National Tournament

Catonsville Community College's men's basketball team had everything planned from the outset of this season. Beat each of its rival schools. Get nationally ranked. Win both the Maryland and Region XX junior college tournaments. And ultimately advance to the national tournament.It's one thing to put team goals into words, another to accomplish them.Yet, with a 90-78 overtime victory over Baltimore City Community College in the regional finals two weeks ago, Catonsville completed everything it set out to do by earning its first-ever trip to the national tournament (March 21-23)

CHARLESTON, S.C. -- Scooter Alexander has earned postseason honors in each of the past three basketball seasons. But the way Alexander sees it, he is 0-for-3 as a college player.When Towson State failed in a heroic comeback bid against Liberty and lost, 63-58, in the Big South tournament semifinals Saturday, the Tigers became the tournament's top-seeded victim for the second straight season.And for the third consecutive year, Alexander, the Tigers' star junior shooting guard, was left to contemplate an unfulfilled dream -- playing in the NCAA tournament.

A release came to me the other day which told about the second annual tournament of the Association of Disabled American Golfers.The release reminded me of the National Amputee Golfers Association tournament that I covered some years ago at Baltusrol Golf Club in New Jersey. When you see a guy strike the ball soundly while holding the club in one or more prosthetic devices, you know it's another affirmation of the human spirit.This group, ADAG, has recently acquired a corporate sponsor for its 1994 National Tournament, the Electric Mobility Corp.

While most soccer enthusiasts are focusing on the 15th World Cup this Fourth of July weekend, the Columbia Darby -- an under-16 boys soccer team -- will be eyeing a U.S. Youth Soccer Association Eastern Regional Championship and a berth in next month's national tournament.Columbia (22-2), which advanced to the national qualifier by defeating Olney of Montgomery County, 3-0, in last month's Maryland State Cup title game, will take part in the four-day tournament, which begins tomorrow at three sites in New Jersey.

With one month to go before the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference basketball tournament returns to Baltimore after a 19-year absence, enthusiasm surrounding the tournament seems to be building, based on early ticket sales reports.But even if the MEAC tournament comes off successfully, the timing of the men's championship game has cast doubt on where the winner will wind up in the NCAA tournament, particularly if the MEAC winner is, as expected, Coppin State.After preliminary games at Morgan State, the men's MEAC title game will be played at 7:30 p.m. on March 13 at the Baltimore Arena, where it will be televised by ESPN.

Pasadena resident Paula Cinelli has been bowling since the age of 5 with one goal in mind.She wanted to be a professional bowler and dreamed of some day winning a national tournament.Cinelli, has been on the Ladies Pro Bowlers Tour for more than a year, and although she has yet to cash in a national tournament, she has not lost sight of her goal."It's something I've always wanted to do," said Cinelli, a Northeast High School graduate, who, at 21, is one of the younger players on the tour.

David Chapman does not feel intimidated as a 17-year-old professional at the United States Handball Association's national tournament. In fact, he enjoys putting the pressure on his older competitors."

The Howard Community College men's basketball team had two goals going into its first national junior college tournament appearance this week at the State University of New York at Delhi.The first was to place higher than fellow Division III, District V representative Montgomery-Germantown did the past two seasons. The Griffins were seventh of eight schools last year and eighth in 1991.The second goal was to win two games. That would result in a No. 4 ranking nationally in Division III with a 23-6 record.

The Youth Basketball of America Tournament in New Orleans often serves as a convenient, competitive warm-up for the more prestigious nationals later this month.But for the Annapolis Stars, an Amateur Athletic Union 13-and-under girls team, the games have a different purpose."We're looking to get a lot of experience for next year," said Stars coach Calvin Vain Jr., whose squad leaves Saturday for the weeklong event. "And this will actually be our national tournament."And they intend to make the most of it.A four-point loss to the Ledo Lightning in the AAU state tournament in early May eliminated the Stars from national consideration.

Combine all the teams that participate in the World Series, Super Bowl, the NBA finals and even the Stanley Cup playoffs, and this is still bigger. The National Girls 18-and-under Fastpitch Softball Tournament even has six teams on the NCAA men's basketball tournament.Seventy teams, representing 25 states from across the country, will converge on Columbia's Cedar Lane Park and Centennial Park starting Wednesday night to participate in the five-day tournament.Tournament action continues on Thursday at 8 a.m., with games every two hours through 6 p.m. at each of Cedar Lane's four fields and Centennial's three fields.

WNBA Beard's shot with 1.9 seconds left lifts Mystics to victory Alana Beard hit a 16-footer with 1.9 seconds left to help the Washington Mystics beat the host San Antonio Silver Stars, 84-82, on Tuesday night. The Mystics (5-3) broke a three-game losing streak. The Silver Stars (3-4) were trying to edge past the .500 mark for the first time this season. Beard and Lindsey Harding led the Mystics with 19 points apiece. Beard picked up her fifth foul before the third quarter buzzer and went to the bench, but came back a minute later when the Silver Stars trimmed a 12-point deficit to one. The Silver Stars had a chance to win, but Belinda Snell's three-point attempt at the buzzer bounced off the rim. Women's college basketball Towson to participate in Preseason NIT in November Towson will start its 2009-10 season by participating in the Preseason Women's National Invitation Tournament.

The US Lacrosse Women's Division National Tournament is returning to its roots this weekend in Baltimore, where the first women's lacrosse team in the United States was started in 1926 at Bryn Mawr. The tournament, which began in 1933 and is one of the largest women's lacrosse events in the nation with more than 1,500 players, was hosted by Lehigh University in Bethlehem, Pa., for the past seven years. Ann Kitt Carpenetti, women's division director for US Lacrosse, said the event's proximity to this weekend's NCAA Division I women's lacrosse championship at Towson University should help boost college recruiting at the event.

SUMMER MOVES along, and with it come dribs and drabs about county competitors doing nice things on the road. A sampling: ACROBATICS: Ellicott City's Kaitlyn Hilton, 15, who is entering her junior year at Mount Hebron High School, and her two acro teammates were named to the U.S. national elite women's acrobatic team last week. If you can't picture acrobatics as a sport, you'd recognize many of the moves from circus performers or high-level cheerleading. Hilton, who has been into acrobatics since she was 9, performs as the limber, agile top athlete in the acrobatic trio out of Emilia Acrobatics and Gymnastics in Columbia.

Catonsville Community College's men's basketball team had everything planned from the outset of this season. Beat each of its rival schools. Get nationally ranked. Win both the Maryland and Region XX junior college tournaments. And ultimately advance to the national tournament.It's one thing to put team goals into words, another to accomplish them.Yet, with a 90-78 overtime victory over Baltimore City Community College in the regional finals two weeks ago, Catonsville completed everything it set out to do by earning its first-ever trip to the national tournament (March 21-23)

Pasadena resident Paula Cinelli has been bowling since the age of 5 with one goal in mind.She wanted to be a professional bowler and dreamed of some day winning a national tournament.Cinelli, has been on the Ladies Pro Bowlers Tour for more than a year, and although she has yet to cash in a national tournament, she has not lost sight of her goal."It's something I've always wanted to do," said Cinelli, a Northeast High School graduate, who, at 21, is one of the younger players on the tour.

While most soccer enthusiasts are focusing on the 15th World Cup this Fourth of July weekend, the Columbia Darby -- an under-16 boys soccer team -- will be eyeing a U.S. Youth Soccer Association Eastern Regional Championship and a berth in next month's national tournament.Columbia (22-2), which advanced to the national qualifier by defeating Olney of Montgomery County, 3-0, in last month's Maryland State Cup title game, will take part in the four-day tournament, which begins tomorrow at three sites in New Jersey.

A release came to me the other day which told about the second annual tournament of the Association of Disabled American Golfers.The release reminded me of the National Amputee Golfers Association tournament that I covered some years ago at Baltusrol Golf Club in New Jersey. When you see a guy strike the ball soundly while holding the club in one or more prosthetic devices, you know it's another affirmation of the human spirit.This group, ADAG, has recently acquired a corporate sponsor for its 1994 National Tournament, the Electric Mobility Corp.

CHARLESTON, S.C. -- Scooter Alexander has earned postseason honors in each of the past three basketball seasons. But the way Alexander sees it, he is 0-for-3 as a college player.When Towson State failed in a heroic comeback bid against Liberty and lost, 63-58, in the Big South tournament semifinals Saturday, the Tigers became the tournament's top-seeded victim for the second straight season.And for the third consecutive year, Alexander, the Tigers' star junior shooting guard, was left to contemplate an unfulfilled dream -- playing in the NCAA tournament.

With one month to go before the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference basketball tournament returns to Baltimore after a 19-year absence, enthusiasm surrounding the tournament seems to be building, based on early ticket sales reports.But even if the MEAC tournament comes off successfully, the timing of the men's championship game has cast doubt on where the winner will wind up in the NCAA tournament, particularly if the MEAC winner is, as expected, Coppin State.After preliminary games at Morgan State, the men's MEAC title game will be played at 7:30 p.m. on March 13 at the Baltimore Arena, where it will be televised by ESPN.

David Chapman does not feel intimidated as a 17-year-old professional at the United States Handball Association's national tournament. In fact, he enjoys putting the pressure on his older competitors."