seven-run first inning and coasted from there. Lippy struck out 11 Liberty batters in the five-inning game that was halted due to the 10-run rule.It was the first victory for new head coach Rich Harvey, whose Panthers improved to 1-2. Liberty also is 1-2."We finally got our bats going.

The Liberty High girls lacrosse team begins what it hopes is the school's first trip to the state 1A-2A tournament, and South Carroll will be out to repeat last season's magical march to the state 3A-4A championship game.That is the scenario today as Carroll County's top two girls teams open regional action.Sixth-ranked and top-seeded Liberty (13-1) will entertain fourth-seeded Oakland Mills (2-8) at 7 p.m. in the semifinals of the 1A-2A West Region.The Lions enter the game as heavy favorites to advance to the West Region final against the winner of today's matchup between second-seeded Hammond and third-seeded Wilde Lake.

Liberty cross country coach Dan Jones has it all figured out.He has a plan on how to end Westminster's run of nine straight Carroll County boys cross country championships Friday at Western Maryland College."

The Westminster Owls got a solid outing from top pitcher Mike Peters yesterday afternoon against Liberty.Clean-up hitter Denny Bowers set the tone early with a towering three-run homer in the top of the first. And outfielder Tony Steigerwald, hitting sixth in the order, had two clutch hits and three RBIs.But shortly after the No. 5 Owls came away with an important 10-6 win over a Liberty team that is expected to compete for the county title this season, Westminster co-coach Carl Rihard still showed some displeasure.

Natalie Hannibal scored off a header with 25 minutes left in regulation as visiting Liberty twice rallied from one-goal deficits last night to defeat Westminster, 3-2.With Liberty (5-2, 2-1 in the county) coming off an impressive shutout win over Howard last week and Westminster (5-2, 1-1) recording four straight shutout wins behind senior goalie Julie Backof, last night's game appeared to have the makings of a tight defensive battle. It didn't happen.With the score tied at 2-2 midway through the second half, Hannibal chased down a bouncing ball by Michele Clawson and beat an aggressive Backof coming out of the net to score on the empty net."