After the Eastern women’s soccer team’s 1-0 loss to Samford in the Ohio Valley Conference championship Sunday, I can’t help but think how much the landscape of Eastern’s fall sports has changed in a year.

This time last year, it was the women’s soccer team that was celebrating its OVC Championship title and NCAA tournament berth, and it was the football team that was trying to figure out what happened in a number of close losses.

Now it’s just the opposite.

The women’s soccer team certainly had a successful season, more so than the football team in 2004, but just like last season’s football team, women’s soccer didn’t get the breaks it needed to win close games.

The 2004 football team that went 5-6 and 4-4 in conference, lost three games by a touchdown or less (including two games in overtime decided by a field goal) and lost to the OVC champion, Jacksonville State, 31-21 after trailing 24-21 with less than five minutes remaining.

The 2005 women’s soccer team lost eight matches by a goal. It was a trend that Panther head coach Tim Nowak said was the story of his first season at Eastern.

Unlike last year’s football team Nowak won’t have the luxury of returning the bulk of his starters.

The Panthers will lose over half of their starters to graduation, where as the 2004 football team returned 18 starters. Perhaps all the close games Eastern’s football team lost last season helped it rise to the top of the OVC standings this season.

Maybe it will work the same for women’s soccer next season.

All in all, Nowak should be happy with his inaugural campaign with the Panthers.

He stepped in an already successful program and maintained the same prestige. He put them were they ought to be – in the OVC Championship.

True, he couldn’t lead them to a fifth straight OVC tournament title and College Cup berth, but it was only a matter of time before Samford was going to steal the conference crown from Eastern.

Unfortunately, it came when Eastern had eight seniors who had been to the NCAA tournament in each of their first three seasons with the Panthers.

One thing is for sure; Nowak and the 17 players returning for Eastern will remember this loss when the 2006 season begins.

Dan Renick is a senior journalism major. If you want to know about the hard knocks that led him to success in 2005 ask him at [email protected].