Liz Sherman was safe at home Friday.

Just days earlier she was finishing final exams at the end of her sophomore year at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland. And Miss Sherman said she felt very fortunate she wasn't on campus Friday when a gunman in camouflage opened fire in the CWRU business school.

It didn't minimize her reaction.

"I was really shocked," Miss Sherman, 19, said from her Hermitage home just hours after the shooting. "I just couldn't believe it. The first thing that came to my mind was that a lot of the girls in my sorority are staying up there for the summer. And I tried to get ahold of them at the house to see if I could find out anything."

While Miss Sherman, a starting pitcher and infielder for the Spartans' softball team and a former Hickory High star, didn't take classes in the Peter B. Lewis Building, she said, "I walked past it everyday to class."

So did Brian Agnew, who said he just returned to his Hermitage home on Thursday after finishing his freshman year.

"Obviously, I was sad about it and a little bit worried," said Agnew, 19. "I know a few people that are still up at the school."

An Associated Press story reported that fewer than 10 percent of the 1,600 business school students were inside the building when the shooting began. Miss Sherman noted, however, that a lot of students stay in the area for the summer for internships and jobs.

"Out of my sorority house, 19 girls are living there over the summer and its capacity is 27," she said. "A lot of people stay there and that's what scared me. A lot of people I know are still up there."

Neither Miss Sherman, who noted she had made several calls and even went on-line in hopes of contacting her roommates, nor Agnew had any luck reaching their friends by early Friday evening.

You can e-mail Herald Staff Writer Jeff Greenburg at jgreenburg@sharonherald.com.