vanderbilt commodores
- LSU right-hander Ben McDonald is the only player the Orioles have selected with the first overall pick of the MLB draft. That will change Monday night.
- Maryland and Indiana, which face each other Saturday in College Park, are among several Big Ten football teams going through a rebuilding process.
- Maryland survived a last-gasp attack by host No. 5 Albany on Wednesday as it held on for its second win over a top-five opponent in five days, 12-11.
- Lacrosse roundup (March 22): Powers lifts Loyola Md. women over Georgetown, 11-7
- The Penn State men's lacrosse team ended a 20-game Denver winning streak, upsetting the top-ranked Pioneers (7-1), 15-10, to capture the Patriot Cup at Southern Methodist's Gerald Ford Stadium in Dallas on Saturday.
- Sammie Knapp (Loch Raven) scored with just one second left in overtime to lift the Mount St. Mary's women's lacrosse team past visiting Manhattan, 8-7, on Saturday.
- Maryland, picked to win the Big Ten by conference media and coaches, was ranked No. 9 in the preseason poll. The Terps return four starters from last year's 34-3 squad that went undefeated in the Big Ten and advanced to its second straight Final Four.
- In football coaching search, University of Maryland seek a personality. Showmanship is a plus. "It's not just knowing the X's and O's," school president says.
- "You look at the discussions and the things that are being talked about nationally, the excitement, it's a 180-degree turn from the conversations that were going on a year ago," Penn State coach and former Maryland offensive coordinator James Franklin said Thursday.
- Taryn Van Thof had a hat trick and No. 17 Loyola Maryland won its fifth straight women's lacrosse game, beating visiting Georgetown, 12-8, Wednesday night.
- Megan Whittle (McDonogh) and Brooke Griffin (South River) each scored four goals to power the No. 1 Maryland women to a 12-7 victory over No. 11 Penn on Wednesday.
- Maryland, Northwestern will renew their women's lacrosse rivalry in the Big Ten
- Penn State's 4-0 start this season might have led some to believe that new coach James Franklin was simply putting the finishing touch on a masterful rebuilding job former coach Bill O'Brien started before he left for the Houston Texans after only two years.
- In some ways, losing to the fifth-ranked Buckeyes, 34-17, before a pro-Buckeye crowd of over 57,000 at M&T Bank Stadium should help the Midshipmen focus on their next opponent and the rest of their season. But Saturday's game at Temple could be even more difficult for Niumatalolo and his staff.
- Maryland baseball coach John Szefc paused and looked forward, trying to articulate just how special it was to be part of the Terps' first NCAA tournament team in 43 years. Szefc was just 4 years old when Maryland lost its first two games in Gastonia, N.C., in the 1971 national tourney
- The Towson men's lacrosse team saw its three-goal lead evaporate in the fourth quarter and had to force overtime, eventually losing, 11-10, to host No. 14 Drexel in a Colonial Athletic Association semifinal Thursday.
- Justin Ward and Nikko Pontrello combined for five goals to lead No. 1 Loyola Maryland to a 10-8 lacrosse win at Colgate on Saturday.
- Freshman attacker Taylor Poplawski led No. 3 Syracuse (7-1) with a career-high four goals in a 17-12 win over visiting No. 4 Florida (8-2) on Saturday.
- Attackers Alyssa Ferro and Andi Raymond and midfielder Paige Duncan (Broadneck) helped keep No. 14 Towson close for much of Sunday's game, but No. 3 Syracuse finished with a 5-0 run to deal the visiting Tigers their first defeat of the season, 12-7.
- The Ravens met with Oregon State wide receiver Brandin Cooks and Vanderbilt wide receiver Jordan Matthews at the NFL scouting combine.
- Host Notre Dame scored four of the lacrosse game's last five goals but its rally fell short as Penn State won, 8-7, on Saturday.
- Among those players was Vanderbilt wide receiver Jordan Matthews, who showcased sharp routes and sound hands. An All-American selection who caught 112 passes for 1,477 yards and seven touchdowns last season, Matthews is regarded by NFL scouts as the consummate possession wide receiver.
- At Penn State, James Franklin would find himself competing with the Maryland in the Big Ten's East Division and — perhaps more importantly — in recruiting the Baltimore-Washington region.
- While Vanderbilt (3-2) missed 17 of its 32 free throws, the Commodores were able to convert with a little more consistency down the stretch to hold the Bears at bay. Morgan State made a much higher percentage — 13 of 22 overall — a few misses down the stretch proved costly.
- Baltimore Sun reporters Don Markus and Jeff Barker and producer-editor Jonas Shaffer weigh in on three of the biggest topics of the past week in Maryland sports.
- Quince Orchard defensive end Adam McLean has seen his stock steadily grow in recent months, as programs from Oregon to Florida and everywhere in between have reached out.
- I am in heaven. I know I am part of a minority, but I love college baseball the way the majority loves basketball. Forget the Final Four, the Road to Omaha is what gets my adrenaline pumping.
- Joe Lustgarten scored the final two goals, including the game-winner with 55
seconds left and an insurance goal 21 seconds later, to cap a 6-0 run as the third-seeded UMBC men's lacrosse team upset second-seeded Hartford, 15-13, in an America East Conference semifinal at Stony Brook's LaValle Stadium. Aaron Mellette is the first small-school wide receiver the Ravens have drafted since Northern Arizona's Clarence Moore in 2004. They have instead preferred to pluck wide receivers from established BCS programs like Oklahoma, Oregon, Maryland, and Miami.No. 4 Florida women's lacrosse team routs No. 2 Northwestern, 22-4, clinches share of ALC regular-season crownThe No. 6 Notre Dame men's lacrosse team overcame a slow start at home to defeat Big East rival Georgetown, 10-8, on Sunday afternoon.Baltimore Sun reporters Jeff Barker and Don Markus and editor Matt Bracken weigh in on the three biggest topics of the past week in Maryland sports.The No. 20 Duke men's lacrosse team jumped all over host No. 4 North Carolina early and often Wednesday night. A strong first-half performance and finish led the Blue Devils to an 11-8 upset of the rival Tar Heels.Senior attacker Ashley Bruns (Mount Hebron), senior attacker Kitty Cullen (McDonogh) and senior midfielder Brittany Dashiell (John Carroll) combined for 10 points to lead the No. 3 Florida women's lacrosse team to a 17-7 win over visiting Albany on Sunday.Junior Sarah Taylor scored a career-high five goals and classmate Taylor D'Amore dished out five assists to lead the No. 15 Johns Hopkins women's lacrosse team to an 18-5 win over Mount St. Mary's in nonconference action Wednesday afternoon at Homewood Field.Sometimes Ivin Jasper's roots as a passer come to the surface in his current role as Navy's offensive coordinato, as they have in recent weeks during the remarkable rise of freshman quarterback Keenan Reynolds, who has led the Midshipmen to five straight victories going into Saturday's game at Troy.Because of a hazing incident, the Vanderbilt women's lacrosse team has withdrawn from the Navy Fall Invitational, where it was scheduled to play Oct. 13, according to a spokesperson in the school's athletic department.When Orioles rookie Ryan Flaherty made diving plays in right field in consecutive days this week, Pittsburgh Pirates third baseman Pedro Alvarez wasn¿t surprised.The comments former Maryland offensive coordinator James Franklin made about the criteria he uses in choosing his assistant coaches at Vanderbilt came as a surprise to me.Each week, The Baltimore Sun publishes a Q&A with an area college lacrosse player to help you become more acquainted with the player and his/her team. Today's guest is Vanderbilt senior midfielder Ally Carey, a John Carroll graduate and The Sun's 2008 Female Athlete of the Year. She leads the No. 18 Commodores (7-5) in goals (22), points (31), draw controls (60) and caused turnovers (12) and is their all-time leader in draw controls with 223. The All American is a member of the U.S. national