As the bus carrying the Eastern soccer players pulled out of the parking lot in Birmingham, Ala., there was a correlation to what had happened in the game that day.

The Morehead State bus and the Eastern bus pulled alongside each other on the road. The Morehead State bus drove away and Eastern was left in the dust.

“(Morehead) came out flying,” said Eastern head coach Tim Nowak. “We didn’t respond well to their fast start.”

The Panthers have always been here. Eastern has always qualified for the Ohio Valley Conference Tournament. They did the same again this year. This year was different in a way. The Panthers failed to qualify for the OVC Tournament Finals. It was the first time they didn’t. It was also the first time the Panthers were shutout in the tourney.

Junior forward Michelle Steinhaus said it was hard to describe not making the finals of the OVC Tourney.

The Eagles’ soccer program is somewhere new. Morehead State had only won one tournament game before their 1-0 win on Friday against Eastern in the OVC Tournament semifinals at Bulldog Field in Birmingham.

“Every team is competitive – top to bottom,” Nowak said. “Anybody is capable of anybody on any single day.”

Now they’re in the finals against Southeast Missouri.

“A lot of key players are a year older,” Nowak said. “(It’s a) year under your belt.”

Morehead State forward Rebekah Kendall beat the defense on a breakaway and scored to beat freshman goalkeeper Jenny Williams in the 72nd minute.

The defense for the Eagles (8-7-3, 6-1-3) has been stellar. No one has scored on the Eagles since their 3-0 loss to Samford on Oct. 6 in Birmingham, Ala. No team has scored on the Eagles in the last 730 minutes and 16 seconds.

“It was such a fast-paced game,” Steinhaus said.

2006 Defensive Player of the Year and Morehead State goalkeeper Leslie King made five saves on the day and recorded her seventh straight shutout.

Eastern (8-7-5, 4-2-4) was not able to find the back of the net for the seventh time this year.

Steinhaus said they winning more of the 50-50 balls. She said they were playing to the feet.

One of Eastern’s chances came in the 30th minute when sophomore defender Ashley Slota crossed a ball into the center of the field and Steinhaus shot the ball to the left side of the net where Morehead State goalkeeper Leslie King made a diving stop.

“The ball didn’t bounce the right way,” Williams said. “The surface was immaculate. We didn’t get the lucky bounce.”

The Panthers’ other chance came in the 56th minute off a restart when junior midfielder Kathleen Hayes was fouled. Freshman midfielder Alexis Miller took the free kick that crossed inside the box for Eastern. No Eastern player was able to drive it into the back of the net.

“I think the future looks really good for the program because you have a lot of young players who accomplished a lot this year,” Nowak said.