It may not be likely, but as the saying goes; anything is possible.

The Panthers enter next week’s Ohio Valley Conference Tournament on a roll. But as the tournament’s fifth seed, they have to overcome several top teams to achieve their unlikely goal.

Eight of the nine years that OVC women’s soccer has been around either the one or two seed has won the OVC tournament. The lone exception was in 2006 when four-seed Southeast Missouri took the crown.

That bodes well for Eastern Kentucky and Murray State, who await the winners of the two quarterfinal matches next Friday. The likely scenario would see one of those two teams end next weekend as OVC champions.

But this season has been anything but normal.

In the preseason coaches’ poll on Aug. 11, Southeast Missouri was voted as a favorite to win the OVC title. The Redhawks finished the season 1-5-2 and in last place in the conference.

Eastern Kentucky and Morehead State were predicted to finish fifth and sixth in the OVC, respectively. They will enter the conference tournament as the two and four seeds, respectively.

So the possibility of the Panthers making it to the OVC Championship, or possibly winning it, are still unlikely, but possible.

After all, the Panthers are pretty familiar with situations such as these. They have made it to at least the semifinals of the OVC Tournament every year since 1999 and have won the tournament five times in that span.

Last season as a six-seed the Panthers upset third-seeded Murray State 2-1 in overtime before falling to Samford, who is no longer in the league, 1-0 in the semifinals.

The last time they made it to the OVC Championship was in 2005, head coach Tim Nowak’s first year as coach, when they fell to Samford 1-0 in the finals. The last time they won an OVC Title was in 2004.

Momentum can play a huge factor in a team’s late-season success. After Wednesday’s 3-2 loss at Illinois State, the Panthers are still 3-1-1 in their last five matches and have scored two goals apiece in each of their last two matches That is something the team did not do even once in its first 16 matches this year as goals were hard to come by.

So next week should be an interesting trip for the Panthers. They beat Morehead State in the team’s only regular season meeting, but it was in Charleston. A trip to Morehead should make for a different atmosphere and, as it has been proven, anything can happen.

Collin Whitchurch can be reached at 581-7944 or at cfwhitchurch@eiu.edu.

(Drawn from the news/Dylan Polk)

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