The Panthers (4-3-4, 0-0-1 OVC) will play their second and final night game of the regular season 7 p.m. Wednesday evening at Evansville (3-6, 1-0 MVC). Sunday's kickoff against Austin Peay (1-8-2, 0-1-1 OVC) is slated for 2:30 p.m. as the final EIU athletic event of Family Weekend on campus.
Heading into Sunday's OVC home opener, Murray State will be the only other team around the league yet to host a conference game. The Racers play at UT Martin Sunday afternoon after both teams were on the road for the opening weekend of conference play Sept. 25-27.
Austin Peay plays at Southeast Missouri Friday evening before making the trip north to Charleston.
Wednesday, Eastern makes its first appearance at Evansville's McCutchan Stadium since 2005. However, the two teams have played exhibition games against each other in Charleston in 2006 and 2008.
The Purple Aces were one of EIU's first rivals. The two teams finished one-two in the Missouri Valley Conference standings in 1996 and 1997 and met in the '97 MVC Tournament title game. Evansville won that game in Springfield, Mo., on penalty kicks after the game was still tied 2-2 after 110 minutes of action.
Eastern has not enjoyed any success at the Aces' home field, owning a 0-5-1 record all-time at McCutchan Stadium. That one-sided record in southwest Indiana is a big reason why Evansville leads the all-time series 7-2-2. The exhibition results from 2006 (a 1-0 EIU win) and 2008 (a 1-1 draw) are not part of the series history.
Alexis Miller and
Rachel Hamilton scored the Panthers' goals in those games, respectively.
The Aces shared the 2008 MVC regular-season title with Illinois State and won the conference tournament in Omaha. Evansville opened its current campaign with a 1-0 win at EIU's OVC rival Southeast Missouri. But a five-game losing streak followed that included a home-opening defeat against common-opponent IUPUI and a Sept. 6 road loss at OVC foe Morehead State. The Aces have surrendered at least one goal in every game since the season-opening shutout of SEMO.
The Panthers are 1-1-1 against MVC opponents this season, posting a win against Northern Iowa, playing Indiana State to a draw and losing at Illinois State.
Eastern has shutout APSU in each of the first seven meetings in the all-time series. The Panthers lead that series 5-0-2 after the last two meetings in Clarksville have ended in a scoreless draw.
The Lady Govs have scored an OVC-low seven goals and surrendered a league-high 24 goals in their first 11 games. However, 11 of those goals against came in losses to South Florida (6-0) and Middle Tennessee (5-0). Austin Peay played Eastern Kentucky to a scoreless draw Sunday and gave up two goals in the final 10 minutes to drop its OVC opener to Morehead State.
With EIU and APSU having played to a scoreless draw two of the last three seasons, Miller is the only active Panther with a goal in the series. Both
Jenny Williams (two) and
Kaylin Lorbert have posted a shutout against the Lady Govs though.
Eastern also hosts UT Martin (Oct. 9), Tennessee Tech (Oct. 16) and Jacksonville State (Oct. 18) for OVC games in the month of October.
More Info: Contact
Ben Turner, Asst. SID
