The Eastern women’s basketball will look to the Sunshine State as the destination to pick up its first victory over a Division I opponent.

The Panthers (2-2) will attempt to avoid the beaches and seashore atmosphere of Jacksonville Fla. will when they take on the Dolphins of Jacksonville University (1-3).

Eastern has put a huge importance on getting road wins this year after having a disappointing record over the last two seasons away from Lantz Arena.

“It’s just as crucial to win on the road because we’re capable of it,” Eastern head coach Linda Wunder said. “It’s simply a matter of making sure we play defense and rebound.”

The Panthers will look to take advantage once again of its size as the Dolphins only start one player at lest 6-feet tall. Eastern will look to continue to feed the ball to junior center and leading scorer Pam O’Connor.

“(Pam) could’ve played last year but now she’s 100 percent healthy,” Wunder said.

The Dolphins will counter its height advantage by playing several types of zone defenses to control the amount of inside scoring of O’Connor and freshman forward Meagan Scaggs.

“We like to mix it up depending upon the kind of team we are playing,” Jacksonville head coach Melissa Taketa said.

“They will be playing zone and so our guards are going to need to make good decisions to attack that defense,” Wunder said.

Jacksonville will look toward junior Rebecca Montz who is the only Dolphin averaging double figures with 10 points per game. Taketa feels she desperately needs to have an underclassmen step up and provide an offensive threat for the Dolphins to be successful.this season.

“That’s thing about this team, we are so young and have so many new players it’s a mystery to figure out where the points will come from on a game-by-game basis,” Taketa said.

Eastern will need to bring the shooting momentum down south along with its luggage as the Panthers averaged 58 percent from the floor against NAIA opponent Robert Morris Tuesday night.

“They are going to want to play at a slower tempo because of the new players they have,” Wunder said. “We are going to get out to a fast start and get easy baskets.”

Wunder addressed perimeter defense as being crucial to getting those easy baskets.

“I think we have to get people to go where we want them to go instead of dribble penetrating where they want to take it,” Wunder said. “However, it also is a matter of getting out and defending correctly with intensity.”

The one concern Wunder may have going into the weekend contest is the apparent shooting difficulty guard Megan Sparks is having shooting from the outside as after a 21-point performance against NAIA Indiana-Northwest, the sophomore’s points per game average to 11.5. However, Wunder feels confident in continuing to let her sophomore wing player still shoot if the opportunity presents itself.

“I think Megan will continue to look for her shot because that’s what shooters do, they look to that next shot as the one that will turn it around,” Wunder said.

The Panthers outside shooting will be a key to getting off to a solid start in order to relive the pressure on Eastern’s pair of freshman point guards who are evolving into Wunder’s offense. Eastern has hit a three-point shot in 136 of its last 139 games which includes a current 58-game consecutive streak.

“They are adapting well to the offense and tend to make better decisions with the basketball,” Wunder said. “The players understand that they always has the green light as long as it’s a good shot.”