The Eastern women’s soccer team’s tough non-conference test continues Friday.

The challenger: the Missouri Tigers, which was previously ranked No. 25 in the nation.

Eastern has been preparing hard this week for this game, knowing how difficult its Big 12 opponent will be.

Eastern has had six games in only two weeks, creating tired legs and leaving practically no time for any practice. Head coach Steve Ballard hopes the Panthers’ practice effort this week will translate into a win.

“No one person will win this game,” Ballard said.

“Everybody must play hard. We are looking forward to this challenge with Missouri, but we are also concentrating on our upcoming conference games.”

Eastern (3-2-1) started its season with a 6-0 win against Western Illinois.

The Panthers suffered a shutout loss to Illinois State three days later and then went on to defeat Bowling Green and Loyola in the next five days.

Since then, the Panthers are winless in their past two games, tying Indiana State and falling 2-1 to Eastern Michigan last weekend.

“The teams we’ve played so far have come out with very high intensity trying to beat us,” Ballard said.

“The other teams have been giving it their all against us since our trip to the NCAA Tournament.

“We’ve struggled some to put the pieces of the puzzle together.”

Missouri has started its season off very well with a 4-2 record against tough competition.

The Tigers started off their season with wins against Iowa, Northwestern, Purdue, and Arizona.

The wins against Purdue and Arizona were in the Nike Tiger Invitational, which the Tigers won.

Those two victories gave Kristen Heil the Big 12 Offensive Player of the Week Award. Heil was also awarded the MVP of the tournament.

The Tigers then lost in a shutout to Mississippi State and lost the next game in overtime to Mississippi, dropping them out of the top 25.

“The two losses last weekend were very tough,” Missouri coach Bryan Blitz said.

“Coming into this game against Eastern we haven’t changed our practice routine at all. We treat every game the same.”

Eastern also plays host to Southwest Missouri State at 1 p.m. Sunday at Lakeside Field.

The Bears are currently 1-4-2 but won last season’s matchup 2-1.