Much like the rest of the sports world, Eastern’s men’s soccer team had its season halted in response to last week’s tragedies in New York and Washington.

The team was set to play a tournament hosted by IUPU-Indianapolis this weekend, but on Friday morning interim President Lou Hencken and Director of Athletics Rich McDuffie decided to suspend Eastern’s athletics.

The Panthers will not play again until Sunday, when they host IUPU-Fort Wayne at Lakeside Field. It will be 14 days after their last game on Sept. 9.

Men’s head soccer coach Adam Howarth has had the difficult task of trying to keep his team focused while allowing them time to mourn.

“It is an unbelievable situation,” Howarth said.

“I understand how everyone is feeling, trying to cope with despondency while trying to return to normalcy.”

As a result, Howarth has been forced to mix up his practices in an effort to have his team ready for Sunday.

“It is always tough when you are on a long break,” he said.

“We have tried to split it up by taking a few days off and doing some fun activities like going golfing as a team to keep everyone sharp. We will key it up in the next few days to get ready for Sunday.”

In the meantime, the team has also been working on improving its defense.

“We have been working on a couple of different systems, experimenting with other formations,” Howarth said.

“We have been hitting hard the defensive part of our game.”

Despite the two-week wait, the players are looking forward to the competition.

“We are getting refreshed, relaxed, ready and anxious,” senior Ben Cox said. “We have had some good training sessions and have maintained a good level of intensity in practice.”