Looking ahead to tourneys

It’s sectional time.
Well, at least it is for the Jay County High School girls golf team. But that also means the tournaments aren’t far away for several other teams as sectional draws for tennis and soccer are just a week-and-a-half away.
So today I’m going to take an early look at the sectional prospects for some of the Patriot squads.

Soccer
The Patriot soccer teams are both hovering at .500. And both have had roller-coaster seasons.
The JCHS boys (5-5) opened strong with a blowout of Muncie Central and last week earned an emotional win over Blackford. But they have also lost some winnable games along the way.
The girls squad picked up victories in each of its first two games of the year, lost four in a row and now has won back-to-back games again to pull even at 4-4.
Yorktown, which will host the tournaments this year, is the defending champion for boys and girls and currently sits as the prohibitive favorite to repeat on the boys side.
The Tigers opened the season with four straight wins and are 8-4 overall. Jay County has the next-best record while the other three teams (Muncie Central, Muncie Southside and Delta) have combined for just three wins.
The girls sectional is completely up for grabs for the Patriots, Muncie Central (3-3) or Yorktown (3-5) to win. Central defeated the Tigers 4-3 early in the season.
Jay County will see both teams down the stretch as it visits Yorktown on Aug. 20 and hosts Central a week later.

Boys tennis
Barry Weaver and his team will learn a lot tonight.
Heading into the season the conventional wisdom was that Northeastern would be the heavy favorite to win another championship. But the Knights were moved from the tournament at Jay County back to the Richmond sectional they had competed in for years.
That leaves the door open.
Jay County has already cruised past one of its remaining sectional rivals, needing just about 45 minutes to shut out the Union City Indians. Tonight’s match against Winchester will reveal a lot about which squad is the sectional favorite.
Both teams struggled against Northeastern in the sectional a year ago with Jay County falling 4-1 in the semifinal round and Winchester losing 5-0 in the championship match. The Patriots lost 3-2 to Winchester during the 2011 regular season.

Girls golf
Tonight will also be big for the Patriot girls golfers as they get a chance to play on the sectional course just two days before returning there for tournament play. Jay County will visit Timber Ridge Golf Club north of Bluffton to take on the host Norwell Knights and the South Adams Starfires.
With a team-best score of 444 for 18 holes this season, JCHS would need to make a huge leap to be in contention for a top-three finish and a regional berth. The highest score posted by a regional-qualifying team over the last three years was 379.
The Patriots’ best chance at extending the season is for an individual to break through and qualify for the regional as one of the top three players not on an advancing team. It generally takes a score in the mid 90s to have a chance to advance, and JCHS No. 1 player Alysia Fennig posted a 109 in the sectional last season.
Jay County, which will play with Fort Wayne North Side and Southern Wells, will tee off at 8:40 a.m. Saturday on the 10th hole at TRGC.[[In-content Ad]]