For men’s soccer this is the time of the year in which they will be playing some of their toughest competition.

Starting Oct. 1, the Panthers begin playing against the Missouri Valley Conference teams, a conference that boasts of some of the best soccer in the country.

Three teams in the MVC are currently ranked nationally in the most recent college soccer poll.

Creighton is ranked ninth nationally as well as being the favorite to win the MVC this year.

Southern Methodist and Tulsa are ranked in the preseason MVC standings to finish second and third respectively. Both teams are also ranked nationally as SMU is ranked 15th in the country and Tulsa is 25th.

Eastern is picked to finish last of the 10 teams in the conference.

Tulsa head coach Tom McIntosh expects the conference to be just as competitive this year as it has been in years past.

“Every game is generally a difficult game in this conference,” said McIntosh. “The teams in this conference have contrasting styles of play and that makes for some really good games.”

McIntosh also pointed out how the top two teams in the standings last year lost in the first round of the conference tournament. Creighton and Tulsa each finished one and two but did not advance to the second round.

“This really is one of the best conferences in America, we were seven of 23 in all the conferences last year,” said McIntosh. “And it (MVC) may even be ranked higher this year.”

Head coach Adam Howarth knows the Panthers will

need to play every team the same way regardless of how that team may have been touted in the nation.

“Everyone finished ahead of us last year so we are chasing every team the same way'” said Howarth.

Probably the most optimistic part of the schedule for the Panthers will be playing the four teams that were ranked in the preseason at home.

Just because the Panthers have these games at home doesn’t give them any automatic victories or make their opponents any less tough to play against.

For Eastern, the schedule is set up much like it was two years ago, when the Panthers also played the most difficult teams in the MVC at home.

But over the course of that season the Panthers did not get any victories against those teams that were highly regarded at the time.

Just like that year, the Panthers will not be expecting guaranteed victories against those squad, but, instead, would like to see the improvement in their squad to make a difference in the conference this year.

“We will play the better teams at home but we need to use that to our advantage this year,” said Howarth.

A season ago the Panthers lost all eight games they played in the MVC but are looking to change the way they play within the MVC this season.

They start the season Oct. 1 against when they play Bradley.

Including the game against Bradley, the Panthers will have their first four conference games at home.