Loyola laxer succumbs to illness

Tragedy slammed the college lacrosse world Saturday with the death of Gerry Case -- a freshman at No. 11 Loyola (Md.).

Case, who played the best game of his brief college career just three days earlier, died of meningococcemia, an infection of the blood, Saturday night at the Maryland Shock Trauma Center. He was 19 years old.

"Everyone is devastated," Loyola coach Dave Cottle told The Baltimore Sun. "Gerry was a kid who liked to have fun, but he was always respectful of everyone around him. He was a person everyone liked."

Case, who holds the season and career scoring records at Broadneck High School in Annapolis, Md. -- the same high school Penn State attacker Greg Jackson attended -- just was beginning to make waves on the Loyola squad.

In the team's 24-5 win against Fairfield last Wednesday, he played the entire second half, tallying his first goal and assist of the season and his career. At practice the following day, though, Case told Cottle he had been sick all night. The coach told him to go home, and Case was taken by his parents to Anne Arundel Medical Center on Friday.

Instead of flowers at the funeral, Case's family plans to establish a scholarship in his name. The game between Towson State and Loyola, scheduled for Saturday, has been postponed.

The game goes on

Penn State, which was smothered by No. 1 Princeton on Saturday, will travel to Baltimore on Saturday to play No. 17 Maryland-Baltimore County. With a 2-3 record, the Nittany Lions' hopes for an invitation to the NCAA tournament are fading like the sun.

"Everybody has been kind of adjusting as we go along," Penn State coach Glenn Thiel said. "If you set your goals high enough, you probably won't reach them very often."

This season, the aspirations definitely have been high. Penn State's schedule is crowded with top 25 teams, and five of the Lions' next seven contests are against teams in that top 25. The tough slate was set with the postseason in mind, and Thiel still harbors some hope for a trip to the tournament.

"It's not out of the realm of possibility yet," he said. "Look at North Carolina (No. 10). They have four loses. It's a funny year where there are three teams at the top, and then it's a giant step to where you don't know who is going to beat whom."

Who is beating whom?

So far, Princeton is the only undefeated team remaining in the top five. But it hasn't been easy. The first three wins of the season were decided by one goal, with two contests decided in overtime. Nonetheless, with the wins against Johns Hopkins, Virginia, North Carolina and Penn State, Princeton is riding a 17-game win streak and gaining confidence with each game.

"This was probably the most fulfilling game," Princeton attacker Jesse Hubbard said following the win against Penn State. "We got everyone in there. In the first three games we didn't play any of our people other than the starters. We wanted to play to our potential and get some points on the board."

Game of the week

No. 3 Virginia (4-2) plays No. 5 Maryland (4-1) Saturday at Virginia's Klockner Stadium. While the Cavaliers trail the series, 35-23, they have won four of the last six. Virginia also won, 13-9, in the ACC semifinals last season.