Playing with a sprained ankle and pulled muscle in her back, South Carroll senior Erika Swanson blocked out the pain for more than two hours last night, hammering kill after kill to help put the young Cavaliers in a strong position to hand host Liberty its first Carroll County loss in two years.

Seemingly on the brink of defeat, however, it was the No. 12 Lions volleyball team that erupted to deliver the most painful blow in a memorable 15-1, 13-15, 15-8, 12-15, 18-16 win.

The three-time defending county champion trailed 14-8 in the final game, but then survived four match points to send the rival Cavaliers back to Winfield with only a moral victory.

"That was the real mental part of the game right there," said Liberty setter Laura Shand. "We just stayed mentally focused. We knew this was going to be a big match - South Carroll is always a big match. We've been down that much before and come back."

The Lions (8-1 overall, 4-0 county, 4-0 Central Maryland Conference), in fact, faced a similar situation against Westminster in Saturday's county tournament semifinals, rallying from a 14-8 deficit in the second game to pull out the win.

"It's a tremendous confidence booster when you know you're down by that many and then you can come back and win," said coach Dave Trumbo, whose team lost a county match on Oct. 10, 2000, against South Carroll.

Paced by sophomores Stacey Krebs (11 kills, six blocks) and Meghan McConville (10, one), and seniors Emily McConville (10, two) and Shand (six kills, four blocks, 26 assists), Liberty blew away South Carroll (5-5, 2-3, 2-2) in an opening game. But the Cavs came to life in Game 2, rallying from deficits of 6-3 and 13-12 to tie the match.