Not too many people can find as successful a collegiate career, in any sport, as senior midfielder Audra Frericks has found at Eastern playing soccer.

As Frericks and the rest of the Panthers prepare for yet another NCAA College Cup, the fourth time in four years that Frericks will participate in the tournament after winning the Ohio Valley Conference, her, and those around her, can’t help but look back at how good the times have been.

Year-in and year-out, Frericks has been involved with teams that have won their conference and gone to the big dance, and this year was no exception.

Just this past Sunday, the senior could have been playing her last game considering the Panthers were down a goal to the top-ranked Samford Bulldogs. But the team came back and scored two goals in the final three minutes to win the game.

Frericks was named the tournament MVP, but the overall emotion of the game overtook her and her family that was in attendance.

“I wish you had a picture of my wife (Carol) that day,” Audra’s father, Jay, said. “During that game, she was crying during the entire match because none of us wanted the season, Audra’s last, to end this way.”

The Panthers made that wish come true, much to the effort of Audra’s younger sister Morgan, a junior defender, who tied the game with her first goal of the season.

The relationship between the two expands much further than just soccer or their lives together at college.

Both sisters have played soccer together since they were in first grade, and neither has gotten tired of being around each other. In fact, the two live together now, along with their “third sister,” Kim Garkie.

“I have a relief when she’s on the field,” Morgan said. “I know where she is always going to be, and I know she will try twice as hard if I mess up so I don’t look bad.”

The chemistry between the two sisters has bled over to the rest of the team, and the result has been a blending of talent and belief that allows the team to be so successful.

“They (Audra and Morgan) are so close on and off the field,” Eastern Coach Steve Ballard. “Sometimes siblings fight like wild cats, but these two just love each other.

“The entire family is close-knit, and it shows in how they act with one another.”

All the good times the sisters may have found during their time at Eastern will reach its conclusion at some point this year, regardless of how well they do in the NCAA tournament.

“I try not to think about it,” Morgan said. “I hope she stays another year or something because it’s going to be hard with her gone.

“Especially playing sports for so long, I’ve always depended on her, and it will be different without her here.”

But, until then, these two, and the rest of the Panther squad, will find out exactly what is meant to be when they go to Notre Dame this Friday.

“It gives us some more confidence knowing that we’ve played them before,” Audra said. “And knowing this could be my last game definitely gives me some more momentum to play as hard, and as well, as I can.”