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The problem with playing with a bull's-eye on your back is that everyone now and then, someone is going to hit that target.

For the Glenelg High athletics, it was a double hit all in one day.

First, the girls soccer team was eliminated in the Class 2A state semifinals, with Winters Mill beating them 1-0 on Friday.

Then the volleyball squad lost 3-1 in a rematch against Marriotts Ridge, with the 2A South Region championship on the line.

Throw in the football team's loss to Frederick Douglass of Prince George's County, and Friday the 13th was a massacre of a day for the Gladiators.

Just looking at the brackets, neither the volleyball or girls soccer teams looked like the teams to beat.

They both came into the playoffs with misleading seeds, with the girls soccer team taking the No. 2 seed and the volleyball team randomly assigned the No. 8 seed.

However, both teams had loads of playoff experience behind them.

In girls soccer, the Gladiators (13-4-1) had a run of three straight state titles, winning the 2A in 2006 and the 1A title in 2007 and 2008. They were methodical in their playoff runs, and 2009 looked like more of the same.

First it was a 2-0 win over Oakland Mills in the quarterfinals, then a 5-1 win over the "Cinderella" team of No. 11-seeded Patuxent in the semifinals.

The other half of the 2A South Region bracket was an upset mess, with No. 1 seed Gwynn Park falling to No. 8 seed Southern of Anne Arundel, which left a clear path for No. 4 seed Marriotts Ridge into the final.

But even then, the Gladiators stomped out a 3-0 win, brandishing a fearsome defense in front of goalie Brooke Carey.

That defense buckled only once against Winters Mill, as Mackenzie Cyr threw in a sideline pass to her sister, sophomore forward Madison Cyr, who scored the only goal of the game 10 minutes in. Carey finished the game with five saves.

In the past eight years, Glenelg's volleyball team has won six region crowns.

Five of those times, they made it to the state championship.

And twice, in 2002 and 2005, the Gladiators won the whole enchilada.

Not winning the region championship is an anomaly for them, something that last happened in 2006.

So even when the Gladiators had an unassuming 7-7 record going into the region playoffs, no one was taking them lightly.

Still, they had no problem shutting out Long Reach in the first round, and it wasn't a complete shock when they did the same to No. 1-seed Douglass in the quarterfinal. They downed No. 4-seed Patuxent 3-1 in the semifinal.

Unfortunately, they also drew a rematch against one of the teams guaranteed to be fully motivated to not underestimate Glenelg.

Marriotts Ridge didn't lose often to fellow Howard County teams, and it was even rarer for those teams to beat them 3-0.

The short list of teams with that achievement was River Hill, Wilde Lake, Centennial and Glenelg, and the Gladiators (10-8) were the only one that gave them a chance for revenge.