The Eastern women’s soccer team will return to action with a pair of games this weekend at Lakeside Field.

The Panthers are winless in each of their last four matches, but will look to get back on track this weekend.

The Panthers will be hosting the Belmont Bruins on Friday at 4 p.m. and will finish the home stand on Sunday against the Missouri-Kansas City Kangaroos at 1 p.m.

Eastern head coach Summer Perala’s squad is coming off of a hard week of practice.

Perala said she has stressed the importance of mental and physical toughness.

“We looked to extend them physically this weekend, didn’t lower our expectations to execute when fatigue set in,” Perala said. “We really looked for them to push even more to stay focused and finish out the game.”

The Panthers are coming off a loss in which the Indiana State Sycamores scored the game-winning goal with 26 seconds left on the clock in overtime.

“We have to get each individual on the team to put everything on the line, to compete and win the battles on the field,” Perala said. “We must outwork, out hustle and just flat out outplay our opponents.”

The Panthers are going to shake things up a bit this weekend to have a more physical and composed presence in the middle of the field.

“Over the past few games, we didn’t have enough challenges won and we were losing possession to much in dangerous areas of the field,” Perala said. “We’re shifting some personnel from different positions to places we feel they will be more effective.”

The Panthers have struggled to capitalize on scoring opportunities so far in 2010 and look for these key changes to provide the much needed offensive attack.

The Eastern coaches have pressed the importance of being in the moment of the game and to not let previous games play a factor in the challenge at hand.

“I feel the team is excited about the weekend and the players we shifted to new positions are excited about their new roles on the team,” Perala said.

Friday’s game against Belmont at 4 p.m. on Lakeside Field will be the two teams’ first ever meeting.

Jordan Pottorff can be reached at 581-7944 or [email protected]