With a majority of the conference season in the books, the Eastern women’s soccer team heads to Southern Illinois Edwardsville on Sunday for an interstate showdown. 

The Cougars are currently tied with the Murray State Racers for first place on the OVC.

The match will mark the third straight Sunday where Eastern has played a team that is in first place in the conference.

On Sept. 23 Eastern beat Austin Peay 1-0, who was at that point tied with Eastern for first place. Then on Sept. 30 they played Tennessee-Martin to a scoreless draw.
Tennessee-Martin was in the lead at the time and are currently in third place in the OVC.

Southern Illinois Edwardsville is 4-2 in conference play and have won three of their last four matches, their lone loss in that span coming against Tennessee-Martin on Sept. 28. 

Eastern has performed well with a tough conference schedule, going 2-2-2 and sitting in fourth place in the standings. 

In their last four matches, the Panthers have played four of the top six teams in the OVC. Southern Illinois Edwardsville will be their fifth match against a top six opponent in three consecutive weekends. 

“Those three weekends have been tough for us,” head coach Jake Plant said. “But we’ve managed to get good performances.”

In that span they have allowed five goals, earning shutouts against Austin Peay and Tennessee-Martin. 

But they have scored just three goals in the past two weekends, and have four total goals in six conference matches. 

Plant said that he is pleased with the defensive consistency, especially earning four shutouts in the first six conference matches.

“That’s very impressive, in our own opinion,” he said. “If we can keep that going, it means when we get that breakout game, when the attack sort of clicks, we’ll look very good.”

The Panthers have scored in four conference matches, but have not had a multi-goal match against an OVC opponent. 

They only have two multi-goal performances overall, coming in a 3-2 loss at Green Bay on Aug. 26 and a 2-0 victory at Chicago State on Sept. 2.

“When the first goal goes in, the second one usually helps things and the third one definitely helps things,” Plant said. “In terms of having that kind of game, we’re pushing every day for it.”

The Panthers have had six players score goals this season, and three players have scored twice. 

Juniors Sarah DeWolf and Lexi Ketterhagen, and sophomore Haylee Renick, each have two goals. Ketterhagen has added three assists and leads the team with seven points. 

“We are showing that we can play with the top of the conference,” Plant said. “That’s where we want to be by the end of the year. 

After the match this Sunday, the Panthers will return home to play Southeast Missouri on Oct. 11 in what will be Eastern’s final home match of the season.

Adam Tumino can be reached at 581-2812 or [email protected]