By virtue of a 3-2 win over Green Hope Wednesday night, Athens Drive locked up the fifth and final playoff spot in the Tri-Nine Conference.

The game was a make-up contest from the regular season. The Jaguars are now 7-9 in league play and will be facing Wake Forest-Rolesville in the first round of Tuesday's NCHSAA 4-A softball playoffs.

Apex won the Tri-Nine Conference with a 14-2 league record. Holly Springs was second at 13-3. Middle Creek and Fuquay-Varina tied with matching 11-5 records and will play tonight at Apex High to decide who gets the 3-seed.

Green Hope will have to see if it can land a wild-card spot to play in next week's playoffs.

Six Tri-Nine teams will play this Friday in the first round of the NCHSAA baseball playoffs after Apex was announced as the wild card team for the East region. Here are their first-round match-ups.

1-Holly Springs (17-5) vs 4-Person County (8-14)

2-Middle Creek (19-6) vs 4-Hoke County (15-9)

3-Athens Drive (17-7) vs 3-Leesville Road (15-10)

4-Green Hope (13-10) at 2-Wakefield (16-8)

5-Lee County (12-10) at 1-Millbrook (16-8)

WC-Apex (11-11) at 1-Riverside (17-6)

Four Tri-Nine teams hit the field on Tuesday in first-round NCHSAA playoff action. The only team that did not was Apex (the boys lacrosse team had the field locked up), who will play tonight.

Of the four, only one advanced to the second round. The Tri-Nine went 0-3 against Cap-7 competition and was outscored 12-1 in those games.

Green Hope 5, Northern Durham 1

No surprises here.  Green Hope (16-3) had five different players score goals and downed the Knights easily in the first round.

Next up will be Wakefield at home. The Wolverines, a 4-seed in the Cap-7, were 5-4 winners over Durham Jordan.

Sanderson 1, Athens Drive 0

Athens (12-8-2) only allowed 1.1 goals per game. But one goal was all visiting Sanderson needed to slip by in the first round.

The Jaguars, which finished tied for third in the Tri-Nine, won't lose many players from this year's squad — just key ones. The list of seniors includes goalkeeper Rachel Collins (USC-Upstate signee) and leading scorer Hannah Eshraghi (16 goals, three assists).

Broughton 4, Panther Creek 1

This won't be the last time Panther Creek will have a chance to move out of the first round. But the young Catamounts (10-10-2) will have to wait at least another year after falling at Broughton on Tuesday.

The Catamounts will lose forward/goalkeeper Kenzie McNeilly, but return leading scorers in sophomore Ashley Clark (junior) and Asyia Mitchell (sophomore).

Leesville Road 7, Fuquay-Varina 0

It would've taken a monumental effort for Fuquay (8-10-2) to upset the 2-time defending state champs, currently ranked No. 1 in the nation by ESPN. Particularly on a night where Leesville Road was hitting on all cylinders. 

And were they ever.

Caroline Gentry scored a hat trick and the Pride made quick work of Fuquay. The Bengals, which upset a 1-seed last year in Holly Springs, will miss the leadership of senior Jessie Davis next season. Davis led the team with nine goals and three assists this year.

Fuquay had won four of their previous five just to get into the playoffs, including an upset of Green Hope.

With Green Hope's 7-3 win over Holly Springs in Tri-Nine baseball on Wednesday, the stage is set this Friday for a de facto conference championship game between Athens Drive and Holly Springs.

Holly Springs is in position to win the Tri-Nine 4-A baseball
regular season. J. Mike Blake of the Cary News takes a look at the
playoff race.

Not surprisingly, we've got the teams with the two best pitching staffs
in first and second. Holly Springs can win the Tri-Nine title outright
if they win out, but Athens can earn at least a share of the title with
a season-finale win this Friday between the two.

Athens Drive girls basketball standout Keisha Gatling has committed to UNC-Charlotte.

 http://blogs.newsobserver.com/swakesports/on-the-recruiting-front-gatling

The 2010 Bobby Murray High School Baseball Tournament:

Thursday April 1, Friday April 2, and Saturday April 3rd.

Site: USA Baseball Complex in Cary, North Carolina.

Teams: Wakefield H S, Millbrook HS, Broughton HS, Athens Drive HS, Wake Forest HS, Ragsdale HS, Person County HS, East Wake HS, Cary HS, Trinity Academy

Game Schedule:

The first meeting of the Wake County school board's new student assignment committee has now been set for Thursday.

School board member John Tedesco, the committee chairman, said the meeting will focus on looking at a handful of node changes for the 2010-11 school year. This includes requests from Brier Creek families to be reassigned to the new Mills Park Middle School and to stay at Panther Creek High.

The meeting will take place as the final community members of the committee are being finalized. The membership so far represents a diverse mix of people, some of whom will be well known on the blog.

 SEE UPDATE AT END OF POST FOR FINAL TWO COMMITTEE MEMBERS

CORRECTION: I HAD THE WRONG SUE KING LISTED. SEE INFO AT END OF POST.

Athens Drive post player Keisha Gatling now holds the state record for field goal percentage in a season.

Gatling made 189 of her 255 field goal attempts this year — an unheard of 74.1 percent from the floor. That number breaks the previous high of 72.2 percent by Chiquita Currie of St. Pauls during the 1999-2000 season.

The stat has been reported to the NCHSAA by The Cary News.