Northwestern

James B. Ward Jr., former track and field, football and wrestling coach at Northwestern High School in Baltimore who later was head football coach at the State University of New York at Buffalo, died Thursday of a heart attack while attending evening services at Mount Olive Baptist Church in Buffalo. He was 54. Mr. Ward, who also taught physical education at Northwestern, compiled an impressive record at the school from 1969 to 1984. His track teams won 11 Maryland Scholastic Association titles; his wrestling teams went 65-15, and his football teams were ranked in the Top 20 for nine seasons with a combined 112-28 record.

North Carolina is headed to the NCAA women's lacrosse national championship game for the second time in program history after a dominant defensive performance sparked an 11-4 victory over two-time defending champion Northwestern in Friday night's semifinals. It was the second win this season for the Tar Heels (17-3) over the two-time defending national champions. Third-seeded North Carolina will meet the winner of Friday's late semifinal between No. 1 seed Maryland and fourth-seeded Syracuse.

It usually isn't big news when a Big Ten team moves into the Associated Press poll. It is when that team is Northwestern. The Wildcats moved into the poll Monday at No. 25, their first appearance since January 1969, when it was still a Top 20. With Kansas again a runaway No. 1, as it has been since the preseason poll, the top eight remained the same for the third straight week. Northwestern (10-1) has won nine straight since a loss to Butler. The Wildcats, the only team from a BCS conference never to play in the NCAA tournament, were ranked for three weeks in 1968-69.

The Syracuse women's lacrosse team advanced to the NCAA Division I tournament final four with a 13-9 win over visiting Florida on Saturday. The fourth-seeded Orange (18-3) will make its second straight appearance, and its fourth since 2008, in the national semifinals, facing unbeaten and top-seeded Maryland on Friday at 5 p.m. or 7:30p.m. at Villanova. The Orange extended its winning streak to 13 games. The Gators end the year with an 18-3 record. "We knew it was going to be a tough game against a very good Florida team," said Syracuse coach Gary Gait.

Michelle Tumolo scored her third goal of the night with 51 seconds left to force overtime, where No.11 Syracuse fell, 11-9, to top-ranked Northwestern at the Carrier Dome. Erin Fitzgerald and Shannon Smith each recorded a goal in overtime to seal the win for the visiting Wildcats (3-0). Junior Michelle Tumolo led the Orange (1-2) with five points on three goals and two assists. Sophomore Katie Webster had three goals. Smith scored five goals and had one assist for the visitors.

Shannon Smith, Northwestern Senior, West Babylon NY, Attack Last season's Tewaaraton Award winner helped keep the No. 1 Wildcats' record perfect by scoring five times, including the insurance goal in overtime, as the defending national champs rallied from four goals down to beat Syracuse, 11-9, on the road last week. That performance boosted her career goals to 201, and the Long Island native became the fifth Wildcat to exceed 200. With one goal in a win over Oregon on Saturday and two in a victory Sunday over Louisville, Smith boosted her career total to 204 and moved into fifth place on Northwestern's all-time list.

Defending Class 1A state champion and No. 4 Dunbar continued its march to the state finals at UMBC's RAC Arena on Wednesday. Michelle Wright scored a game-high 17 points and the host Poets beat Northwestern, 57-27, in a Class 1A South regional semifinal. The Poets (16-6) will face the winner of Ben Franklin-Masonville's game with Surrattsville in Saturday's regional final. No. 14 Century 58, Walkersville 40: Alice Mercer scored 19 points and Jamie Clark added 16 to power the host Knights (22-3)

The defending national champion Northwestern women's lacrosse team will play its second game in two years in an NFL venue Saturday, taking on Ohio State at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Mass., home of the New England Patriots. The event will feature a women's lacrosse double header with No. 2 Syracuse taking on Harvard at noon followed by the undefeated Wildcats playing No. 16 Ohio State at 3 p.m. Among the four teams, 18 players hail from New England. Last season, the Wildcats played William & Mary in Dallas Cowboys Stadium in Texas and coach Kelly Amonte Hiller, who grew up in suburban Boston, jumped at the chance to showcase her No. 1 team to Gillette.

Brooke Matthews (Friends) notched a hat trick as top-ranked Northwestern closed out the road portion of its 2010 season with a 13-6 victory over No. 18 Penn State. Katrina Dowd recorded four goals and added three assists for Northwestern (11-0, 2-0 American Lacrosse Conference). ... Molly Ford ( Notre Dame Prep) had three goals and three assists as No. 14 Georgetown (7-5, 5-0 Big East) withstood a second-half rally to beat host Louisville, 17-13. ... Kim Cudmore (Bel Air)

Northwestern outlasted North Carolina with a cooly efficient attack Friday night, 15-10, to avenge its only loss of 2010 and join Maryland in Sunday's NCAA Division I lacrosse championship. The largest crowd ever to watch a women's college lacrosse game in the U.S. -- announced at 8,762 in Towson's Johnny Unitas Stadium -- saw the five-time defending champions pummel Carolina for 10 second-half goals. Player of the Year finalist Katrina Dowd and teammates Danielle Spencer and Erin Fitzgerald each scored three goals for the Wildcats (20-1)

The first two Baltimore City boys lacrosse championship games -- both featuring Poly and Northwestern -- were tightly contested with each team coming away with a title. The third time around on Tuesday didn't have the same down-to-the-wire drama. With an explosive attack and strong defense, Poly comfortably beat Northwestern. The Engineers got a six-goal, two-assist performance from junior Raamah Harcum and goalie Michael Brown turned back 14 shots as the Engineers came away with a 17-3 win over Northwestern for their second title in three years.

A Northwestern High School student was cut across his right thumb on Thursday after an altercation with another student outside the school. According to Baltimore City Public Schools, a male and female student were teasing each other off school grounds at the corner of Fallstaff Road and Park Heights Avenue. The teasing escalated, school system spokeswoman Edie House-Foster said, and the female cut the male student across his right thumb. Baltimore City Public Schools police took the girl to the state Juvenile Services department while the boy was taken to Sinai Hospital and treated for a superficial cut, House-Foster said.

Caroline Franke (Severn) matched a career high of 13 saves to anchor the defense as host No. 13 Princeton defeated No. 6 Penn State, 14-8, at Sherrerd Field at Class of 1952 Stadium. Offensively, Sam Ellis had a career game with four goals and two assists. Erin McMunn (Winters Mill) also had a six-point game with three goals and three assists. Jaci Gassaway (Severna Park) reached a milestone, scoring her 100th career goal. The Tigers (10-5) started with a 4-0 run, of which Ellis had two. Princeton would never relinquish the lead and led by as many as six goals.

The No. 2 Northwestern women's lacrosse team has a habit of handing out beat-downs, not taking them. But No. 4 host Florida used a fast-starting offense to build a big lead and win, 22-4, Saturday. The Wildcats (13-2, 4-1 American Lacrosse Conference), who have won seven NCAA championships in the past eight years, suffered their worst loss since the program returned to Division I 12 years ago. Florida also clinched a share of the American Lacrosse Conference regular-season crown for the third straight year.

Police have taken a new step in their the battle to remove illegal dirt bikes and their freewheeling riders from the streets of Baltimore, creating an email address where residents can report the bikes anonymously. "All the way around, it's a menace, and we have to take some action," said Maj. Johnny Delgado, the commander of the Northwestern District, who launched the initiative. Riding dirt bikes in the city limits is against the law, as is storing them in a house or a shed with gasoline, police said.

The stakes could not be much higher for Saturday's noon showdown between the No. 1 Maryland women's lacrosse team and No. 2 North Carolina in College Park. Not only is the No. 1 ranking at stake, but the winner likely will be the top seed in the Atlantic Coast Conference tournament, which begins April 25. While the Tar Heels already have the home-field advantage for that - the tournament is in Chapel Hill - the top seed certainly brings a psychological edge. The Terps head into Saturday with the No. 2 scoring offense in Division I, averaging 16 goals per game.

Navy's women's lacrosse team had never come closer than within seven points of a Top 20 opponent, so they turned a few heads Monday when they came within 15-12 of No. 4 and defending national champion Northwestern. Perhaps what shows how far the No. 15 Midshipmen have come was their reaction to losing that game at Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium. They weren't happy about coming so close. The game was tied seven times, lastly at 10 with 17 minutes to go, so the Midshipmen thought they could have won. “We were in a position to make a statement and I think it's a matter of getting over that hump,” said Navy coach Cindy Timchal, whose team had fallen to then-No.

You could just tell immediately that Dez Wells was ready to play at Northwestern on Tuesday night. The Maryland sophomore guard had a certain confidence, an energy. He converted the Terps' first field goal on a feed from Alex Len. Then he hit the team's second shot as well in Maryland's 77-57 win. Later, Wells was heckled by some fans behind the basket. If anything, he only played with more energy after that. This is clearly a player who is going to enjoy playing in ACC road venues.

Joey Sankey had his third straight game with four goals to lead the host No. 4 North Carolina men's lacrosse team past No. 14 Brown, 18-12, on Wednesday night. The teams traded goals for the first 21:40 before the Tar Heels scored four goals in a row to take a 8-4 lead late in the second quarter. Carolina won for the third straight game and improved to 6-3. Seven of Carolina's first nine games this season have come against Top 20 teams, and its next three opponents are also ranked.

A late 5-0 run broke a 10-10 tie and vaulted the No. 4 Northwestern women's lacrosse team past No. 15 Navy, 15-12, on Monday at Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium. "I'm proud of the effort Navy had today and it was a reflection of how hard we have been working," Mids coach Cindy Timchal said. "We played them tough. We were trading goals and then they got that little bit of a gap on us offensively. They are a very good team though. There is a reason why they have won seven of the last eight national championships.