After a goal against Western Illinois University on Friday, sophomore forward Rachel Hamilton led the Panthers against Loyola (Chicago) with four shots and one on goal.

“Rachel does exactly what we expect, and more,” Eastern head coach Tim Nowak said. “What we hope to get out of our players is to go above and beyond and that is exactly what she has been doing. But I don’t think standing out has made Hamilton content. She still feels like they did not take advantage against the Ramblers.”

Earlier this week, Hamilton said she thought the Panthers were faster and worked with the ball better than Loyola.

The Springfield native has two goals and three assists in eight games this year.

The Panthers are trying to also stand out on the field and trying improve its game.

“I feel like we found a rhythm we needed as a team,” Nowak said. “You try and find the positives on the things you do, and as long as we take this into our training, we’ll stay positive.”

Revisiting the past

Western Illinois came into Charleston added a little more spice to the pot, as it is Nowak’s alma mater. He manned the net as a goaltender for the Westerwinds. However, this being Nowak’s third season at Eastern, that no longer affects him.

“I think my first year when we played them it had a little different feeling,” Nowak said. “It wasn’t really excitement but just different. It’s my feeling that every game coming up on the schedule is the biggest game of the year and that was how I took the Loyola game, too.”

Home sweet home

The Panthers have been coming out of the gates firing, scoring in the first 10 minutes in each of their four home matches.

“With the exception of Friday, we’ve been starting games really well,” Nowak said. “We scored early, but we also gave up a big goal.”

This trend is attributed to great preparation.

“We come out focused,” Nowak said. “We have a real good pre-game routine, and our captains do a great job getting the team focused for the game.”

The problem hasn’t been starting the games, but ending them. They gave up a goal in the last minute against Western Illinois to earn a draw on Friday.

“We just need to a better job of ending games,” Nowak said. “We go in real focused, we just need to end games with better focus.”

Family Feud

While Friday was a big rivalry game for the Panther soccer team, it had a little different feeling for junior Lindsey Wilkening. Her sister Kendra is a freshman midfielder for Western.

However, their sister rivalry ended a little anti-climatic, as neither sister saw much action.

Kendra did not see the field, while Lindsey was feeling under the weather and only played 55 minutes.

Lindsey Wilkening started the game and has started all eight games this year. She has also played 676 minutes this year, the third most on the team.

Breast Cancer Awareness Ceremony

It was a Pink Weekend for Breast Cancer Awareness and Faculty at Lakeside Field. The Eastern players wore pink warm-up shirts and some players wore pink headbands and wristbands during the game.

At halftime, a ceremonial pink balloon release took place.

“We were proud as a team to take part in such an important event,” Nowak said. “If we raised awareness to one person, then we did our job.”