Area's mega-sports weekend provided thrills, titles

What an incredible local sports weekend it was, although with so many great events on the docket, it had to be tough for fans to decide what they were going to attend.

From the Southeast Missouri State end of things, it began Friday night with the Redhawks hosting the semifinals of the Ohio Valley Conference women's soccer tournament.

Then you had Saturday afternoon's football game at Missouri State, followed by that night's basketball season openers, with the men playing at Xavier and the women hosting Tulsa.

And if you weren't worn out by then, you had Sunday afternoon's championship match of the OVC soccer tourney at Houck Stadium.

From a high school angle, there was Jackson hosting McCluer North in a Class 5 state quarterfinal football game Friday night, and the same day Notre Dame battled Duchesne in the Class 2 state soccer semifinals in Fenton, Mo.

The following day, Notre Dame went for its second straight state championship.

I wish I could have taken it all in, but since I'm not Houdini, I had to narrow my focus down to a few of the events.

So I covered Friday night's Southeast soccer match, got up early Saturday morning, drove to Springfield, Mo., covered that afternoon's Southeast football game, got back about midnight, then Sunday covered the OVC soccer tournament finals.

The other games, I had to read about or hear about.

What a whirlwind of a weekend, and what a blast.

And to think, I get paid for doing this stuff.

---

As might be expected, there were local winners and losers in all the events I described above.

But if you're an area sports fan, the winners far outweighed the losers, especially when you consider the importance of the contests.

Topping the list were Southeast's second straight OVC tournament title in women's soccer -- a thrilling penalty-kick shootout victory over Samford -- and Notre Dame's second consecutive state title in boys soccer.

Also victorious were Jackson football and Southeast women's basketball as both posted impressive victories.

On the down side, Southeast's bummer of a football season continued with its seventh straight loss -- in lopsided fashion -- while the Southeast men's basketball team also was hammered.

---

While the Southeast soccer team garnered plenty of attention during its run to the OVC regular-season title, and now the league tournament crown, the Southeast volleyball squad flew a bit under the radar because it got off to a slow start this season.

But the volleyball Redhawks caught some serious fire, winning 12 of their final 13 regular-season matches to finish in a three-way tie for the OVC regular-season title.

Big-time congratulations to coach Renata Nowacki's Redhawks for bringing home the program's first OVC championship since 2000.

---

Major kudos are also in order for coach Heather Nelson's Southeast soccer team and coach Brad Wittenborn's Notre Dame soccer squad.

Notre Dame features quite a collection of multi-sport athletes, several of whom will try to lead the school's boys basketball program back to the final four after last year's state runner-up performance.

"Witt" has always been one of my favorite coaches ever since he directed those great Notre Dame basketball teams of the mid-1980s to consecutive state titles.

---

With Saturday's 28-14 win at Austin Peay, Eastern Kentucky's football team has earned the OVC's automatic NCAA Division I-AA playoff berth, its first in 10 years.

At 7-0 in OVC play and with one game remaining, the Colonels can finish no worse than tied for the league title.

And the only squad than can share the crown with Eastern Kentucky, Eastern Illinois, has already lost to the Colonels.

Eastern Illinois, the OVC's second-place team, is still in the running for an at-large playoff berth.

---

Here is just another reason why college basketball is such a great sport: Gardner-Webb 84, Kentucky 68.

Gardner-Webb went 9-21 last year and is picked to finish toward the bottom of the Atlantic Sun Conference standings.

But that didn't prevent the Bulldogs from going into Rupp Arena on Wednesday night and waxing the nationally ranked, tradition-rich Wildcats.

It's one thing for a traditionally strong mid-major program to beat a national power.

But for a nondescript mid-major program to pull off that kind of upset, well, like I said, that's why college hoops is so great.

And, the neat thing is, it happened again three nights later as another lightly regarded Atlantic Sun Conference team -- Mercer, coming off a 13-17 season -- won at nationally ranked USC.

Throw in Belmont's win Friday at Cincinnati and it was quite an opening week of action for the Atlantic Sun Conference.

---

It's still several months off, but Southeast baseball coach Mark Hogan recently announced the speaker for the program's annual major spring fundraiser in April, the Joe Uhls Memorial Golf Tournament and Banquet.

The speaker for the fifth annual event will be Dale Petroskey, the president of the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, N.Y.

Hogan said he is excited to have someone of Petroskey's caliber coming to Cape Girardeau for the fundraiser.

More information, including the date and time for the event, will be announced later.

---

My sincerest condolences go out to the family and friends of Sahara Aldridge, the Cape Girardeau girl who recently lost her courageous battle with cancer.

Although I didn't know Sahara or her family very well, I do know that they were huge fans of the Southeast women's basketball team, whose past and current members were no doubt saddened by her passing.

It's extremely difficult to lose anybody you love, especially somebody so young.

Marty Mishow is a sports writer for the Southeast Missourian