The Eastern men’s and women’s tennis teams both enter the Ohio Valley Conference tournament together for the first time since the 2008-09 season.

After starting their OVC schedule with a record of 3-5, the Eastern women hit past their final two opponents in the closing weekend of the regular season to advance into the postseason tournament.

Following 7-0 and 5-1 match wins against Tennessee State and Belmont, respectively, the women’s squad earned the No. 6 seed in the OVC tournament, drawing No. 3 seed Morehead State in the first round.

The Eastern men needed at least one win in their last two matches of the season to get into the conference tournament and they did, beating Tennessee State 7-0 on Saturday. The Panthers lost the following day, finishing their season with a 4-2 defeat against Belmont, but still qualifying as the No. 6 seed, with a 4-5 OVC record.

Thursday’s first-round match for the Eastern men will be their first appearance in the conference tournament since 2009, when they also entered postseason play as the No. 6 seed.

The Panthers will play No. 3 seed Austin Peay to kick off the tournament on Thursday.

This year’s tournament is the Eastern women’s second straight appearance. Last season the Panthers won their first-round matchup against Austin Peay, as the No. 4 seed, but then were eliminated by the eventual champion Eastern Kentucky in the semifinals.

Like in 2009, the last time both Eastern teams went to the tournament, the Eastern women head into the postseason as the No. 6 seed as well.

Women’s matchup

In it’s only meeting this season, the Eastern women’s team lost to Morehead State 4-3 to start the OVC season.

The Panthers began by winning two of the three doubles matches to gain the team point, but were unable to split the six remaining singles matches.

Morehead State won four of the six singles matches, giving it the match win over Eastern. The Eagles finished their regular season with an 11-10 record, but went 8-2 in the OVC, finishing behind Murray State and Eastern Kentucky in the conference.

Eastern enters the first-round matchup with three players who have winning records in singles play against conference opponents.

Sophomore Ali Foster leads the way for the Panthers, going 6-4 during Eastern’s conference schedule in singles play. Freshmen Kelly Iden and Maria Moshteva also have winning records, as Iden was 5-4 and Moshteva won her only singles match of the season against Tennessee State.

The other first-round matchup in the tournament pins No. 4 Southern Illinois-Edwardsville up against No. 5 Tennessee-Martin. Murray State and Eastern Kentucky received a bye in the first round, earning the No. 1 and 2 seeds, respectively.

Men’s matchup

In late March, the Eastern men’s team lost 5-2 against Austin Peay in Clarksville, Tenn.

They will meet again, as the Governors finished their season with a 7-2 conference record, entering the OVC tournament with the No. 3 seed.

Despite winning the team point, taking the doubles portion of the match against Austin Peay on March 29, the Panthers were only able to win one of the six singles matches against the Governors in their previous match this year.

Senior Kevin Bauman won his match at the No. 6 flight, beating his opponent in straight sets 6-1, 6-1.

In the other five matches, Eastern lost four of them in straight sets, as sophomore Robert Skolik was the only Panther to take his match into a third set before losing at the No. 4 flight.

Eastern finished 27-26 overall in singles matches during OVC play this season, while Austin Peay went 36-16.

The Panthers and Governors will be playing at the same time as the other first-round match begins between No. 4 seed Southern Illinois-Edwardsville and No. 5 seed Morehead State.

Jacksonville State and Belmont received a first-round bye after ending the season as the No. 1 and 2 seeds, respectively.

Eastern starts the tournament at 10 a.m. Thursday at the Heflin Tennis Center in Paducah, Ky.

The Eastern women begin their match at 2 p.m. at the same venue.

Aldo Soto can be reached at 581-2812 or [email protected].