In the world of sports lingo, the term "buzzer-beaters" usually refers to basketball. Well, several buzzer-beaters occurred in this year's 84 NCAA championships, but ironically, none of them came on the hardwoods.

OK, so Notre Dame's Women's Final Four championship was dramatic, though not in the traditional buzzer-beating sense. Ruth Riley's free throws that provided the margin of the Irish's 68-66 victory came five seconds before Purdue's Katie Douglas launched a potential buzzer-beater.

And yes, Cal Poly Pomona won the Division II Women's Basketball Championship in overtime, but the 87-80 final didn't hinge on the buzzer in the extra period.

But there were plenty of heart-thumping, nail-gnawing outcomes in sports other than basketball during the 2000-01 championships slate.

Take lacrosse, for instance. Three of the six NCAA titles in that sport left one side exhilarated and the other exhausted in the span of a nanosecond.

In Division I, Princeton's men and Maryland's women had to claw for titles they had been used to winning handily. Princeton had won five Division I Men's Lacrosse Championships -- all since 1992 -- and had run away with the last two titles in 1997 and 1998. But the 2001 Tigers were accustomed to being pushed to the brink before taking their spoils. Having won their last 10 one-goal games, including their two previous tournament games, Princeton coach Bill Tierney had been lightheartedly accused by a peer of coaching specifically to set the stage for one-goal finishes.

"Winning one-goal games is not about coaching, it's about character (of the players)," Tierney said after his team had dispatched Syracuse, 10-9, in sudden death. "When our players come to Princeton, they are already full of faith and full of character. I can't take credit for that."

For Maryland's women's lacrosse team, it took a lot of character to take the championship stand for a seventh straight year. After having frittered away an 8-1 first-half lead, the Terrapins thwarted a late Georgetown opportunity to get the game into overtime, where they won in sudden death.

Allison Comito, who scored the winning goal, was thinking more about getting off a shot at all than about winning the game, but teammate Tori Wellington, who flipped Comito the pass, had a premonition.

"I think even before (Comito) shot the ball, I knew it was going in," Wellington said afterward. "I just knew she was going to do it."

There also was a heart-stopper in Division III women's lacrosse, as Middlebury erased a six-goal, second-half deficit to win a third title in five years. Panthers coach Missy Foote, who said her team hadn't been used to being that far behind, called the rally "full of heart."

Once overtime was reached, it took the Panthers just 24 seconds to score on Betsy Wheeler's third goal of the game.

Soccer kicks habit

As in lacrosse, three soccer championships were decided in dramatic fashion, unusual for a sport where opportunities to score at all are at a premium.

UC San Diego, which had made a habit of being competitive in Division III, didn't skip a beat in its first year as a member of Division II, though the Tritons waited until 15 seconds remained in the championship game to make their move.

That's when forward Cindy Dostalek dodged the Northern Kentucky defense for the difference in UC San Diego's 2-1 triumph. Ironically, the Tritons' defense had just snuffed a Northern Kentucky scoring opportunity seconds earlier, which triggered UC San Diego's counterattack. Christy Abizaid drew Norse goalkeeper Lauren Piening into the play before passing to Dostalek, who made a sliding shot into the net.

The Tritons had won five championships in Division III.

And speaking of Division III, College of New Jersey's Cara Gabage would have appreciated the luxury of 15 seconds to score the game-winning goal. Alas, Gabage had only three ticks left for her heroics.

Yet, the late spotlight was nothing new for the Lions' midfielder, who had beaten Messiah in the region final and Ohio Wesleyan in the quarterfinals, both on sudden-death goals.

In the championship game, it was the Lions' Lisa Pelligrino who launched a shot on goal in the waning seconds, which Tufts goalkeeper Randee McArdle blocked but could not smother. That enabled Gabage to head the ball into the net just three heartbeats before the horn.

"You couldn't ask for a better final," Lions coach Joe Russo said afterward.

Unless Gabage had waited a couple of seconds.

More kicks

In Division III football, a team that spent much of the 1990s beating teams by a large margin pulled off one of the most dramatic finishes in the championship's history to regain the throne it had lost a year before.

Mount Union, which authored a record 54-game winning streak from September 1996 to December 1999 and had won four Division III championships since 1993, found itself tied with St. John's (Minnesota) and had the ball at its own 32-yard line with four minutes to play.

Quarterback Gary Smeck started the decisive drive with a 20-yard completion to wide receiver Adam Marino. The pair later connected for a 13-yard gain to the Johnnies' 21 on a third-and-seven situation.

It may have been a chip shot, but only one second remained in regulation.

"I told the seniors before the game that I could be the man if I had to be," Chenos said.

The Johnnies called two timeouts, but Chenos ended the longest second by giving the Purple Raiders what may have been their hardest first.