Elevator
Butler volleyball: Surprising 8-0 heading into games today at South Meck and Thursday at state power Weddington. UP
Hickory Grove QB Dayne Pickett: Has thrown for 431 yards and 4 TDs this season; high QB rating of 157.4. UP
Metrolina Christian soccer: Lost first two games, won seven straight since. UP
Marvin Ridge soccer: Won first three games by a combined 15-0. UP
The Week's Best
Charlotte Catholic soccer at Olympic, today, 6:30 p.m.: Catholic, ranked No. 2 in the 3A coaches poll, is 5-0 and has outscored teams 25-2. The Cougars open Queen City conference play tonight against their chief competition for the title. Olympic (3-2-1), ranked No. 3 last week, dropped out of the poll after going 0-2-1 last week.
Myers Park tennis at Independence today, 4 p.m.: Mustangs (5-0), ranked No. 5 in the 4A state poll, opens defense of its 2007 Southwestern 4A championship.
Providence at Ardrey Kell volleyball, today, 5:30 p.m.: Longtime Providence coach Zoe Bell, now head coach at Ardrey Kell, faces her old school.
Charlotte Country Day volleyball at Charlotte Catholic, Wednesday, 6 p.m.: Private and public school state championship contenders meet in competitive non-conference game.
North Iredell volleyball at Lake Norman, Thursday, 6 p.m.: North Piedmont conference rivals are both unbeaten in league play.
Cross-country Saturday: Many of the area's top runners will participate in the Freedom Invitational at Morganton Freedom and the UNC Charlotte invitational at Charlotte.
Hot Players
David Alexander, Metrolina Christian: Scored eight goals two weeks ago and eight more last week. Now has 17 goals in nine games. Metrolina has potential first place MAC conference game at Covenant Day Friday at 7 p.m..
Courtney Gunter, Indian Trail Porter Ridge: Two-time Observer player of the year started her season with a 1-under 35 in a South Piedmont conference match at Charlotte National last week that she won. Gunter, who will play for North Carolina next year, is going for a third straight state title this season.
Notes
Charlotte Latin soccer (8-2) jumped from No. 4 to No. 1 in the state coaches poll after a strong performance at the Raleigh Ravenscroft tournament last week. The eight-team field included six ranked teams. Latin beat then-No. 1 North Raleigh Christian 4-1 (freshman
Brandon Jordi scored all four goals). Latin also beat No. 3 Wesleyan Academy 1-0 (sudden death goal from
Will McGinnis) and unranked Country Day 4-1 (South African exchange student
Sbonelo Dube scored twice).
Hickory Grove linebacker
Bailey Johnston (20 tackles, 2 sacks), the team's leading tackler, suffered a broken neck Friday. He had surgery over the weekend and is recovering well.
Charlotte Christian basketball player
Carson Sullivan has received a scholarship offer from Gardner-Webb. He took an unofficial visit to Charlotte last month … Teammate
Willis Hall has offers from Wofford, Harvard, Liberty, Elon, Gardner-Webb, Navy, Buffalo, VMI and College of Charleston, coach
Shonn Brown said. Brown said Hall will have in-home visits from Presbyterian, College of Charleston and Yale this week.
6-3 freshman
Giselle “Gigi” Bailey, slated to be a freshman girls basketball player at East Mecklenburg, is now enrolled at Charlotte Christian. Bailey is ranked in the top 40 nationally by the College Girls Basketball Report in her age group. She's ranked fourth in the Southeast region.
Charlotte Country Day all-state star
Avery Harrison, a two-year captain, is off to a hot start. She has 129 kills, 94 digs and 22 aces. Teammate
Meredith Deal, another two-year captain, has 282 assissts, 29 aces and 56 digs.
West Iredell QB
Quan Rucker rushed 17 times for 228 yards in Friday's 47-29 win over South Iredell. He was 3-for-5 passing for 44 yards and another score.
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