These are exciting times at Xavier High School.

The football team has reached the semifinals of the Class 4A playoffs and will take a sparkling 12-0 record into its game against Cedar Falls Friday night in the UNI-Dome.

The volleyball team has qualified for the Class 4A state tournament and will face top-ranked Charles City in the quarterfinals Wednesday night at the Cedar Rapids Ice Arena.

The boys golf team tied for eighth at the Class 4A state meet and the boys cross country squad finished 11th at the Class 3A state meet.

That's good stuff for one school and speaks volumes about the Saints and their athletic department.

Xavier is the only Metro school with a team that's still alive in the football playoffs. All the others have fallen by the wayside.

Xavier is also the only Metro school with a team that will play in the state volleyball tournament.

That's quite a daily double.

Speaking of daily doubles, Friday could be doubly exciting for Xavier fans if the volleyball team beats Charles City on Wednesday and advances to the semifinals Friday afternoon.

The semifinals of the state volleyball tournament are scheduled for Friday at 1:45 p.m. in the Ice Arena, and the semifinals of the football playoffs are scheduled for Friday at 7:06 p.m. in the UNI-Dome.

There would be plenty of time to catch both events, and you can bet plenty of Xavier fans would do just that. There would be at least three hours between events, giving fans enough time to scoot from Cedar Rapids to Cedar Falls.

Xavier football fans certainly know the way to Cedar Falls. They flocked to the UNI-Dome in 2006 when the Saints won the Class 4A title, and approximately 1,500 Xavier fans made the trip to the Dome earlier this season when the Saints beat Cedar Falls in a regular-season game.

The Iowa Girls High School Athletic Union (IGHSAU) added a fifth class for volleyball this season, making Class 5A the large-school division. The Saints are competing in the Class 4A state tournament, so they'll be facing schools of comparable enrollment.

The Xavier football team, however, finds itself in the role of giant killer as it heads into the semifinals as the smallest school in the field, by far.

The Iowa High School Athletic Association (IHSAA) uses something called the BEDS document to classify schools for competitive purposes. It looks at a school's enrollment in the 9th, 10th and 11th grades when it figures where a school belongs on the sports field.

According to the latest figures, Xavier has 593 students in the 9th, 10th and 11th grades to rank 48th in the state. Cedar Falls ranks 22nd with 1,059, giving the Tigers nearly a 2-to-1 competitive edge for Friday night's contest.

Ankeny and Southeast Polk will meet in the other Class 4A semifinal football game Friday, and both of them are prep giants. Ankeny ranks second in the state with 1,744 students in the 9th, 10th and 11th grades and Southeast Polk ranks seventh with 1,372.

If the Saints play Ankeny in the state finals on Nov. 16, they'll be confronting a school that is nearly three times as big.

Don't bet against them.