Semifinal

NEW YORK - Yevgeny Kafelnikov blasted a forehand cross court and the usually animated, frenetic Brazilian Gustavo Kuerten stood flat-footed on Arthur Ashe Stadium and watched it go by. A man with an American flag stood up in the upper deck and sang the American national anthem, delaying the start of 10th game of the first set with Kuerten serving to remain in the set at 5-4. When he was done, so was Kuerten, as his serve was broken and Kafelnikov was...

Kwame Edwards scored a game-high 30 points and Nathaniel Mercer added 13 to lead Patterson past Northern, 77-74, in a Class 4A North region semifinal game at Poly last night.The Clippers (11-11) will play No. 3 Mervo -- a 57-49 winner over No. 2 Southern yesterday -- for the regional championship at 8 p.m. tomorrow at Poly.Edwards broke a 66-66 tie with 2: 36 left with a three-point play. Mercer followed with a layup, then Damian Richburg (11 points) hit a free throw, giving Patterson a 72-66 lead with 1: 27 remaining.

The Southern Bulldogs were a sneaky team last season.They went into the Class 2A state playoffs unranked with a not-so-gaudy 13-10 record and stunned then-No. 8-ranked Wilde Lake, 59-58, in a state semifinal before falling to Wheaton in the final on the following day.Guess what? They're back.This time, the Bulldogs are 14-8 and their semifinal test is Middletown, which comes in as the state's top-ranked Class 2A school with a 25-1 record. Game time is 3 p.m. today at UMBC.Don't let the Bulldogs fool you. They are for real, with veteran coach Linda Kilpatrick sending her team to the state playoffs for the 11th time.

The Baltimore Colts Football Club will attempt this weekend to do what no other men's unlimited soccer team from Maryland has done, win the National Amateur Cup. The Baltimore Colts FC, dominated by men who played their college ball for Loyola or Towson, swept eight games against state and regional competition to advance to the final four of the U.S. Amateur Soccer Association event. The semifinals and title games will be played at the United German Hungarian Soccer Club in Oakford, Pa., a Philadelphia suburb.

NEW YORK -- It was cold on Arthur Ashe Stadium Court at the U.S. Open last night, and it took No. 5 seed Venus Williams, clad in her brief, form-fitting periwinkle and black tennis dress, a set to warm up her strokes and stoke her mind for the relentless Arantxa Sanchez-Vicario.By the time Williams took off her bright yellow warm-up jacket late in the first set, Sanchez-Vicario, the No. 4 seed, was well on her way to winning that first set.But that was all she would win.When the warm-up came off, Williams set to work and willed herself to oust the French Open champ from this tournament, 2-6, 6-1, 6-1.Sanchez-Vicario is the highest-ranked player ever beaten by Williams, who has lost to No. 1 Martina Hingis, No. 2 Jana Novotna and No. 3 Lindsay Davenport in the Australian, French and Wimbledon quarterfinals this year.

The Class 1A volleyball semifinals were again a roadblock the Loch Raven Raiders couldn't get past. For the third straight year, the Raiders fell one game short of the state title match, falling to Williamsport, 25-20, 25-12, 25-10 at CCBC-Essex last night. The Wildcats, the 1A West champs out of Washington County, will play Montgomery County's Poolesville, a three-game victor over Perryville in yesterday's other semifinal, on Saturday at the University of Maryland's Ritchie Coliseum.

It ended with UMBC's Skip Saunders throwing up two prayers, both from three-point range, both of which went unanswered.It ended with Hofstra coach Butch van Breda Kolff watching from a hospitality room window, a floor above the action.It ended with the shriek of an official's whistle and a string of disqualifications as five players -- three from UMBC -- fouled out.In a game of diminishing returns, Hofstra outlasted UMBC, 77-74, yesterday at UMBC Fieldhouse to gain a berth in tonight's East Coast Conference tournament championship game against Towson State.

Centennial coach Mike Seigert predicted that Friday night's state Class 3A-2A semifinal would be a high-offense, spectator-friendly event, and neither team disappointed. The game featured 84 shots. Both teams were quite prolific, but the No. 15 Eagles were a bit more efficient in coming away with a 17-10 victory over Easton. The Warriors struggled to put most of their 41 shots on goal ,and when they did, they had trouble beating Eagles goalie Van Fochios, who finished with 16 saves. During a 16-minute stretch spanning halftime, Fochios stopped 11 shots and sparked the Eagles (15-3)

PALO ALTO, Calif. - James Carter has been to the Olympic Games and been a busy traveler on the international circuit the past three years. But he has never won a national championship gold medal, either, and he figures it's about time. This afternoon, for instance. After a stadium-record time of 49.47 seconds in the semifinals of the men's 400-meter hurdles at the USA Outdoor Track and Field Championships yesterday at Stanford University's Cobb Track, Carter is rated as a top choice in today's eight-man final.

Erin Henderson leads ninth-ranked Aberdeen into a Class 2A state semifinal against T.J. Swanson and No. 4 South Carroll in what is shaping up to be an exciting quarterback showdown on Friday night at South Carroll. Each player has led his team to its first playoff victory in school history, not to mention its best season. Aberdeen (10-1) of Harford County has won eight consecutive games. South Carroll (11-1) of Carroll County has won nine straight. The 6-foot-4, 225-pound Henderson, who is bound for the University of Maryland, has thrown for 1,458 yards and 17 touchdowns and rushed for 767 yards and seven scores for 2,225 total yards.