National Champion

All-Metro Wrestler of the Year Ryan Davis leaned against the wall of the McDonogh weight room recently and nonchalantly said, "I'm going to be a national champion in Fargo." His matter-of-fact confidence is perhaps Davis' most impressive trait. It is also what drove him to two final appearances this week at the Cadet and Junior Nationals in Fargo, N.D., the world's largest and most prestigious high school wrestling tournament. Davis became a national champion in freestyle and a runner-up in Greco-Roman.

No. 4 Stevenson not only defeated No. 12 and reigning national champion Salisbury, 12-6, in a NCAA tournament semifinal to advance to the program's first title game, but the Mustangs may also have banished some ghosts of the past. Stevenson had been escorted out of the postseason in two of the past three seasons by the Sea Gulls, who still command a 10-6 advantage in their series with their former Capital Athletic Conference foe. What made Sunday's triumph even more special is that the Mustangs had been evicted from the Final Four in 2010 and 2012 by Salisbury, a program that has captured 10 national titles.

Loyola's quest to repeat as national champion begins with a road trip this Saturday to an opponent that has already played two games. Delaware is 1-1, following a season-opening 12-10 win against High Point with a 9-8 loss to No. 17 Bucknell. But more than the Blue Hens' record, Greyhounds coach Charley Toomey is leery about Delaware's head start. “The thing we're always concerned about when we open up with Delaware is that they've got a couple games under their belt,” he said Thursday morning.

For the third time in the last four seasons, Stevenson and Salisbury will meet in the NCAA Division III tournament semifinals and at stake is a spot in the championship final at Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia on May 26. Both sides took different paths to the same destination. The No. 4 Mustangs (20-2) have been ranked in top five for pretty much the entire year and collected a program-record 20th victory with Wednesday night's 13-7 victory over No. 13 Lynchburg. The No. 12 Sea Gulls (17-5)

Days after Virginia had captured the program's fifth NCAA title on Memorial Day weekend, coach Dom Starsia gathered the players together and attempted to brace them for the impending talk - and accompanying pressure - of the Cavaliers being the favorite to repeat as national champions. “I told the kids to smile about this for a little bit,” Starsia recalled. “We're proud that we won. We're always ranked pretty highly to begin with. So it is what it is. We're not shirking away from the responsibility of the accountability of it all. But at the same time, it's hard.

Top-ranked Salisbury has a shot at capturing its 16th Capital Athletic Conference Tournament title in 17 attempts with a victory over No. 4 Stevenson this Saturday. Also at stake for the nine-time reigning national champion Sea Gulls is the No. 1 overall seed and homefield advantage in the upcoming NCAA Tournament - a prize that hasn't escaped the attention of Jim Berkman. “If we win, there's absolutely no doubt that we would be at home the rest of the way,” the Salisbury coach said Thursday morning.

Through the first half of Tuesday night's game against visiting UMBC, No. 4 Loyola played like it was still reeling from Saturday's 12-10 loss to then-No. 3 Maryland. But the reigning national champion Greyhounds got back to their signature ways in the third quarter, using a 9-1 third quarter to turn an 8-6 lead at halftime into a 21-9 demolition at Ridley Athletic Complex in Baltimore. Loyola improved to 3-1 and - just as importantly - buried the memory of that disappointing setback to the Terps, who claimed the No. 1 ranking.

For the 10th consecutive year, Salisbury earned one of the top two seeds in the South Region and will enjoy a first-round bye in the NCAA tournament. Then again, the Sea Gulls took much of the suspense out of Sunday night's bracket unveiling by going 19-0 this spring and beating five tournament-bound teams en route to their 17th Capital Athletic Conference tournament crown. “It wasn't a mystery as far as being No. 1 in the South,” coach Jim Berkman said Tuesday morning.

By virtue of defeating Maryland, 9-3, in the NCAA tournament final on Memorial Day and capturing the national championship, Loyola has gone from unknown and overlooked to recognized and celebrated. And as the reigning national titlist in 2013, the Greyhounds will no longer be the hunters, but the hunted. And if that's supposed to worry coach Charley Toomey, he didn't verbalize those concerns. “That's really what made this team so unique. It didn't matter what the label was because they didn't care,” he said.

The university's decision to suspend 27 Tufts players for using sexist and racist comments during a women's volleyball game may have cost the Jumbos a pair of losses to New England Small College Athletic Conference opponents. But coach Mike Daly said he stood behind the penalty. “No regrets whatsoever,” he said Monday morning prior to Tufts practicing at Stevenson's Mustang Stadium in Owings Mills in preparation for Tuesday night's game against the No. 2 Mustangs. “We've got great kids, we've got a great university, and we've got a great lacrosse program.

When Salisbury opened the 2013 season in defense of the national championship it had captured last May, the team limped to a 1-2 start and the thought of advancing to the NCAA tournament semifinals appeared to be remote. At least that was the way coach Jim Berkman saw it. “It was definitely a distant possibility at that time,” he said Thursday after recalling a 13-12 setback to Lynchburg on Feb. 16 and a 7-6 double-overtime decision to Washington and Lee four days later. “But by the same token, they were both one-goal losses and in both games, we had a one-on-one to win the game.

Salisbury is the torchbearer for NCAA tournament semifinals, making 10 of the last 11 Final Fours. But Stevenson is beginning to establish itself as a regular in the semifinals. The No. 4 Mustangs (20-2) will be making their fourth Final Four appearance in the last five years when they play host to the reigning national champion and No. 12 Sea Gulls (17-5) this Sunday night at Mustang Stadium in Owings Mills. It is a badge of honor for a program that had not qualified for the NCAA tournament until 2009.

The cards did not look stacked in Salisbury's favor as the reigning national champion took on the unenviable task of trying to upend undefeated Dickinson. But that is exactly what the No. 12 Sea Gulls did as they evicted the No. 2 Red Devils, 11-9, from a NCAA tournament quarterfinal Wednesday. Salisbury improved to 17-5 and will meet No. 4 Stevenson (20-2) this Sunday night for the right to advance to the title game in Philadelphia on May 26. It is a development that coach Jim Berkman is thankful for. “It was a great win on the road against a team that had an unblemished season,” he said Thursday morning.

Dickinson, the top seed in the South region, will make only its second appearance in a NCAA tournament quarterfinal when Salisbury visits Carlisle, Pa., on Wednesday. Meanwhile, the Sea Gulls, a 10-time national champion, will play in their 16th consecutive quarterfinal. Advantage, Salisbury? Coach Jim Berkman declined to declare that, but he did agree that the tension and pressure is turned up as a team advances deeper into the postseason. “Being at this point, there is more at stake, there is more tension, there is more urgency into the game,” Berkman said Monday.

Three goals from freshman attackman Brady Dashiell and a suffocating defensive effort fueled No. 12 Salisbury's 7-4 upset of No. 8 Washington and Lee in Saturday's second-round contest of the NCAA tournament. But that does not mean that all is well with the reigning national champion. The first midfield of senior Eric Kluge and juniors Tyler Smith and Greg Korvin finished with zero goals and zero assists against the Generals, marking the first time this season that the trio had been shut out since partnering together in March.

No. 12 Salisbury got off to a rousing start with a 22-2 blowout of Susquehanna in the first round of the NCAA tournament Wednesday. The victory earned the reigning national champion a second-round date with No. 8 Washington and Lee. The Sea Gulls won 15 of 20 games this season, but one of those losses came at the hands of the Generals, which secured a 7-6 win in double overtime on Feb. 20. The setback followed a 13-12 loss to Lynchburg four days...

John Tillman's weekly conference call was going well Tuesday morning until Kevin Dunleavy of The Washington Examiner asked a seemingly innocuous question. How did the Maryland coach feel about the Terps leapfrogging Loyola to move to the top of the latest United States Intercollegiate Lacrosse Association poll? “I didn't even know,” Tillman replied. “Are we ranked No. 1? I seriously have no idea. How are we No. 1? We just lost to this team in the national championship, and they won over the weekend.

It's been a long time since Salisbury hasn't entered a season ranked atop the preseason polls, but that's the scenario facing the 10-time national champion this spring. The Sea Gulls, who have captured the last two NCAA titles, are ranked No. 3 in polls compiled by both Inside Lacrosse and Lacrosse Magazine. Inside Lacrosse has Stevenson, Salisbury's former rival in the Capital Athletic Conference, ranked No. 1 and SUNY-Cortland, the team the Sea Gulls beat in last year's NCAA tournament final, No. 2. Lacrosse Magazine has Cortland at No. 1 and Stevenson at No. 2. It's an unfamiliar position for Salisbury, but considering that the team graduated six starters - including its entire starting attack - from last season's squad, coach Jim Berkman said he understands.

Loyola's Chris Layne has been diagnosed with what is being described as a “testicular mass,” but the senior midfielder still plans to play in the team's NCAA tournament first-round contest at seventh-seeded Duke this Sunday. The school made the announcement via a statement from Layne's family, who revealed that the mass was discovered earlier in the week. It is unclear if the mass is cancerous, but it apparently will not prohibit him from trying to help the Greyhounds (11-4) retain the national championship they won last spring.

Now that Salisbury secured one of the few coveted at-large berths in the NCAA tournament, Jim Berkman feels secure enough to stand on a limb and proclaim that the team can win the national championship for the third consecutive year and the 11th time in the program's history. Sounds crazy? Maybe, but aside from SUNY-Cortland, the top seed in the North region, and Dickinson, the top seed in the South, no other team in the field has less than two losses. “The crazy thing about this is, I really believe that we can still win the whole tournament,” the Sea Gulls coach said Monday morning.