The fourth-annual HighSchoolOT volleyball all-state team features 24 players making a second or third appearance on the team, including two who were three-time first-team selections.
One week into practice, Apex head football coach John Mozerka reflects on what he has seen from the Cougars and what is to come in the days leading up to week one.
This year's field of teams includes: Apex, Cardinal Gibbons, Heritage, Hillside, Millbrook, New Bern, Southern Durham, and Wake Forest. All eight teams made the N.C. High School Athletic Association state playoffs in 2022, including the 4A state champion and the 4A regional runner-up.
Trailing 5-2 and down to the final three outs, Apex scored six runs in the top of the seventh inning to stun Hickory Ridge 8-5 in the final game of the 4A softball state championship series.
At one point on Saturday, Apex looked down and out. Now the Cougars are preparing for a decisive Game 3 in the NCHSAA 2A softball state championship series after beating Hickory Ridge 8-6 in extra innings on a two-run walk-off home run by Kaleigh Ayscue in the bottom of the eight of Game 2 at Duke's softball stadium.
Apex softball coach Adam Renzi said his team knew they only had to win one to get momentum going against Hickory Ridge in the 4A softball state championship series.
Apex's Kaleigh Ayscue described the emotions of becoming the first school in Wake County to win a softball state championship after the Cougars beat Hickory Ridge in three games.