After a 2002 season that saw Eastern softball drop to sixth in the conference after regular season play only to rebound and place third in the Ohio Valley Conference tournament, the Panthers were disappointed to see the good play in the tournament go unnoticed.

The release of the 2003 preseason rankings proved this, as Eastern was raised only one spot from their regular season finish last year, being picked to finish fifth this year in the OVC.

“We don’t take too much stock in the preseason rankings, but it is definitely something that we can use for motivation,” Eastern head coach Lloydene Searle said.

“It was a little disappointing to see teams such as Tennessee Martin higher up in the rankings after we were able to beat them in the conference tournament.”

Also taking into account that the Panthers are returning many important players from last year’s team, they should be able play at the same level as the end of last year.

Leadership for the team will come from senior outfielder Carrie Ninness and junior infielder Kristen Lovering. Both players were elected to the second team All-OVC last season and hope to improve this year. This could be difficult for Lovering, who led the team in runs scored and triples last year while posting 10 doubles and 21 RBI.

Eastern also brings back two experienced pitchers in senior Kristen Becker and junior Trish Sanders.

Becker was named Honorable Mention All-OVC and is second among Eastern’s career strike-out leaders, with 285 while Sanders proved to be a dependable second option for Searle.

The Panthers are in the middle of the pack because of teams like Eastern Kentucky and Tennessee Tech.

Eastern Kentucky gained seven of the eight first-place votes, and finished with a total of 49 points in the voting. Tennessee Tech finished second from the ballot with 43 points and one first-place vote.

“We had such a strong finish with this team last year, and it seems to be going unnoticed,” Searle said. “But if we’re placed in the middle of the pack, we should be able to surprise some people.”

The Colonels separated themselves from the rest of the OVC pack last year, finishing first at the end of the regular season and winning the OVC tournament.

“Eastern Kentucky and Tennessee Tech returned a lot of their players too,” Searle said. “Our goal is to stay competitive with those two and win other games that we know we can win.

After Tennessee Tech, Tennessee Martin was picked to finish third and Southeast Missouri placed fourth. SEMO finished with 29 points, two ahead of Eastern, who gathered 27 points from the voters.

Not only was Searle disappointed that the team may have been slighted in the preseason rankings, she was also concerned that some players were not nominated for individual awards last season.

“I don’t understand how (Carrie) Ninness didn’t get a mention for Academic All-American,” Searle said.

“She does everything in the classroom that a coach would ask of her players. We just have had some players who got lost in the shuffle.”