I'm guessing you're using SQL 2005 or greater. The 2nd line selects the top 2 rows and by using ORDER BY ROW_COUNT DESC, the 2nd row is arranged as being first, then it is selected using TOP 1
SELECT TOP 1 COLUMN1, COLUMN2
from (
SELECT TOP 2 COLUMN1, COLUMN2
FROM Table
) ORDER BY ROW_NUMBER DESC