National Team

They've gotten to the brink of the Olympics as a team. Now gymnast Courtney Kupets and her coach, Kelli Hill, will go the rest of the way together. For Kupets, the two-time national champion from Gaithersburg who also won the Olympic trials, last night's announcement of her place on the Athens-bound squad was a formality. But team officials also selected Hill, Kupets' personal coach and the outspoken head coach of the 2000 team, to reprise that role next month. Hill, 44, is the U.S. coach with the most international experience and is best known for training gold medallist Dominique Dawes of Silver Spring and 2000 Olympian Elise Ray of Columbia.

TEL AVIV, Israel - Thanks to basketball, Israelis who often feel besieged and battered finally have a reason to relax and even brag. Maccabi Tel Aviv, Israel's premier professional basketball team, plays tonight for the European Cup, and in bars and cafes across Israel, the usual dour discourse on violence, politics and the tumbling economy has been replaced by a rare euphoria. People are drinking to get happy, not to forget. They are lighting cigars and downing shots of vodka. Maccabi Tel Aviv - the winner of 42 of the last 48 Israeli championships, and arguably the only sports dynasty in the Middle East - faces an underdog Italian team, Skipper Bologna, in the championship game.

Meagan Holmes has often imagined what it would be like to play in a World Cup soccer match. "That's what I want to do," said the Dulaney junior. "It's always been my goal to be on the women's national team and to play in the Olympics, too, when I get older." Last month, Holmes took a big step toward that dream. In Carson, Calif., to train with the under-17 national team, Holmes was summoned to the under-19 team for a match against the Russian national team in town for the World Cup. Playing three-quarters of the game, Holmes helped the United States to a 1-0 victory in her first experience against an elite national team.

PHILADELPHIA - Need extra tickets to the Women's World Cup? Shannon Boxx won't be using hers because something more important has come up: She's playing in the games. After one game, in fact, she's become something of a star, scoring the insurance goal in the Americans' 3-1 victory over Sweden in Sunday's opener. For tonight's second match against Nigeria at Lincoln Financial Field, Boxx again will be starting alongside some of soccer's biggest names - Mia Hamm, Kristine Lilly, Julie Foudy, Joy Fawcett - on the sport's biggest stage.

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. - A World Cup training session for the famous U.S. women landed Mia Hamm and Co. in a scrimmage yesterday against the University of Virginia men's soccer team. Guess what? The highly skilled, experienced and talented women "lost" to an unranked Division I team that had no doubt been warned to not injure the stars, but work them hard. Respectful and obviously full of admiration, the Cavaliers controlled almost all the action, even while extending a hand to U.S. national team stars they had just tackled.

As the Orange Crush club volleyball team gets ready to meet its first opponent at the USA Volleyball Junior Olympic National Championships today in Atlanta, the feeling should be familiar. This will be the fourth consecutive year that team members have competed on the national level. Comprising some of the Baltimore area's top players, such as Tara Stradling, The Sun's Player of the Year, Kayani Turner, Stephanie Kines and Emily Berman, the 18-and-under team hopes to go all the way this time.

McDonogh knew it had to play the perfect game to beat nationally ranked Montrose Christian last night at the Towson Catholic Tip-Off Mixer. Though the No. 11 Eagles were far from perfection, they were able to hang with USA Today's 13th-ranked team in the nation before falling, 60-49. It was a game of three parts for the Eagles (1-1), who trailed early by 10 points before building a five-point lead against the Mustangs (2-0). Montrose went on a 12-2 run early in the fourth quarter to turn away the Maryland Interscholastic Athletic Association school.

Two boys from Gymnastics Plus in Columbia are the only qualifiers from Maryland this year to earn trips to a competition in Colorado Springs, Colo., this month in hopes of making the U.S. national junior development boys team. As on any national junior team, participants receive high-level training intended to help them reach for elite-athlete status in the sport, although participation is no guarantee of eventual membership on a national team. The two are Mario West, 10, of North Laurel and Johnny Schell Jr., 12, of Laytonsville, Montgomery County.

Sweat coating their faces and dripping down their backs, three members of the Annapolis Irish Rowing Club were taking a breather after racing down Spa Creek in their curious canvas contraption. "The girls are beating you," teased a nearby power boater. He had seen another long canvas boat cut through Annapolis Harbor, propelled by a female crew, and he knew the boats were two of a kind. There is nothing in the harbor, or the Chesapeake Bay, quite like the 25-foot Irish currach boat. The workmanlike design -- black canvas stretched over wooden ribs -- hasn't changed in 2,000 years.

The United States began its quest for a sixth straight International Lacrosse Federation world championship by defeating the Iroquois Nationals, 21-6, yesterday in Perth, Australia. Attackman Kevin Lowe led the Americans with four goals. Ryan Boyle (Gilman) and Bobby Benson (McDonogh, Johns Hopkins) added three each. Former Loyola College All-American Gewas Schindler led the Iroquois Nationals with three goals. The U.S. team is scheduled to play tournament host Australia today at 4 a.m. eastern time in the second game of pool play.