That was the case when Apex volleyball coach Nikki O'Connell was surprised after an Oct. 4 victory against visiting Athens Drive.

Everyone wanted to help celebrate the coach's 100th career win, something she said she only told one person about.

Since taking over the Cougars program five years ago, O'Connell has been one of the state's most successful coaches.

After this weekend's matches, her career record now stands at 102-13-1. Apex went 27-0 last season en route to the program's first state championship.

"It's all credited to my players," O'Connell said.

O'Connell is involved with the Triangle Volleyball Club but does not teach at Apex High. She is a stay-at-home mother of two children, ages 5 and 2.

She knew the program had potential when looking at her ninth-graders in 2007. That class included future college players Alston Kearns and Kristen Harris.

Harris was the N.C. high school state player of the year last season.

"I knew when I first took over that I had a great freshman class there. That came through (when) we won (the state title) last year," O'Connell said.

This year, the Cougars are still in position to win a fourth consecutive conference championship despite starting two freshmen. Apex is tied for first entering this week's games.

Preliminary brackets: The N.C. High School Athletic Association has posted preliminary brackets for volleyball, boys soccer and girls tennis playoffs.

All of these fall sport playoff brackets have a particular slot associated with each team's finish in the conference standings.

The 4A girls tennis bracket has 32 teams, while 4A boys soccer and volleyball each have 64.

The 4A East part of the tennis bracket has just two wild-card spots not associated to any conference, while soccer and volleyball's 4A East bracket has just one wild-card spot apiece.

For Tri-Nine schools, the 1-, 3- and 4-seeds will each play PAC-6 schools. The 2- and 5-seeds will play schools from the Cap-8.

Conference seeding priority, which determines where games are played if teams of equal seed face off, had not been released as of Sunday.