The Eastern men’s and women’s tennis teams have one last shot at the NCAA Tournament.

The Panthers will play in the Ohio Valley Conference Tournament today. The winners will earn a chance to represent the OVC and earn the automatic berth to the NCAA Tournament.

Both Eastern teams have a shot. They will play in the first round in Paducah, Ky., today.

The No. 6 Eastern men’s team (10-11, 3-5 OVC) will face No. 3 seated Tennessee Tech, while the No. 6 Eastern women’s team (8-12, 4-5) will play against No. 3 Murray State (12-7, 6-3).

Both Eastern squads are familiar with their upcoming opponents.

The Eastern men were defeated by Tennessee Tech on April 5 7-0, while the Eastern women lost to Murray State 6-1.

Despite the earlier losses, Eastern tennis head coach John Blackburn believes the familiarity with their opponents will help the Eastern squads prepare for the matches.

“We know going in that we will be facing a pair of very tough teams,” Blackburn said. “We have an idea of what type of style they play with, which allows us to understand their tendencies more.”

Eastern senior Vuk Milicevic agreed the familiarity with Tennessee Tech would allow the men’s tennis squad to understand the level of competition they will face.

“Going in, we know exactly what we are going to get out of them having already played against them,” Milicevic said. “It helps us knowing that we played each match close last time. None of the guys on Tennessee Tech are unbeatable, so I see no reason why we can’t come away with a win.”

For the Eastern men’s squad to be able to be successful against the Golden Eagles (11-7, 6-2) Tech, Milicevic believes it will take a team effort.

“In the past week or two, everyone has been playing pretty well,” Milicevic said. “The team that gets the doubles point will have an obvious advantage heading into the singles matches.”

Heading into the matches, Blackburn said both squads are very excited and are looking forward to extending their season.

Blackburn expects both teams will raise their level of play for the matches.

“We have been playing hard the last couple of matches, even though we came up short,” Blackburn said. “We understand going in what we need to do to be successful.”

Neither squad has won the OVC Tournament.

“I think they understand that they need to be aggressive on Friday,” Blackburn said. “We need to play to win the point, as opposed to hanging back and playing a more conservative style. They understand that Murray State is a good team and we will need to play strong matches to have a chance to win.”

Neil Schneider can be reached or at 581-7944 or at jnschneider@eiu.edu.

Eastern junior Jeff Rutherford vollies during a match against Murray State at the Darling Courts. The Eastern men’s and women’s tennis will play in the Ohio Valley Conference Tournament Friday in Paducah, Ky. (Karolina Strack/The Daiy Eastern News)

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