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Sports Editor Matt Daniels with a look at what’s happening around the area:
Illinois athletics
The Illinois women’s tennis team celebrates after beating Arizona on Friday in the first round of the NCAA tournament in Charlottesville, Va. The Illini play host Virginia at 3 p.m. Saturday in a second-round NCAA tournament match.
Three reasons we love sports today
➜ 1. The Illinois women’s tennis team will get the chance to do something Saturday the program has never done: advance to the Round of 16 at the NCAA tournament. The Illini (15-12) beat Arizona 4-1 on Friday in the first round of the NCAA tournament and will take on host Virginia (21-5) at 3 p.m. Saturday in the second round.
➜ 2. Registration is ongoing for the Illini Quarterback Club’s annual Bret Bielema Invitational golf outing at Atkins Golf Club in Urbana. The event, which sold out last year, will take place on June 16 and start at 11 a.m. The last day to register is June 6.
➜ 3. The latest NBA mock draft by NBA writer Sam Vecenie of the Athletic, updated Friday, has Illinois guard Kasparas Jakucionis going seventh to the Brooklyn Nets in the first round.
The Champaign Central girls’ soccer team hams it up for a photo on Sunday night after the Maroons’ 2-1 victory against Big 12 rival Centennial as part of the C-U Girls’ Soccer Showcase at Demirjian Park in Champaign.
Numbers game: 1
area girls’ soccer program with a No. 1 seed: Champaign Central. The Maroons (9-5) will open the Class 2A playoffs at 4:30 p.m. on May 20 against seventh-seeded Urbana after the IHSA released its postseason pairings on Friday afternoon.
The Jones family, clockwise from bottom left, Avery, Megan, Chris and Wade. Chris is in his 16th season as the baseball coach at Monticello High School, and Monday’s baseball game between the Sages and St. Joseph-Ogden in Monticello is a 5p- awareness game. Wade, the family’s 12-year-old son, has lived with the chromosomal condition Cri-du-chat syndrome, also known as 5p-, his whole life.
Crowd control
Three events I’m paying attention to
➜ 1. St. Joseph-Ogden at Monticello baseball. A pair of 20-win teams meet on Monday at 4:30 p.m. Even bigger than the game? The fact Monticello is making it a 5p- awareness game to recognize Sages’ coach Chris Jones’ son, Wade, who has the rare chromosomal condition.
➜ 2. Twin City boys’ track and field meet. Centennial will host the annual meet for C-U bragging rights, with the Chargers, Champaign Central and Urbana, among others, vying for first place beginning at 4 p.m. Tuesday.
➜ 3. Centennial at Champaign Central softball. The Maroons (15-1) host the Chargers (4-8) in the rivalry’s latest chapter at 4:30 p.m. on Tuesday.
Dan Sheehan, his wife, Kristen, and their son, Declan, at the 2024 Citrus Bowl.
Ask an AD
Three questions with Monticello athletic director Dan Sheehan:
➜ 1. My favorite sports teams are … the Illini and the Monticello Sages.
➜ 2. Three coaches I’d like to have dinner with are … John Wooden, Phil Jackson and Vince Lombardi.
➜ 3. My biggest pet peeve is … a lack of effort.
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