The Eastern women’s soccer team will try to rebound this weekend after a tie to Indiana State as they welcome Eastern Michigan to Lakeside Field for their 1 p.m. Sunday meeting.

The Panthers early season schedule has been packed with tough, challenging opponents, and that streak continues this weekend with the Eagles. While some coaches would prefer their pre-conference schedule to be a little less challenging, the same doesn’t apply for Panther Head Coach Steve Ballard.

“That’s what we want, tough teams,” said Ballard. “We didn’t want any cupcake pre-conference games.”

Well, tough they want, tough they get. Despite Eastern Michigan’s 1-2-1 record, it has played many tough games, including a tie with the Big Ten’s Purdue University (5-1-1) and a 0-2 loss to another Big Ten contender, Michigan State University (3-1-1).

Not only does Coach Ballard expect a tough game when Eastern takes the field with the Eagles, the players have a good idea too.

“Eastern Michigan is a tough team,” said Lynne Goehler, a sophomore who plays defense and goalie for the Panthers. “We expect a tough, hard, physical game on Sunday. One that should be pretty evenly matched.”

For both teams sake, the game better not be as physical as they think it will be. The Panthers are coming off an exhausting game with Indiana State that lasted 110 minutes with two overtimes Wednesday, and ended in a tie. While 110 minutes may sound like a lifetime for a soccer game, which it is, Coach Ballard is fully confident that Wednesday’s game will take no toll on the way they play Sunday.

“We are coming off a stretch where we played four games in eight days,” said Ballard. “And with us getting four days to rest after Wednesday’s game, I’m sure we’ll have fresh legs for Sunday.”

Freshman defender Amy Dix is confident despite her playing almost the whole game Wednesday,

she will be more than ready for Eastern Michigan.

“I’m used to playing defense for a long time,” said Dix. “We also have a couple days to get our legs back.”

As for Eastern Michigan, they will be coming off a Friday night game at Toledo before they travel to Charleston. And with Sunday being their third straight road game, the Eagles could be the ones in search of fresh legs.

Goalie Lindsay Dechert will look to stay hot after coming up one save short of her career high (13) in the Panthers’ last game. The Panthers will also look for their team leader in goals and points forward Beth Liesen to provide points early and often for the Panthers this Sunday. Sophomore Sharyne Connell (2 goals/6 points), junior Audra Frericks (2 goals/4 points), and sophomore Lindsey Holbcomb (2 goals/ 4 points) figure to play big roles in the game as well.

Senior Jessica Hupe recently became the Eastern Michigan’s all-time leading scorer, and she will lead Eagles into Charleston in search of a win. In hopes to shut down the Eastern Michigan, the Panthers will look to surround Hupe with good defensive players, such as Goehler and Dix.

Some of the Panthers feel they let one get away from them Wednesday, including Goehler, but she expects a different team on Sunday.

“We didn’t play as well as we wanted to on Wednesday,” said Goehler. “We will be fired up for Sunday.”