Ranked Teams

Off to its best start in 11 years, Maryland jumped over Syracuse and into the No. 1 spot in The Sun's Top 15 poll as well as the STX/United States Intercollegiate Lacrosse Association poll.The Terrapins (7-0) are 4-0 against ranked teams, winning by an average margin of nearly six goals. Comparatively, the Orangemen (5-0) have won by just a goal over their two ranked opponents.On Saturday, Maryland rolled to a 14-9 victory over Virginia, a team that Syracuse needed overtime to defeat earlier this season.

The senior All-Metro shortstop led the Bruins to a 3-0 record last week - including upsets of then-No. 8 C. Milton Wright, 11-1, and No. 13 Severna Park, 8-7 - as they climbed to No. 9 in the latest poll with a 4-3 overall record. Dillard was 2-for-3 with a double and a stolen base against C. Milton Wright, and she was 3-for-4 with two home runs - including the game-winning shot in the top of the seventh inning - and four RBIs in the win over Severna Park. In a 7-1 victory over Arundel, Dillard was 3-for-4 with an RBI and two runs scored.

Steve Nichols McDonogh The list of his team's accomplishments is impressive. It never dropped from The Sun's No. 1 ranking this season, his eighth as head coach at McDonogh, and was 13-2 against other area ranked teams. The Eagles defeated three nationally ranked teams, including St. Benedict's (N.J.), 3-1, when that team was ranked No. 1. And they finished ranked No. 5 nationally in the StudentSportsSoccer.com Fab 50 poll. The Eagles outscored opponents 68-7, and won the Maryland Interscholastic Athletic Association A Conference championship, their third title under the 35-year-old coach.

Phil Booth gets the basketball at the top of the key and, in a flash, practice at Mount St. Joseph comes to a halt. The reason? Kameron Williams is poised in front of him, inches away. The floor is spread, and the Gaels' two star guards are set to go one-on-one. Gripping the ball with both hands, Booth swings it slowly, left to right, right to left, a human pendulum set to burst. A second later, he drives to the right with an explosive first step that shakes Williams, giving Booth a clear path to the basket for an easy layup.

Francis Scott Key scored the last five points of the fifth game to outlast visiting Perry Hall last night, 9-15, 15-0, 15-8, 8-15, 15-9, in a matchup of ranked teams.Down the stretch, junior Carrie Weant, Key's most consistent server, served the last run, and Perry Hall, on the defensive, could not come up with the big play.Heather Abel, a senior outside hitter and the only returning starter from last year's Class 1A state finalist, plus junior middle hitters Jessica Broderick and Stephanie Robertson dominated the front line for No. 11-ranked Key (6-1)

No one can accuse Brooke Kuhl-McClelland of ducking the competition. The Mount Hebron girls lacrosse coach invited two nationally ranked teams to the team's seventh annual tournament, which takes place Saturday. The Vikings (5-0), who are ranked No. 1 by The Sun and share top honors with Moorestown (N.J.) in the US Lacrosse poll, will meet Great Valley (Pa.) - ranked 11th by US Lacrosse - in a semifinal at 10 a.m. In the other semifinal, Shawnee (N.J.), No. 13 by US Lacrosse, will take on St. Paul's at 11:30 a.m. The consolation starts at 1:30 p.m., and the championship should begin 90 minutes later.

It wasn't simply adjusting to the speed of the game or the size of the defenders. For North Carolina sophomore attackman Scott Falatach, the hardest part of the transition from high school to college involved a mental adjustment more than anything physical. "It was assuming a role that was not as large as the one I had in high school," said Falatach, who recorded 111 points during his senior year at St. Mary's, grabbing All-Metro Player of the Year honors and the C. Markland Kelly Award, given to the state's best high school lacrosse player.

There is no deep mystery as to why the Navy football team is 3-5 this year after two straight winning seasons.The defensive statistics almost leap off the page as evidence: The Midshipmen, who play Notre Dame Saturday at Jack Kent Cooke Stadium, rank 110th among 112 Division I schools in pass defense (298.4 yards per game), 109th in total defense (481.5) and 107th in points allowed (209).In every game, save for Air Force, which was content to run the ball in a 49-7 rout, the Navy secondary has made the rival quarterback resemble Johnny Unitas.

Back in the undisturbed air of October -- when North Carolina looked ripe, Virginia looked small and Wake Forest looked thin in the backcourt -- Maryland was the writers' choice to win the Atlantic Coast Conference.Then the Terps lost a tough opener to then-No. 1 Kentucky, threw away a 13-point second-half lead against No. 5 UMass and shot 25 percent in an ugly loss to UCLA.They dropped, posthaste, out of the AP Top 25 poll, and almost out of sight. The Terps are learning to play a new game without Joe Smith -- a recurring theme in the ACC this season.

High-school football fans in Carroll are just now catching their breath.Westminster and North Carroll are both off to 2-0 starts after combining to win three games all of last season.South Carroll coach Gene Brown promised an improved defense from his Cavaliers (1-1), and so far that's been the case, despite their tough 8-6 loss to Edmondson in the final minute Friday.And what about the Liberty Lions, who battled four unforgettable quarters against the metro area's top-ranked Mount St. Joseph Gaels on Friday before coming away with a 55-48 setback?

With nine national championships in 13 attempts, Salisbury's run of postseason success is eclipsed only by Hobart's record of 13 NCAA titles in 14 tournament final appearances. Sunday's title contest against SUNY-Cortland will be the third consecutive year in which the Sea Gulls have reached the NCAA championship game, but just getting there is not enough for a few players. “We all know what it takes,” senior midfielder Sam Bradman said. “We know it's not anything if we just make it there.

The C. Milton Wright boys soccer team played an inspired game against powerhouse Salesianum, of Delaware, taking a 1-1 tie to overtime before their nationally ranked guests scored for a 2-1, sudden-death victory. The game was scoreless at halftime.. Dan Kissner scored the Mustangs' lone goal off an assist from Brandon McFadden. Collin Miller had 11 saves in goal for CMW.

Rob Ambrose could see it coming. As much as everyone outside the Towson University football program was shocked two weeks ago when the host Tigers upset Villanova, then No. 20 in the Football Championship Subdivision rankings, Ambrose and his team were not. A year ago, Ambrose could see the foundation for the school's first victory over a ranked opponent since 2007. A dropped pass in the back of the end zone prevented Towson from beating a No. 5 James Madison team that had crushed the Tigers by five touchdowns the year before.

It wasn't just a game between No. 1 and No. 4. It was a game between two of the Big East's most physical teams. And it was played just the way it was expected to be. "That was the most physical game I ever played in my entire life," DeJuan Blair said after recording 22 points and 23 rebounds in No. 4 Pittsburgh's 76-68 victory over No. 1 Connecticut last night in Hartford, Conn., the Panthers' first win over a top-ranked team. "There were elbows flying, bodies flying. We just went after each other the whole game."

Boston College coach Al Skinner had been warning his players all along. It showed they didn't listen. Jeremy Lin scored 27 points to lead visiting Harvard to an 82-70 upset of No. 17 Boston College last night, three days after the Eagles upset previously top-ranked North Carolina. "I tried to pre-warn them," Skinner said. "We were capable of being this team and capable of being another team." Corey Raji paced BC (13-3) with 16 points, Tyrese Rice had 14 and Joe Trapani had 12. Oliver McNally had 17 points and Andrew Pusar 13 for the Crimson (8-6)

Demauria Liles scored 20 points and No. 15 Maryland held Old Dominion without a field goal for the final four minutes in a 74-65 victory yesterday in Norfolk, Va. Shadasia Green's layup gave the Lady Monarchs a 63-62 lead with 3:56 to play, but Old Dominion, which led by eight points in the first half, made just two free throws the rest of the way. "That's not the effort that we can afford to have in our own house and expect to be a top-20 team," Old...

Maryland coach Gary Williams could take a lot of positives from Saturday night's 81-58 win over Princeton at the Baltimore Arena.The fifth-ranked Terps, after not playing for a week, rebounded from a tough road loss in Kentucky and used their full-court pressure to force the usually sure-handed Tigers into 29 turnovers. The Terps handily beat a team that shot more than 50 percent from the field against them for the first time all season. Finally, the Terps continued their success at the arena.

From the opening kickoff of the second half Saturday against Wake Forest, when Navy returner John Angelo was knocked out and fumbled after what appeared to be a helmet-to-helmet hit, it seemed as if the same thing would happen to the Midshipmen. But Navy, despite taking several crunching hits after losing quarterback Kaipo-Noa Kaheaku-Enhada with a reinjured hamstring late in the first half, wouldn't get knocked out or cough up its 17-point halftime lead over the 16th-ranked and previously unbeaten Demon Deacons.

It was supposed to be the season's first big showdown in the Maryland Interscholastic Athletic Association A Conference - and in the metro area, for that matter. But, as Mount St. Joseph coach Dave Norton said, "We got whupped." Top-ranked Calvert Hall hammered the host No. 4 Gaels, 14-3, in a game shortened to five innings because of the 10-run rule. The Cardinals (6-3) unleashed a 15-hit attack, with every player in the starting lineup getting at least one hit to give winning pitcher Mike Dillon (four-hitter, seven strikeouts, no walks on 87 pitches)