<p>Another set of mid-week matches is complete. Let’s break it down.</p>
<p>This is the time of year when teams begin to make a push toward the second half of the season, we’ll have a mid-week report coming soon. First, though, let’s look at some notable results from Week 5!</p>
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<p><strong>Lincoln-Area Matchups</strong></p>
<p>We’ll start with some quick hitters on teams from around the Star City.</p>
<p><strong>Lincoln Lutheran</strong> picked up a pair of Tuesday victories against Bishop Neumann and Archbishop Bergan. The Warriors are now 17-1 and look like a clear frontrunner in Class C1.</p>
<p>Speaking of frontrunners, <strong>Lincoln Southwest</strong> scored a sweep over cross-town rival Southeast to improve to 11-2 on the season. The Silver Hawks face another intra-city challenge against North Star next Tuesday.</p>
<p>One of the biggest triumphs of the week was <strong>Lincoln Christian</strong>’s 2-1 victory over Diller-Odell. This intriguing matchup should leave both squads battle-hardened heading into some pivotal contests down the stretch.</p>
<p><strong>Lincoln High</strong> has quietly put itself in a solid spot in the Class A wildcard race. The Links earned a hard-fought four-set win over Kearney this week and have an impressive 13-4 mark this year.</p>
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<p><strong>Emerging Leaders</strong></p>
<p>I just mentioned the importance of these mid-season matches in determining standings and seedings for the playoffs. Here are a few teams that helped their cause this week.</p>
<p><strong>Oakland-Craig</strong> continues to battle at the top of Class C2. The Knights scrapped to two crucial wins over North Bend Central and Guardian Angels Central Catholic this week. There’s certainly a logjam in the upper half of the leaderboard, and there’s plenty of time for other leaders to rise up.</p>
<p>It’s a similar story in Class C1, too. <strong>Grand Island Central Catholic</strong> just keeps winning, of course, as the Crusaders swept Aquinas on Tuesday. <strong>Kearney Catholic</strong> defeated Centura and Lexington but also fell to Class B’s <strong>GI Northwest</strong>. Throw in the aforementioned Lincoln Lutheran and you’ve got a lot still to be determined in C1.</p>
<p><strong>Mead</strong> continues to pace the Class D1 field with <strong>Howells-Dodge</strong> and <strong>Nebraska Christian</strong> within striking distance. The Raiders took care of business in a one-off matchup with Omaha Christian Academy this week. Meanwhile, Howells-Dodge looked dominant in their victories over Cedar Bluffs and Pender.</p>
<p>The Class D2 race is still as deadlocked as ever. <strong>Falls City Sacred Heart</strong> scored a trio of wins over Pawnee City, Southern, and Lewiston. <strong>Maywood-Hayes Center</strong> won twice on Monday, and <strong>Humphrey St. Francis</strong> swept Bloomfield this week. There are going to be some exciting wildcard matchups to close out the regular season.</p>
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<p><strong>Five-Set Affairs</strong></p>
<p>A few high-level battles went the distance in Week 5.</p>
<p>Aurora and GI Northwest produced an absolute thriller Tuesday night. [player_tooltip player_id="122752" first="Lexi" last="Jones"] dropped 25 kills as the Huskies narrowly defeated their rivals from Grand Island.</p>
<p>Fremont won an intense battle with Lincoln East on Tuesday as a 16-14 tiebreaker sealed it for the Tigers.</p>
<p>A Millard grudge match went to the Mustangs. Millard North knocked off Millard South in a back-and-forth contest with a lot of pride on the line.</p>
