Eastern Women’s Soccer Coach Steve Ballard’s theory about his team focusing on the game at hand will be put to the test this weekend.

The Panthers, who will be playing in front of the Family Weekend crowds on Friday and Sunday, have struggled paying attention to the immediate opponent sometimes this season, Ballard said.

This weekend opens on Friday when the Panthers welcome division opponent Morehead State, a team that has managed to make a U-turn from last year.

A season ago the Golden Eagles only won two games, losing 13 and tying one in the process. But under new Head Coach Greg Sheen, the program has seen some improvement this season.

Morehead State has won five out of eight games already this season, and they have both a win and a loss in conference play.

“We’ve done a full-scouting report on the team, but I’ve always thought they have had some talent on that team, no matter what their season ended up looking like,” Ballard said. “I don’t really see many weaknesses in their starting 11, and Greg (Sheen) has brought in 10 or 11 of his players to form a good team.”

The Panthers are looking to quell doubts within their own team after a tie last weekend against Tennessee Tech.

If a tougher week of practice was expected from some members of the team, Ballard felt that little had changed in preparation for their next conference game.

“One of the things that we have been able to do is get a little healthier this week,” Ballard said.

As far as health is concerned, Ballard is referring to sophomore Trisha Walter, who has been out after an operation to remove a blood clot, sophomore Laura Keating and junior Jill Nowak said.

“Keating and Nowak still may be a week away,” Ballard said. “But at least Trisha (Walter) should be back in playing shape soon.”

The Panthers hope they will be back to full strength for the second game of the weekend when they play Loyola (Chicago), also at home.

Eastern defeated the Ramblers a year ago by a one-goal margin, 3-2. The Panthers took that game on the road and hope that the Ramblers don’t return the favor this weekend.

“It’s an interesting match-up because we play right in the middle of our conference schedules,” Loyola Head Coach Brendan Eitz said. “We have to balance focusing on our conference match-up against Butler and playing Eastern.”

In Ballard’s mind the match- up is always good for his team because it is yet another quality opponent that he can gauge his team against.

“They won the Horizon (Conference) last year and will be the fourth team we’ve played this year who qualified for the NCAA tournament last year,” Ballard said.