Temple (20-14, 7-4 District 12-5A) is tied with Bryan for third in the league race, one match ahead of rival Belton (12-23, 6-5). Here is the scenario regarding the Tem-Cats' chance at earning a postseason bid after a one-year hiatus:
Assume Class 5A No. 7-ranked College Station A&M Consolidated, which clinched the league title last Friday with its 38th-straight district victory, wins its final three matches against the Tem-Cats tonight, Harker Heights and Bryan.
Copperas Cove (28-8, 8-3) likely will finish second with matches against 12-5A celler-dwellers Killeen Ellison and Killeen Shoemaker left.
Belton should win its final three matches - tonight at Harker Heights, Ellison on Friday and Shoemaker next week - to improve to 9-5 in the district. A loss to any of those teams and the Lady Tigers may have to win a tiebreaker to earn their third straight trip to the playoffs.
Assuming a win tonight by Bryan, a loss by Temple and Belton winning out, that would make the Tem-Cats' match against the Lady Vikings on Friday a must-win scenario for Temple.
A loss would put the Tem-Cats two matches back of Bryan with one to play.
District 25-2A is much simpler, where Lago Vista (30-6, 9-1), Class 2A No. 19-ranked Salado (28-6, 8-2) and No. 23-ranked Rogers (28-6, 9-2) have all earned playoff bids.
Lago Vista needs to beat Lexington tonight and Rogers on Friday to win the title outright.
Now here is where it gets intriguing.
Assume Salado wins its last two matches - at Florence tonight and against Academy on Friday - and Lago Vista defeats Lexington tonight.
Then Rogers must defeat Lago Vista for the season sweep on Friday to force a three-way tie for the league crown.
If the three teams tie for the league crown, they would flip a coin to determine which teams faced each other in a playoff for the top seed. The winner of the coin flip would receive a bye and play the victor of the other two teams. For example, if Lago Vista won the coin toss, it would face the Salado-Rogers winner for the top seed.
Central Texas Christian has already clinched a playoff berth.
The Lady Lions face Longview Christian at 5 p.m. today in a TAPPS Class 2A bi-district match at CTCS' gym. The winner will face the Sugarland Logos Prep-Shiner St. Paul winner Saturday in the area round.
