As the Ohio Valley Conference softball teams play their remaining games of the regular season with one week left until the OVC tournament, it is still open for anyone to win.

University of Tennesee-Martin (21-26, 12-8) head coach Donley Canary said whoever is playing well will win the tournament. UTM is currently ranked third in the OVC.

“There are several teams capable of winning the tournament,” Canary said.

The Panthers are going into the final week with junior infielder Kristin Lovering recieving the honor of OVC Player of the Week. Lovering recieved the honor for her offense as she helped Eastern defeat Austin Peay in two out of three games over last weekend.

Lovering hit three home runs, a double and had six RBIs. Eastern is ranked sixth in the OVC with a record of 11-30, 6-11. Eastern has a three-game series against Morehead State (7-31-1, 4-13) in Morehead, Ky., over the weekend.

Morehead State needs to take all three games against Eastern if it wants to get a spot in the Ohio Valley Conference Tournament.

An Eastern win the previous weekend against Austin Peay and Morehead’s three-game loss against No. 1 ranked Tennesee Tech (38-14, 17-3) put Morehead State’s hopes of an OVC spot in the tourney almost out of reach.

This is the fourth year the final game has become the deciding factor for whether the Eagles will be in the OVC tournament. Morehead is going into the weekend ranked seventh.

Tennesee Tech has already claimed the regular season title despite splitting with Austin Peay April 30. Austin Peay is ranked fifth with a record of 19-28, 9-10.

The second ranked team is Eastern Kentucky University (25-15, 11-6).

Head coach Jane Worthington of EKU said the OVC tournament is going to be very interesting and exciting.

“Tennesee Tech is the favorite, but any of the teams can beat anyone else, the six can beat the one and five can beat two and so on,” Worthington said. “I think it is pretty wide open.”