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Wednesday, November 4, 2009 10:15 PM CST
EIU faces Tech in women's OVC soccer tourney again
CHARLESTON -- Participating in its 11th consecutive Ohio Valley Conference Tournament, Eastern Illinois women’s soccer opens play at the annual postseason event Thursday against an opponent it has played more often than any other – Tennessee Tech.
Kickoff is slated for 4 p.m. CST in Morehead, Ky. The EIU-Tech winner advances to take on top-seeded Morehead State Friday at 4 p.m.
All OVC Tournament games this weekend are set to be webcasted live and free of charge at www.OVCsports.tv.
Eastern Kentucky and Murray State square off in the other opening-round game Thursday evening. The EKU-Murray winner takes on second-seeded UT Martin Friday night. The tourney championship game is slated for noon on Sunday.
In the first 10 years of the OVC Tournament, only twice did the host of the semifinal and championship rounds win the event – EIU in 1999 and Southeast Missouri in 2007. Morehead is hosting for the first time this season after winning the tourney as the fourth seed last year.
The Panthers’ five titles, 11 consecutive appearances and 13 victories are all the most in OVC Tournament history.
Eastern (7-7-5, 3-3-2 OVC) and Tennessee Tech (5-11-3, 3-3-2 OVC) finished tied for fourth place in the final OVC standings. The two teams played to a 2-2 draw Oct. 16 in Charleston. Tech received the higher tourney seed based on its Oct. 4 scoreless draw with Morehead.
The Panthers and Golden Eagles played in each of the first three OVC Tournaments from 1999-01, including meeting in the championship game in 1999 and 2000. Eastern won in 1999 and 2001, Tech was victorious in double overtime in 2000.
Thursday’s contest will be the 19th all-time meeting between EIU and Tech, with the Panthers leading the series 13-2-3. Those 13 victories and 18 games against the Golden Eagles are the most versus any one opponent in program history.
Thanks to game-tying goals from Sarah Rusk and Sam Kohen, EIU was able to equalize twice and salvage a draw in the regular-season meeting at Lakeside Field. That extended the Panthers’ unbeaten streak against Tech to 10 (7-0-3) dating back to 2001. The Golden Eagles’ last win in the series was the 2000 OVC Tournament championship game. That was also Tech’s last tourney victory.
Laura Ridolfi (2006), Kaitlin Sullivan (2007) and Rachel Hamilton (2008) have also scored against the Golden Eagles during their careers. Alexis Miller and Sullivan enter the weekend as active EIU players with an OVC Tournament goal on their résumés. Miller scored the golden goal in the overtime win at Murray State in the 2007 opening-round. Sullivan gave the Panthers a halftime lead in an opening-round loss at Morehead last season.
Goalkeeper Jenny Williams is expected to make her fifth career OVC Tournament start Thursday. She has surrendered no more than one goal in any of her previous postseason games. Kaylin Lorbert was selected as the starter last season at Morehead and helped keep EIU in the game with 11 saves.
Games this weekend will be held at Jayne Stadium, which features a field turf playing surface and is also home to MSU football. The Panthers have played four games on field turf this year, including each of their final two regular-season contests. Eastern will be in search of its first victory in Morehead since 2005 this weekend.
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