From staff reports
Carson hosts North Iredell tonight at 7 p.m. in the first round of the 3A state playoffs for boys soccer.
Ryan Winchip directs the Cougars, who are 18-1 overall and went 17-1 to win the South Piedmont Conference.
Seeded third in the 3A West bracket, Carson has won eight straight since a loss to Cox Mill in early October.
Seeded 30th, North Iredell is 10-12.
The Raiders were 5-9 in the North Piedmont Conference, a mixed 3A/4A league that had two powerhouses in Lake Norman and Statesville and two very good teams in Mooresville and South Iredell.
Carson senior Brandon Flores has 115 career goals. Senior Colton Correll had a hat trick in Carson’s win against Hickory Ridge that ended the regular season and clinched an outright SPC title.
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Top-seeded Salisbury open the 2A state playoffs tonight at 6 p.m. at Ludwig Stadium against No. 32 seed East Lincoln.
The winner plays Ashe County in the second round. Ashe won 3-2 against Lexington on Tuesday.
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Providence edged A.L. Brown 2-1 in a 4A playoff game on Tuesday.

Prep cross country
State championships in cross country for boys and girls will be conducted in Kernersville on Saturday at the Ivey M. Redmon Sports Complex.
Top runners from across the state qualified in regional competition.
The first race of the day will be the 2A boys race at 10 a.m. Salisbury’s team will be competing.
Durham’s North Carolina School of Science and Math has won the 2A boys championship the last two years, and won its regional last weekend. Newport Croatan, CATA and Sylva Smoky Mountain also won regional titles.
Carson’s boys will compete in the 3A race at 4 p.m. Weddington’s boys are the defending champs. Weddington, Northern Nash, Chapel Hill and Asheville won regional championships.
Carson’s Taylor Wiggins will compete in the girls race at 4:30 p.m. The top five individuals not on a qualifying team advance from the regional to the state.
The state cross country championships were first held in 1956.
This is the sixth consecutive year the event has been hosted at the Ivey Redmon Sports Complex.

Prep tennis
The Salisbury-Hendersonville 2A third-round match was washed out again on Tuesday and was rescheduled for today at 4 p.m.

Prep volleyball
South Iredell won 21-25, 25-20, 26-24 and 25-23 at West Henderson on Tuesday in the 3A West Regional final.
It was the first loss for West Henderson, a quarterfinal winner over Carson.
North Carolina commit Julia Scoles had 21 kills for the Vikings.

College soccer
Pfeiffer’s men’s soccer team beat Barton 5-0 on Tuesday to improve to 18-0.
Junior forward Nathan Regis scored his school-record 23rd goal of the season.

College hoops
Appalachian State’s men won 80-60 against Belmont Abbey on Tuesday.
Griffin Kinney scored 17 for the Mountaineers.
Former Hickory Ridge star Nick Hough had 18 for the Crusaders.

College football
In Guilford’s 52-49 win against Catholic on Saturday, Adam Smith (Davie) had 12 catches for 142 yards and three TDs.
Devin Mason (South Rowan) made two tackles for the Quakers.
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North Carolina A&T’s Brandon Parker (A.L. Brown) helped the Aggies total 486 yards of offense. He graded out at 89 percent, with five pancake blocks in a win against Florida A&M.

College volleyball
Belmont Abbey’s Aimee Cloninger (Carson) had nine kills and a team-high 15 digs in a 3-1 loss to North Greenville.
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Brevard’s Hannah Elmore (Carson) had 11 kills in a 3-1 win against Anderson.

NCHSAA
Sammi Smith and Jordan Strickland of Cary’s Panther Creek High and Nube Jimenez of Chase High in Forest City won the NCHSAA Performance of the Week awards.
Smith and Strickland, captured their fourth consecutive doubles state championship in the NCHSAA girls tennis tournament in Raleigh. Smith will attend Penn State while Strickland is headed to Western Carolina.
Jimenez is a junior on the Chase men’s soccer team.
He scored six goals in a 9-0 triumph over Valdese Draughn.