Semifinal

PARIS -- Maybe they will close their eyes and play it from memory. Steffi Graf and Arantxa Sanchez Vicario, last year's French Open finalists and veterans of 34 tugs-of-war against each other, asserted their dominance yesterday with straight-set semifinal victories.They not only beat the heat, which transformed Center Court into an acrid desert scape, but they also beat challengers who complained of feeling flat on a day when having an edge was mandatory.Sanchez Vicario, a two-time French Open champion, reached her fifth final at her favorite Grand Slam at the expense of 10th-seeded Jana Novotna, 6-3, 7-5.The Czech didn't come close to playing like the predator who upset Monica Seles in the quarterfinals.

Erica Henderson had a hat trick and an assist as Worcester County power Pocomoke ran over Pikesville, 7-0, in last night's Class 1A state field hockey semifinal at South River in Edgewater. Henderson scored her third goal with just under a minute to play to cap the scoring by the Warriors (12-3). Pocomoke had a 5-0 lead by the half to invoke a running clock. Pocomoke will go after its sixth straight state title and 15th overall Monday at the University of Maryland at College Park against Rising Sun in a rematch of last year's final won, 1-0, by Pocomoke.

Defending conference champion Bowie State, ranked sixth in Division II, used a 16-3 run over the final 2: 28 to pull away from Shaw University, 72-58, in the semifinals of the Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association tournament in Winston-Salem, N.C., yesterday.Bowie State faces Livingstone in tonight's final at 6: 30.Tarsha Wilson led Bowie State with 19 points and Rashia Brooks had 16.MenBCCC 80, Frederick 72: Anton Jenifer scored 29 points in the Region XX tournament win.Pub Date: 2/28/98

To say Chesapeake's Lauren Gibson had a complete game in her team's Maryland Class 4A state semifinal win would be an understatement. All she did was pitch a complete game while striking out nine and hitting a single, double and triple in the Cougars' 11-4 win over Frederick County's Linganore High at the Bachman Sports Complex. Second-ranked Chesapeake (23-2), the defending Class 4A champion, will play Montgomery County's Sherwood, a 3-0 winner over Prince George's Eleanor Roosevelt, in the state championship game Saturday at the University of Maryland.

SYDNEY, Australia - The showboat in James Carter came out last night. He would love to display that side of his personality again tomorrow. Carter usually comes across as a quiet, reserved type, and he barely gets noticed among the stars and drug scandal on the U.S. track and field team. He is no longer an unknown in the 400-meter hurdles, however, as he easily won his Olympic semifinal. He will race tomorrow's final in front of another crowd of nearly 110,000 at Olympic Stadium and a long, long way from Mervo High.

No last-second heroics. Not even a little suspense.Top-ranked Roland Park jumped on visiting St. Mary's early yesterday and went on to defeat the Saints comfortably, 13-6, in their Association of Independent Schools A Division tournament semifinal.The Reds, who now have won 21 straight games without a loss, provided the knockout punch with four straight goals to start the second half against the No. 3 team from Annapolis.Roland Park will meet No. 2 Notre Dame Prep -- 11-8 overtime winner over No. 4 Bryn Mawr in yesterday's other semifinal -- for the championship at 2 p.m. tomorrow at Towson University.

Coaches Daryl Wade of Mervo and Tony Mast of Lackey may be adversaries today in their Class 3A state semifinal at the University of Maryland's Comcast Center, but they share a common thread. The presence of their teams in today's game is a surprise - if not to the coaches and their players - to many in the Maryland basketball community. No. 8 Mervo defeated last year's 4A state champ, heavily favored Walbrook, in last weekend's North regional title game. The Chargers of Charles County have emerged from the South region, where Prince George's County powers Gwynn Park (10 state titles)

NEW YORK -- Venus and Serena, the Sisters Williams, are all grown up.Gone is the surliness. Gone is the defensiveness.Which of them is playing better at the U.S. Open, they are asked.Venus' head swivels to the left and Serena's to the right. They stare into each other's eyes.Heads straighten."We're both playing pretty good at times," said Venus."Our dad is playing the best," said Serena, laughing. "He's really serving well -- at practice."Richard Williams was serving pretty well earlier in this tournament, predicting on Day 1 that his daughters would meet in the Open final.

A season of firsts continued for Edmondson's No. 5 football team as two players for the Redskins, who are making their initial Class 2A state playoff appearance, received their first national rankings.Raytron Leak was rated 30th among America's top 100 Division I running back prospects by Rivals100, and Eddie Colbert, No. 33 among quarterbacks. Leak's rating is the highest of any Maryland running back by this recruiting service.The two will lead Edmondson (11-0) against sixth-ranked Howard (10-1)

CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- In retrospect, the outcome of yesterday's Maryland-Clemson semifinal in the Atlantic Coast Conference tournament was decided just after the horn sounded on the Terps' quarterfinal win over North Carolina State the night before.The Terps, in pulling off the upset of the ninth-ranked Wolfpack, had expended so much energy and played with such a fierce intensity that, with their depleted numbers, it was difficult to imagine them matching that intensity for a second game.The second-seeded Tigers pressed and trapped the weary Terps (15-13)