1.   Another match point got away when Pierce hit a backhand just wide, close enough to initiate a brief victory leap.

2.   For the Air Force Museum, it hits close to home in other ways as well.

3.   Freud has always played down the German connection, perhaps because, like a child denying a likeness to his parents, it hits close to home.

4.   It hit close to home, literally and figuratively.

5.   It can prevent you from taking a chance when you probably need to go ahead and try to hit one close.

6.   The situations play amusingly because they hit close to where many of us live.

7.   This is something that hits real close.

8.   Tragedy hit close to home for the Gators when freshman fullback Eraste Autin collapsed last month from heatstroke following an offseason conditioning drill and died six days later.

9.   The popular market averages hit the close yesterday by trimming earlier losses, even though they still finished on the minus side for the day.