In a rare cross-town, private school vs public school match-up on Wednesday, the Cary Academy volleyball team remained undefeated. The Lady Chargers won the "Battle of Cary" in four games, keeping their undefeated season alive.

The match, held at Cary Academy, was the first-ever meeting between the two programs.

Cary Academy (27-0) won the first game 25-17. The Lady Imps came back and took the second game 25-22.

The Lady Chargers won a tiebreaker game 29-27 in the third, and closed out the match with a 25-19 win.

Cary High (11-7, 10-5) has just one game left in the regular season with Panther Creek on Tuesday. The winner of that game will claim third place in the Tri-Nine Conference. 

The Lady Chargers have two more games left before the TISAC tournament begins on Friday, Oct. 23.

The Cary Academy volleyball team improved its record to 16-0 on Tuesday with its straight-sets win over St. Mary's in the conference opener.

The Lady Chargers won 25-13 in the first, then obliterated the Unicorns in the second and third sets, winning 25-4 and 25-3 respectively. 

Girls tennis, boys soccer and field hockey scores.

Cary Academy's women's soccer coach, Jeff Costa, always sends out the scores from his team's games. No matter what, win or lose, I get a brief recap in my inbox that night or the next day on how the Lady Chargers did.

But then comes their game against Wesleyan Christian Academy, a 2-1 loss back on April 9. To call the masterpiece that showed up in my inbox the next day just "a recap" simply doesn't do it justice. It brings together eight different Shakespearean quotes that go along with nine different observations.

As an avid fan of both sports and Shakespeare (took a class on Shakespeare in my last semester of college and notched an "A" if I'm not mistaken), I asked Costa if I could share it with others here on the SWakeSports blog, and he obliged. Here it is:

Girls (NCHSAA 4-A) 

Green Hope 59, Holly Springs 56

Apex 51, Clayton 46

SE Raleigh 60, Cary 24

Athens Drive 43, East Wake 39

Wakefield 49, Middle Creek 26 

**On Thursday, Apex will host Broughton, Green Hope will go to Durham Hillside, and Athens will go to Wakefield.

Girls (NCISAA 2-A & 3-A)

Cary Christian 50, Westminster Catawba 21 

Durham Academy 49, Cary Academy 43

**On Thursday, Cary Christian will take on Southern Pines' O'Neal School at Charlotte Latin High.

Boys (NCISAA 2-A & 3-A)

Gaston Day School 73, Cary Christian 55

Forsyth Country Day School 80, Cary Academy 56 

Our area's private school teams went 4-for-4 in getting bids to the NCISAA playoffs, as the brackets were announced on Sunday evening.

The Cary Christian girls team got the No. 1 seed in the 2-A bracket after finishing the year a whopping 26-3 and will host 16-seeded Westminster Catawba on Tuesday. The boys team will be going to the playoffs for the first time ever, and are a 14-seed. They will have to play at 3-seed Gaston Day School.

Cary Academy's boys team, in their first year under Kenny Inge, got the 11th seed in the 3-A NCISAA playoffs (Note: only 12 teams get in). They will face Forsyth Country Day School, a team they lost to 78-65 back on Feb. 10. And although the Lady Chargers have struggled mightily as of late, losing six of their last seven, they still managed to get a bid as the 9th seed. Coach Kim Shaw's team will play Durham Academy again, and that's not a good thing. The Lady Chargers are fresh off losing to DA in the conference tournament by 20 points.

RALEIGH — Forgive me if it's taken a few hours to post this — I've been trying to catch my breath.

The Cary Academy boys' basketball team had fallen behind by as much as seven in the fourth quarter in its TISAC semifinal game with Durham Academy, and it was still down — by three — with 18.8 seconds left to go and the Chargers' Cameron Walton at the line for two.

Sports Editor J. Mike Blake looks at the other boys' and girls' basketball teams playing conference tournaments this week, and gives his predictions on how Cary Christian, Cary Academy and Holly Springs will do in their brackets.

Conference tournament time is here, and we're glad to supply you with another edition of the TCN/SWW boys' basketball rankings as you get geared up for this week's action:

1. Panther Creek (22-2, 13-1): defeated Cary 74-55, def. Middle Creek 61-44

I guess that settles it. Panther Creek is the best team in this area, and probably the eastern half of the state. Keeping a level head amidst all my praise in the coming weeks will be key for the Catamounts if they want to win the state title this year — which its entirely capable of.

2. Athens Drive (21-3, 11-3): def. Middle Creek 57-52, def. Green Hope 67-47

Credit Athens coach Robert Clemons. After his team was humiliated at Panther Creek, they found themselves down 46-37 to Middle Creek going into the fourth quarter. The Jaguars rallied to win 57-52 and them demolished playoff-bound Green Hope on Friday. Josh Davis had a monster week, going for 31 on his senior night against Middle Creek and then 27 against Green Hope. He's the reason they are No. 2 in the conference tournament (him and the luck of the draw) and also No. 2 in the TCN/SWW rankings.