The Eastern women’s soccer team will start a two-match home-stand this weekend, taking on Northern Iowa at 3 p.m. Friday, and then Cleveland State at 1 p.m. Sunday.

The Panthers are coming off a heartbreaking 2-1 double overtime loss to Purdue, which head coach Summer Perala said has been a huge motivator for the team.

“It showed that we can play to a higher level,” she said. “The key for us now is to not play down to the level of the team we are up against. Our focus is to build and build and make our intensity higher each game regardless of the team we face.

Perala said the team has altered the way it prepares for matches having already played two matches just a week ago.

“The girls were a bit heavy legged earlier this week, but the main reason was because they had two extremely taxing games and very little recovery time,” she said. “We altered the way we approach our training this week and didn’t put quite the work load on them. It was still demanding and the group, as a whole, improved as the week progressed.”

Eastern is 9-6-2 in home-openers at Lakeside Field, and Perala says playing in front of fans is always an advantage for the team.

“Everyone, including the coaching staff, is so excited to be back at Lakeside,” she said. “We’ve historically had a very solid home-field advantage and are looking to continue adding some wins here at EIU this weekend. The team also feeds off the energy that the crowds bring, and this being opening weekend for us, we’re expecting some folks to come out and support the Panthers.”

Perala said she saw some things in the Iowa and Purdue matches that needed to be fixed, which the team has worked on this week in practice in preparation for Northern Iowa and Cleveland State.

“Although we didn’t get the win, the fact that our girls adjusted to a new system and were able to play with the bigger, more athletic team was a huge building point for us,” she said. “We saw some things to work with on the attacking side of things, and have been concentrating on really moving the ball quicker and having faster counter attacks.”

Northern Iowa has started the season with a perfect 2-0 record, while Cleveland State is 1-1. The Panthers fell to Northern Iowa in the two teams’ last meeting 1-0, but took down Cleveland State 2-1 in 2009.

Sophomore midfielder Charlotte Jones leads Northern Iowa with two goals this season, while freshman forward Allie Sieradzki has two shots on goal and one goal scored for Cleveland State.

Dominic Renzetti can be reached at 581-2812 or [email protected].