Marriotts Ridge finds itself back in an all too familiar position.

For the third consecutive year the Mustangs, who went out on Tuesday and posted a 314-team total, sit atop the team leaderboard in the 1A/2A classification after one day at the state championships.

It's the next part of the story, though, that Marriotts Ridge will be trying to rewrite.

After falling short of the title in 2009 and 2010, the Mustangs will attempt to finally close the deal on that elusive championship Wednesday at the University of Maryland golf course.

"Here we go again," Marriotts Ridge coach Mark Dubbs said. "You know, maybe the third time will be the charm. For a guy like Chris (Yoo), who has been through the disappointment each of the last two years, this is the chance to come back and make it all right."

The crazy thing is, the team's No. 1 player Yoo wasn't even at the forefront of the charge Tuesday for a Mustang team that posted its best-ever single-round total at the state tournament.

It was instead sophomores Rachel Lee (76) and Michael Dorsh (79), along with junior Joe Dorsch (77), that did the heavy lifting for Marriotts Ridge. Yoo did finish with a solid 82 to round out the scoring, leaving the Mustangs 16 shots ahead of second-place North Carroll (330) and 17 ahead of third-place McDonough (331).

Two years ago, Marriotts Ridge led by six shots after round one before ultimately falling 10 shots short of Middletown.

Last year, the Mustangs posted an opening-round total of 315 to lead by three. But again the lead slipped away and North Carroll grabbed the title.

This time, however, even with a significantly larger lead, no one from Marriotts Ridge is getting ahead of themselves.

"A lot of golf left … a lot of golf," Dubbs said. "We'll talk before tomorrow about relaxing, taking a deep breathe before each shot and not changing their routine. In the end, we can only control what we do."

While Marriotts Ridge advanced to the final day, Glenelg's team fell one spot short of the cut. The Gladiators, who were undefeated in the regular season and won the 1A/2A District title by six shots, finished fourth Tuesday with a total of 344. Only the top three teams in the classification advanced.

Two Glenelg golfers, Matt Forester (83) and Greg Leake (84), made the individual cut for the boys.

Two county girls, in addition to Lee, also made the cut. Oakland Mills' Samyra Lewis (87) and Long Reach's Ellisa Lee (88) finished second and third, respectively, to qualify for day two of the competition.

All of the players that made the cut between the four classifications, including those in 3A/4A that played on Monday, will begin on Wednesday at 9 a.m.

After losing three seniors from last year's team, this was supposed to be a rebuilding season for the Mustangs. And for much of the season, on the way to a 7-4 record, it was.

But Marriotts Ridge played just well enough at the District tournament, shooting a 326 total to qualify by two strokes, and then put it all together when it mattered most Tuesday to open this year's state event.

"I bet a lot of people were surprised when our scores went up … people didn't expect us to be as good as last year," Lee said.

One of the major reasons the Mustangs were able to exceed expectations was Lee. A sophomore that shot rounds of 80 and 81 while playing as an individual last year, she shot the best round of the day (male or female) on Tuesday.

Her 76 puts her in a tie for second overall with Atholton's Bryana Nguyen in the girls competition, six shots behind Arundel's Elyse Smidinger.

Getting to that five-over-par score of 76, though, didn't come without a little bit of adversity. After playing her first eight holes in even par, Lee stumbled on her ninth, tenth and eleventh holes. It was a stretch that included two bogeys and one double bogey, quickly dropping her to 4-over.

"I just told myself to make one par so that I could break my train of bad holes," Lee said about that rough patch in the middle of her round. "If I could get one, I knew I could continue from there with my game. I kept thinking, 'it's not just for me, it's also for the team.' "

Lee got that par she wanted on No. 3 and proceeded to make five more pars over her final six holes to finish with the 76.

But as much as Lee helped, the real key to success for the Mustangs was the play of the Dorsch brothers. Despite playing at states for the first time in their careers, Joe and Michael finished among just five boys golfers in the 70s on Wednesday.

With his 77, Joe had the low round for the boys.

"Coming in, our biggest concern was the Dorsch boys not being tournament tested at all. But they progressively got better as the season went on and they certainly came through for us today," Dubbs said. "They weren't fazed by the pressure."

Michael's story was especially remarkable, considering he wasn't even supposed to be in the team's line-up until a coaches decision made him the team's fourth guy at the end of last week.

He responded by posting a 79, including a one-under-par score of 35 on the back nine.

On the whole, scores were significantly higher on Tuesday compared to Monday. Joe Dorsch's low round of 77 on Tuesday only has him tied for 16th overall in the boys competition.

To go along with that, the scoring average for the field was 88.13 strokes on Tuesday, compared to 83.27 on Monday.