A pair of first-year head coaches will square off Sunday in Chicago as Eastern takes on Loyola.

Under the direction of Tim Nowak, the Panthers head into the match at 1-1. Loyola is 0-1 after an opening 3-0 loss to Xavier last Friday

Loyola head coach Frank Mateus said the long lay-off from competition will not affect his team much.

“We’ve had a good week of training,” he said. “Hopefully the week off will not hurt us that bad.”

The Ramblers were picked to finish sixth out of eight teams in the preseason conference poll.

Two years removed from being a participant in the NCAA College Cup, Loyola is looking for another successful year, and Mateus feels Eastern will be a solid challenge.

“We have a tough task ahead of us,” he said. “We’re looking forward to the matchup with Eastern.”

One factor that both teams have to deal with is a change of venue for Sunday’s match.

The match is moved from Loyola’s Soccer Park, which is closed for new turf installation, to Loyola Academy’s West Campus in Glenview, Ill.

Mateus said that the home-field advantage for Loyola is now gone.

“This becomes more of a neutral site for us,” he said. “We’re moving from turf to grass and we’ve practiced on turf mostly.”

Nowak said he does not think the switch of venues will affect his team.

“As long as the corners on the field are square and the ball is round, we’ll be ready.”

Senior goalkeeper Tiffany Groene believes that playing on grass instead of turf will be helpful for the Panthers.

“It will probably help us more since we’re used to playing and practicing on grass,” Groene said. “The game is a little more faster on the turf.”

Nowak is pleased with the way the team has rebounded this week from its 4-0 loss to UTEP last Sunday.

“(Practice) has gone really well so far,” Nowak said. “We’re doing things in training to highlight finishing more.”

Groene is confident going into this weekend.

“The energy level has been up at practice after a tough loss this past weekend,” Groene said.