Homecoming weekend will be yet another tough test for a youthful Eastern soccer team that has struggled through the Missouri Valley Conference portion of its schedule this season.

The Panthers started the year in good fashion. They took third in their early season tournament, the Holiday Inn Center City Classic. Then they followed with overall success in the non-conference part of their schedule.

Eastern went 5-3-1 in the nine games preceding its games within the MVC. Going into the conference schedule, the Panthers wanted to ride the momentum they had found by defeating Drury and Butler.

The Panthers understood the most difficult part of their schedule was not the non-conference games, but, instead, the MVC because of the large amount of highly talented teams the Panthers have to compete against.

The MVC has established itself as one of the top soccer conferences in the nation, with teams like Creighton, Bradley and Southern Methodist ranked nationally on a regular basis.

“That is why we compete in the MVC- because there are so many quality teams from top to bottom,” Eastern head coach Adam Howarth said. “It is a step up in competition for us every year when we start our conference schedule.”

Eastern has found limited success in the MVC, as the team has started the conference part of their schedule without a win in five games with one of the games resulting in a tie.

The youth on this year’s team and the loss of star forward Jason Thompson are the two main reasons the Panthers have struggled early on.

They have been faced up against top-notch competition within the MVC, which is usually composed of highly talented and experienced teams.

This year has been no different as Bradley, Tulsa and Creighton have risen to the top of the conference. They each currently possess 4-0 records within the conference.

“Everything was clicking for us early on in the season,” Howarth said. “But now playing MVC teams we are learning that we have to step up our intensity.”

This year’s team will have to learn as they go along, and are in the middle of that learning process right now.

The Panthers will have to play two more top MVC teams this homecoming weekend. Eastern will first play at Drake on Friday. Drake is currently 2-1-2 within the MVC and 8-3-3 overall.

Eastern also has to travel on Sunday, as they play at Creighton. The Blue Jays are one of the three teams tied atop the conference and are 7-3-3 overall.

“We have been competing better lately and the intensity has risen as we’ve gone along this year,” Howarth said. “This is important for such a youthful group to learn how to compete against these topnotch teams.”

The Panthers will look to a couple upperclassmen to help raise the team’s level of intensity this weekend and in the future.

Howarth is looking at such players as senior midfielder Chad Dumonceaux and juniors Kurt Krupa and Ryan Luckett.

Sophomore forward Jimmy Klatter has led the team all year in points and currently has 14 points on six goals and two assists.

Eastern has spent the first half of their MVC schedule learning how to play with the top level competition. The last half of the schedule will be used to find out how exactly this team stands against the competition now that they have a taste of what it is like.