Eastern’s men’s tennis team will play its first match of the season on its home court Friday.

The team is currently on a seven-game losing streak, but it will play at 2 p.m. Friday.

Though this is the first match on its home courts, the match is not different from any other coach Samuel Kercheval said.

“It is certainly going to be really nice to play at home… and we are excited to host it in front of our fans,” Kercheval said.  “But right now every match is an opportunity to improve on things we are working on.”

Eastern will play against the Eastern Kentucky Colonels.  This is the third match of Ohio Valley Conference play for Eastern.

Eastern lost its first two OVC matches last weekend.  Jacksonville State defeated Eastern 6-1 and Tennessee Tech swept Eastern 7-0.

The Panthers face a good Eastern Kentucky team Friday.

The Colonels are 11-5 so far this spring season, but they have a 1-2 away record. Eastern has a 2-0 “home” record so far this spring, and Eastern holds a 13-9 series lead over Eastern Kentucky.

Eastern Kentucky has defeated Butler University and Xavier University, two teams Dayton University, who defeated Eastern 7-0, lost to.

Eastern Kentucky is riding a two-game win streak coming into the match Friday.  The team is also bringing recently-named OVC Male Tennis Player of the Week Jan Kuehling, a sophomore at Eastern Kentucky.

Kuehling is from Meerbusch, Germany.  He has played well this season, earning a 6-3 singles record and a 9-1 duals record with teammate Sebastian Mueller.

Eastern got swept over spring break, losing all four of its matches.  In three of the games, Eastern was shutout 7-0.

Despite the losses, the team feels good about where they are at.

“We talked at the hotel Friday night and the guys do believe we can do it,” Kercheval said after the loss to Jacksonville State last Friday, continuing “that is something we continue to stress is trust the process and believe in what we are doing.”

Kercheval said a big reason the team struggled is, in one match some of the Panthers played well, in another match it was different players doing well.

This week in practice, the team has worked a lot on handling the elements outside, as well as focusing on defensive balls and returning serves.

Kercheval said the players compete hard and do what they can each match, but, as he told his team, they have not all played well at the same time.

“We have an opportunity tomorrow to change that and it starts with continuing to believe in ourselves and what we can do,” Kercheval said.

Dillan Schofheide can be reached at 581-2812 or [email protected]