TIGER TENNIS TEAM NETS A RARE FEAT BY WINNING DISTRICT

This past week, Cape Central won its first district championship in tennis since 1980.

But, after looking at the Tiger roster, it's almost certain that the school won't go another 20 years without a district title. With a group of talented sophomores, Cape Central is in position to build a streak of the winning variety.

Aside from No. 1 singles player Mick Metzger, a senior, and No. 3 Paul Miller, a junior, 10th graders make up the varsity team.

But Cape Central coach Bud Craven has no idea why this group opted for tennis.

"Normally, the athletes will go to baseball," Craven said. "It just so happened that this group of people leaned to tennis. I don't know why. I was shocked that it happened this way."

The group of sophomores include No. 2 Trevor Blattner, No. 4 Andrew Eaton, No. 5 Andrew Tansil and No. 6 Eric Daume.

"All the sophomores are very aggressive," said Craven. "Some of our upperclassmen stroke it better, but these guys are intimidating. They're very competitive. They are allowed to challenge each other for spots and they're always jockeying for position and it's very competitive.

"In the past, we've had some good one-through-three guys, but we have a lot of depth now."

Cape Central will go against Kirkwood, which will be a tough test for the Tigers.

But even if the Tigers fall in the sectional round, Craven knows he's seen just the beginning of what this sophomore class can do.

"I'm optimistic that if we keep everything together, we should do pretty well," he said.

4A Soccer pairings

If the seeds play out like expected, Jackson and Cape Central will meet once again for the Class 4A, District 1 championship.

Jackson got the top seed, while the Lady Tigers who made it to the Final Four last year were seeded second.

"I don't mind being the underdog," said Cape Central coach Tom Doyle.

Jackson will take on No. 4 Farmington at 5:30 p.m. Monday, while Central will take on Poplar Bluff at 7:30 p.m.

The championship game (all games will be played at Poplar Bluff) will take place at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday.

1A-3A Soccer pairings

In Class 1A-3A, Perryville got the No. 2 seed in the 10-team district tournament.

St. Louis-Notre Dame got the No. 1 seed, while Cape Girardeau-Notre Dame was seeded sixth and St. Vincent was seeded fifth.

Perryville, the host of the tournament, will play either No. 7 Affton or No. 10 Valley Park in the first round at 1 p.m. Monday at the city park.

The Lady Bulldogs will play third-seeded St. Pius at the practice football field at 3:30 p.m. Monday.

St. Vincent will take on No. 4 St. John's at the practice football field at 5 p.m.

The semifinal games will take place at 3:30 and 5 p.m. at the city park on Wednesday, with the championship game slated for 4:30 at the city park on Friday.

Jason who?

He hasn't received a lot of attention, but Leopold's Jason Van de Ven has put up impressive numbers on the mound this season.

As impressive as anybody in the area, in fact.

Van de Ven, who leads the area with 57 innings pitched, has struck out an astounding 86 batters and sports a 1.47 earned-run average. Despite his dominance, however, Van de Ven is just one game over .500 at 5-4.

Welker's a hit

He doesn't necessarily lean into pitches, but Cape Central first baseman/right fielder Justin Welker just doesn't move once he steps in the left-handed side of the batter's box.

The junior has been hit by a pitch 14 times this season, a school record.

Welker also has 14 walks on the year to go along with 28 hits to give him an on-base percentage of .590, the best on the team.

He is also the unofficial team leader in bruises.