The Eastern women’s tennis team’s postseason chances were not improved Thursday in Murray, Ky.

The Panthers fell 4-3 to Murray State in an Ohio Valley Conference match. Eastern’s loss puts the team in serious jeopardy of not earning a berth in the conference tourney. Eastern came into the match on the outside looking in, sitting in seventh place when only six teams are included.

Now 3-5 in OVC play, Eastern has to win its final two matches, and sixth-place Tennessee Tech has to falter down the stretch if the Panthers are going to make the tournament.

“The bottom line is we have to win our next two, and Tennessee Tech has to lose to Tennessee-Martin,” said sophomore Carrie Larson. “We just have to play hard.”

However, TTU can lose either of its final two matches against UTM or Samford, and Eastern would have the opportunity to finish in a sixth-place tie if the Panthers win their remaining matches.

Thursday’s match was a close contest. The Racers took the doubles point by winning the No. 1 and No. 3 matches, which proved to be the difference. Eastern’s most successful doubles tandem of senior Sandra Sasidharan and freshman Cara Huck won the No. 2 doubles match.

Eastern and Murray State split singles play, with Eastern’s Natalie Martin winning No. 2 singles, freshman Abby Allgire winning No. 4 singles, and Huck taking No. 5 singles.

The women’s team knew how important the match was to its postseason hopes going in and certainly didn’t lose because of a lack of effort. In the team’s three losses in singles play, all were decided in the third set.

“It was one of our closest matches ever,” said senior Stephanie Harmazy. “Everyone played their hearts out.”

The match could have gone either way, but Eastern unfortunately didn’t have the winning edge, Larson said.

“We fought really hard,” she said. “It just wasn’t our day, and we didn’t come out on top.”

Originally, the men and women’s teams were both scheduled to play Murray State, but because of weather conditions, the match had to be played indoors. Because Murray State’s indoor facility only has four courts, the men’s match was rescheduled for Friday afternoon.

Eastern was scheduled to host Austin Peay in a conference match at Darling Courts on Saturday, but the match’s venue has been changed.

Larson said the match has been moved to an indoor facility in Belleville because of inclement weather in Saturday’s forecast that would require the match to be played indoors.

The Panthers have just one OVC match remaining after they play Austin Peay. Eastern will travel to Cape Girardeau, Mo., to play Southeast Missouri in its final regular season OVC match at 2 p.m. Sunday.

JC Clark can be reached at jrclark2@eiu.edu.

Eastern freshman Cara Huck returns a forehand volley during the Panther’s match against Samford University last weekend at Darling Courts. Eastern lost 4-3 on Thursday against Murray State in Murray, Ky. (John Bailey/The Daily Eastern News)

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