The volleyball team landed at O’Hare Airport at 5:35 a.m. Tuesday, roughly three hours before the first attack on the World Trade Center.

Following the terrorism, all air traffic was ordered to land immediately, and if the team had scheduled a flight just a few hours later, the volleyball team would still be in Alaska.

“Thankfully they got home safely,” said Dave Kidwell, assistant athletic director for sports information and marketing. “They landed safely in Chicago at their scheduled time and were bused home.”

The team left Chicago by 6:30 a.m. by bus and heard of the attack midway through their trip.

“One of the girls’ mothers called on her cell phone to inform us,” volleyball head coach Brenda Winkeler said. “My sisters and brothers were calling me to make sure we made it safely. We were quite fortunate.”

With the volleyball team home safely Tuesday, Eastern’s athletic department evaluated the scheduled women’s soccer game at the University of Missouri and canceled the game. Kidwell said the game may or may not be rescheduled.

Women’s soccer head coach Steve Ballard has also canceled practice Tuesday.

“Our women are very upset and concerned just as the rest of Eastern’s campus and country,” Ballard said. “We are stunned by what happened. We canceled the game out of respect to what’s happened and we canceled any practice as well.

“It definitely puts things into prespective. It’s pretty stunning – it’s hard to find words for things like this.”

Eastern is scheduled to host DePaul Friday at 4 p.m. at Lakeside Field.

According to the media relations department of the Ohio Valley Conference, many of the conference teams have also canceled competition Tuesday. Southeast Missouri has canceled its soccer and volleyball matches as Austin Peay has also canceled its volleyball matches.

Eastern’s Director of Athletics Rich McDuffie announced Tuesday the student-athletes have the option of attending team practice today.

“In light of the tragedy that has occurred (Tuesday) in the United States, we have consulted with our coaching staff and we are in 100 percent agreement that each individual student-athlete can determine whether he or she wishes to participate in practice sessions,” McDuffie stated.

“Because of the tragic events (Tuesday), we must respect how each student-athlete wishes to deal with this situation.”

With Tuesday’s soccer game canceled and the next competition for Eastern athletics scheduled Friday, the athletic department will be evaluating the situation on a daily basis.