Jacksonville State head coach Lisa Howe isn’t afraid. In her team’s first year playing in the Ohio Valley Conference, it meets Eastern in the conference tournament semifinals at 4 p.m. Friday in Birmingham, Ala.

Eastern has won the previous two tournament titles and has one of the best forwards in the country in senior Beth Liesen. Yet Howe remains confident.

“We have respect for them, but not fear,” Howe said. “We feel like we can do some good things.”

This will be a meeting of exact opposites. All season long Jacksonville State has kept opponents out of its net while all Eastern has done is put in goal after goal with its high-powered attack.

During the season the Panthers averaged 2.53 goals per game with 48 goals, both being tops in the conference. While the Panthers were putting up the offensive onslaught, the Gamecocks were playing defensive.

Jacksonville State allowed just 15 goals and had a league leading 12 shutouts with a tight defensive corps.

“We think we are difficult to score against,” Howe said. “We only allowed two goals in conference all season. There is no mystery to our game plan of being defensively organized.”

A trio of experienced players mask the backfield for the Gamecocks with juniors Breanne Milne and Kristen Fleeger and senior Kim Peterson.

“These are just three players who play really well together,” Howe said. “They’re all good tacklers of the ball.”

Liesen will lead the Panther attack with her OVC leading 19 goals and has a supporting cast of Sharyne Connell (seven goals) and Trisha Walter (four goals, seven assists).

In the two teams’ first meeting this year they came to a 1-1 tie with Eastern out-shooting Jacksonville State 16-6. Eastern coach Steve Ballard said his offense must be more successful this time around.

“We’ve always been an attacking team and that has been the strength of our team,” Ballard said. “We attack with numbers, but we just need to finish the opportunities.”

Playing in Alabama, Jacksonville State will get somewhat of a home field advantage away from home. Eastern has to travel nearly 530 miles while Jacksonville State has an hour and a half drive from Montgomery, Ala., to Birmingham, Ala.

“It’s kind of nice to feel that maybe Samford could be our second home for this,” Howe said.

But traveling doesn’t worry Ballard one bit. Eastern has had to win the tournament on foreign territory the past two seasons and Ballard doesn’t see why this season can’t be any different.

“They are on home grounds and that’s just the way it is,” Ballard said. “We have experience on them so hopefully that will permeate through the team from the experienced players to some of the younger ones.”

Howe said her team is just looking for a little respect and Ballard wants to keep the respect his team has already earned. Ballard said from the beginning of the season the Panthers expected nothing less than an OVC Tournament championship.

“This is now a two game season,” Ballard said. “Unless we win these two games, we will be disappointed.”