Team Canada

The U.S. women's volleyball team completed its five-city sweep of Team Canada at the Baltimore Arena last night, winning, 15-6, 15-13, 16-14. The United States lost only four sets on its weeklong eastern swing.It was an encouraging tour for coach Terry Liskevych, who is preparing his team for the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta.But Liskevych said he will make a fairer assessment of the team's progress after competing in March against traditional powers like Cuba and Brazil in the Pan-American Games, and in the Canada Cup, where the United States will face Ukraine and (( China.

COMMERCE CITY, Colo. - The consensus among fans and analysts heading into Saturday's Federation of International Lacrosse World Championship final between Canada and the United states was that the Americans, dominant all tournament long, were the clear-cut favorites.  Canada, seeking its first gold since 2006, needed to win faceoffs and control possession to keep the ball away from Team USA's stacked offense, which came into the championship game...

Everywhere Mike Green looked during the Washington Capitals' recent three-day visit to Vancouver, the high-scoring defenseman was reminded of the question that has consumed him since summer: Will he, or won't he, make Team Canada's final cut? The four Olympic rings and the words "Vancouver 2010" adorned everything from billboards to taxicabs. Every other story on sports television, it seemed, focused on the approaching Games. Each morning after practice, a gaggle of reporters gathered around Green's locker room stall at GM Place to capture his thoughts on the matter.

The U.S. team pretty quickly threw out any concerns about a letdown game in the semifinals of the Federation of International Lacrosse World Championships on Thursday night in Commerce City, Colo. Team USA, coming off a dominant 18-5 win over the Iroquois Nation on Tuesday night, easily could have looked past an Australia team it beat, 16-7, in pool play. Instead, the United States jumped out to a 7-0, first-quarter lead on the Aussies and never slowed, winning, 22-3, at Dick's Sporting Goods Park to advance to Saturday night's gold-medal game against Canada for the fifth straight time.

TORONTO - The digital clocks flanking the SkyDome scoreboard said 8:51 yesterday morning when Orioles first-round draft pick Adam Loewen stepped into the batter's box. Something was wrong with that picture. Loewen, an 18-year-old left-handed pitcher with a 94-mph fastball, has clear-cut goals of playing in major-league stadiums someday, but not like this. Not as a designated hitter. Not with Team Canada. Not 10 hours before the Orioles game begins. Instead of pitching for Rookie-level Aberdeen this summer, Loewen is biding his time as a position player with the Canadian junior national team while he waits out the predictably slow-moving negotiations that will determine his future.

NAGANO, Japan -- Jeremy Roenick expects hockey hostility tonight (11: 45; Channel 13), when Canada and the United States skate into each other at the Big Hat.Blood, sweat and sneers."

NEW YORK - There's something about the pull of a left-handed pitcher that can take a club in another direction. The Orioles demonstrated this again yesterday, passing up the chance to select a hitter with the fourth overall pick in the amateur draft and selecting Canadian pitcher Adam Loewen of Fraser Valley Christian High School in British Columbia. Loewen was rated the No. 4 high school prospect by Baseball America. His school doesn't have a baseball program, but he has pitched for Team Canada's national junior team the past three years.

WEST VALLEY CITY, Utah -- In a sport where toughness is measured in scars, stitches and missing teeth, it's almost unheard of to see a grown man break down and cry. But when the final seconds ticked off the clock yesterday in Canada's 5-2 win over the United States in the Olympic gold medal hockey game, there seemed to be enough Canadian tears to melt the ice of the E Center Ice Arena. For 50 long, frustrating years, Canada had watched its Olympic hockey teams struggle to succeed in the sport the country invented.

If you think Eric Lindros has created a stir in Quebec, you should see what he's done to hockey-crazed Toronto.The Toronto Sun, known almost as much for its Page 3 SUNshine pinup girl as for its hockey coverage, featured a picture on the front of Wednesday's paper that had Lindros' head superimposed on Wendel Clark's body. The photo showed what Lindros would look like in a Maple Leafs uniform, and it wasn't bad.Wednesday's SUNshine girl also got into the spirit. She wore a Lindros T-shirt and called herself his "No. 1 fan."

When the Blast power-play unit takes the field, coach Kevin Healey likes his team's chances for producing a goal. Converting 44.8 percent of its extra-man opportunities, the Blast ranks third in the National Professional Soccer League. But the team has a power-play problem, too -- keeping opponents from scoring while teammates sit out a penalties. Defensively, the Blast stops 46 percent of power-plays against it, second worst in the league. "We've been struggling on the defensive side, but lately we've been getting better in that," Healey said.

Coming into the Federation of International Lacrosse World Championships, Team USA didn't display many holes, with a star-studded roster coached by a deep and talented staff. The reigning gold medalist from the 2010 world games, the U.S. team opened this year's event with a dominant 10-7 win over archrival Canada at Dick's Sporting Goods Park in Commerce City, Colo. Midfielder Paul Rabil (Johns Hopkins) led the U.S. with two goals and two assists, while Rob Pannell and Kevin Buchanan (Calvert Hall)

The 2014 induction class for the National Lacrosse Hall of Fame has been approved by the US Lacrosse Board of Directors. This year's eight-person class will be officially inducted in a ceremony on Saturday, October 25, at The Grand Lodge in Hunt Valley. The members of the 2014 induction class are: Stan Cockerton, Jay Jalbert, Erin Brown Millon, Steve Mitchell, Michele Uhlfelder, Peter G. Voelkel, Carole Wakefield (posthumous) and Marge Watson. Tickets for the induction ceremony will be available to the public for purchase beginning August 1 at  www.uslacrosse.org/HOF . Nearly 400 people are honored in the National Lacrosse Hall of Fame, which is located with the Lacrosse Museum at US Lacrosse Headquarters in Baltimore.

After winning the school's first-ever national championship, the Stevenson men's lacrosse team has been selected to receive the Henry Ciccarone Memorial Award by the Touchdown Club of Annapolis as the organization's Collegiate Team of the Year. "For the past 40 years or so, the Touchdown Club has chosen one college lacrosse team in Maryland to receive this award," president Justin Mullen said. "There was no debate this year as Stevenson's outstanding 2013 season that culminated in the school's first Division III national championship clearly stood out above the rest.

Calvert Hall lacrosse standout Stephen Kelly is in Turku, Finland this month as a member of the U.S. under-19 men's national team, which is competing in the Federation of International Lacrosse U-19 men's world championships.  The U.S. has won all six titles since the tournament began in 1988. Kelly, a two-time first-team All-Metro midfielder, will share his experiences with a daily blog as he tries to bring home a gold medal.   Hello everyone! The last day and half have been incredible and one of the greatest experiences of my life.

A four-year long rebuilding project by the U.S. men's national team culminated Saturday in a 12-10 victory over Canada -- the team that dethroned it in 2006 -- in the Federation of International Lacrosse world championship (FIL) World Championship final before an announced 4,651. "We dreamed of this. This was our destiny," Team USA coach Mike Pressler said. "The script was written. We just had to go out there and prove it." Team USA's seventh world title did not come easily.

WASHINGTON - -Everywhere Mike Green looked during the Washington Capitals' recent three-day visit to Vancouver, the high-scoring defenseman was reminded of the question that has consumed him since summer: Will he, or won't he, make Team Canada's final cut? The four Olympic rings and the words "Vancouver 2010" adorned everything from billboards to taxicabs. Every other story on sports television, it seemed, focused on the approaching Games. Each morning after practice, a gaggle of reporters gathered around Green's locker room stall at GM Place to capture his thoughts on the matter.

NAGANO, Japan -- So now Bob Clarke thinks he's hockey's conscience.That's a good one.Some of us remember Clarke as one of the sneakiest, dirtiest players in the NHL, the captain of the Broad Street Bullies.Some of us remember him breaking Valeri Kharlamov's leg in hockey's first great international event, the 1972 Summit Series.Many believe that act was deliberate. But now Clarke is the general manager of Team Canada, and his best player, Paul Kariya, is out of the Olympics because of an illegal hit.Kariya, a right wing for Anaheim, suffered his fourth concussion in three seasons on Feb. 1 when Chicago's Gary Suter cross-checked him in the face.

WEST VALLEY CITY, Utah - It's no easy feat for a man with a bad back to carry the weight of an entire nation. But Mario Lemieux is trying. He's trying awfully hard. Lemieux scored twice yesterday to help Canada's struggling hockey team earn a 3-3 tie against the Czech Republic at the E Center in the final game of round-robin pool play for the 2002 Olympics. Canada advanced to play Finland tomorrow, while the Czech Republic will face Russia. For the Canadians, it was a game worthy more of relief than celebration.

TORONTO - The digital clocks flanking the SkyDome scoreboard said 8:51 yesterday morning when Orioles first-round draft pick Adam Loewen stepped into the batter's box. Something was wrong with that picture. Loewen, an 18-year-old left-handed pitcher with a 94-mph fastball, has clear-cut goals of playing in major-league stadiums someday, but not like this. Not as a designated hitter. Not with Team Canada. Not 10 hours before the Orioles game begins. Instead of pitching for Rookie-level Aberdeen this summer, Loewen is biding his time as a position player with the Canadian junior national team while he waits out the predictably slow-moving negotiations that will determine his future.