Eastern lost its No. 1 singles player from last season, Chuck LeVaque, to graduation.

The Panthers’ No. 2, junior Vuk Milicevic, is out with some bone bruising in his right wrist.

Their No. 3 from last season, Brandon Lenfert, also graduated.

That leaves sophomore Jeff Rutherford, who played at No. 4 and No. 5 singles last year and finished the season with a 15-5 singles record, to start at the top slot in the Panthers’ season opener on Saturday at Indiana-Purdue-Fort Wayne.

But Rutherford’s position is not set in stone.

“It could be anybody in that No. 1 spot,” Rutherford said. “We are all pretty even throughout the lineup. Talent-wise it’s all pretty close.”

Milicevic, who finished 10-11 in singles matches last season, said the handful of guys vying for the top spot are going to help the team as a whole.

“With all of us competing for that top spot in the line up, it really pushes us to do better,” Milicevic said. “We will all be playing to our best ability because we all naturally want that spot and whoever gets it, gets it, but the team is going to be stronger because of that competition.”

The Panthers do not play any conference matches until late March, which Blackburn said gives him the opportunity to rotate through different combinations and see who plays well at which position and who plays well together for the doubles matches.

“We lost two of our top guys, and we have a few new players, so we have to shift things around and adjust to figure out what is going to work best for us as a team,” Blackburn said.

Rutherford said the non-conference matches also help to get them playing at a competitive level by the time conference play comes around, and if they do well it will be a big confidence boost.

Milicevic said a team goal would probably be to win about 60 percent of the non- conference matches and to place fourth or so in the Ohio Valley Championships.

The Panthers placed fifth in the conference last year, and that was the first time in three years they had made it to the conference tournament.

“Getting to the championship and placing fifth showed us that we can play competitively with anybody in the conference if we play our best tennis,” Blackburn said. “Fifth was definitely an improvement, and we are hoping to get back to the championship this year and do even better.”

Brandy Provaznik can be reached at 581-7944 or blprovaznik@eiu.edu.