The Eastern men’s and women’s golf teams are making their final preparations before their Ohio Valley Conference tournaments that are set to begin on Sunday and will go through Wednesday.

With the winter weather finally disappearing the Panthers are able to take advantage of the nice weather and get some practice in before the tournament.

“We were most affected by the weather than any of the other spring sports so we have been slow getting the rust off our game,” head coach Jay Albaugh said.

“Other sports can take advantage of (Lantz Fieldhouse).”

The men are coming off of an impressive fourth place finish out of 16 teams last week at the Billiken Invitational.

The finish was brought on by an entire team effort and Albaugh is hoping for more of the same this weekend.

Albaugh is looking for good performances from junior David Rella and senior Jim Hamann.

“(Rella) is coming off of a poor performance at Billiken,” Albaugh said. “He has been solid for us all year and will be coming out with something to prove.”

Hamann, the Panthers lone senior, holds the second best average on the team with 76.1 and will be looking to end his career on top of his game.

“(Hamann) is pumped to try and go out and end on a good note at the conference tournament,” Albaugh said.

Hamann said he feels the team will need good performances from the entire team to take the conference championship.

“In order to have a good team score we all need to click,” Hamann said. “We know we are capable of winning the conference.”

The women’s team has shown that the weather has affected them just a little more than it has the men’s team.

They have seen most of their averages rise compared to their fall scores.

“We had four or five players playing well in the fall, ” Albaugh said. “That hasn’t happened to us in the spring.”

The Panthers are coming off of a seventh place finish out of 16 teams last weekend at the Illini Spring Classic.

Eastern shot a 662 after being tied for fifth place after the first round.

Junior Tyra Frederick led the team for the second straight tournament by shooting a 160 and finishing 16th overall. “(Frederick) has really turned it on since the Western Invitational,” Albaugh said.

“She has been able to turn it around and play to her potential.”

Eastern has also been led by Junior Kristin Hoff and sophomore Amanda Minchin. Hoff and Minchin are the number one and two scorers on the team this spring.