The Eastern men’s and women’s tennis teams’ opponents have lost key players.

The Panthers will challenge Murray State and its roster changes when Eastern plays the Racers at 2:30 p.m. today in Murray, Ky.

The Murray State men’s team has struggled this season after losing No. 1 and No. 2 players Fadi Zamjaoui and Dmytro Hryhorash. Zamjaoui won Ohio Valley Conference Men’s Tennis Player of the Year honors in 2006 and 2007. Hryhorash teamed with Zamjaoui at No. 1 doubles, and the duo compiled an 8-5 overall record in 2007. This season, the Racers (1-12, 1-6 OVC) have struggled, with their only win coming against Tennessee State on March 25.

After last weekend’s play, Eastern’s men’s team (10-8, 4-3) will play what has thus far proven to be a talent-depleted Racers. With only three matches left in OVC play, Eastern sophomore Jeff Rutherford said the team has a sense of urgency.

“This is definitely a must-win,” Rutherford said. “This is the time of the season you have to bear down and play your best tennis.”

Eastern head coach John Blackburn views the final three conference matches more as a window of opportunity.

“We have three matches left, and that’s almost a third of the conference matches,” Blackburn said. “A lot can happen between now and the end of the season.”

On the women’s side, the Racers (12-6, 6-3) have had to adjust without standout twins Anna and Rachael Lask.

Anna Lask was the 2007 OVC Women’s Tennis Player of the Year and the Racer’s highest-win women’s tennis player with 197 combined singles and doubles wins.

Rachael Lask was also a strong player in her own right, notching All-OVC honors three times during her college career.

Despite the massive void left in the duo’s absence, MSU’s women’s team has responded well.

Sophomore Angela McGahee and junior Anne Pennington (14-2, 7-2) are one of the doubles teams in the conference.

Junior Natalie Martin doesn’t think it is prudent to judge a team based on what it has lost on its roster.

“You can never underestimate a team after it loses players,” Martin said. “We’ve played some teams this season that we thought had lost some really good players, but they brought in good players to replace them.”

Getting the win would would help the Panthers (11-6, 3-4) move up in the conference and qualify for the six-team OVC Tournament. The Panthers are in seventh-place.

Even with last weekend’s tough losses, Martin says she and her teammates have kept their composure, and that will be key to finishing out the season.

“We’ve managed to stay pretty calm about it,” Martin said. “We just need to keep our morale high.”

JC Clark can be reached at 581-7944 or at jrclark2@eiu.edu.