Seven Ohio Valley Conference women’s soccer players have been rewarded the honor of making ESPN’s Academic All-District Team as voted on by the College Sports Information Directors of America.

Student-athletes from Morehead State, Austin Peay, Jacksonville State, and Eastern have been chosen to be on the team. Two Panthers were named to the team.

Junior goalkeeper Kaylin Lorbert and sophomore defender Hillary Blake received the honor, when the list of names was released Friday.

Blake is from Naperville and attended Waubonsie Valley High School. As a sophomore accounting major, she has earned at 4.0 GPA.

This season, Blake has played every minute of every game – the only Panther to do so. In fact, she has started in 24 consecutive matches dating back to Oct. 12, 2008.

Lorbert is from Wildwood, Mo., and attended high school at St. Joseph’s. She is a biological studies major and has earned a 4.0 GPA.

She has played in 10 games this season, only allowing nine goals-0.93 per game. She’s recorded an even 3-3-3 record in goal for the Panthers while recording two shutouts.

Both girls were rewarded with the OVC Medal of Honor this past summer for their 4.0 GPAs in the past year-Lorbert has won the award twice in her career.

OVC Tournament bracket set

After losing their last game of the season 1-0 to Tennessee-Martin Saturday, the Panthers take their No. 5 seed in the OVC Tournament.

The Panthers will be the team to begin the tournament Thursday with their match against Tennessee Tech (No. 4), who they played to a 2-2 draw Oct. 16.

The match is slated to begin at 5 p.m. and can be seen at OVCSports.TV with a live broadcast of the game.

Morehead State (No. 1) and UT Martin (No. 2) both received first round byes as a result of having the best regular season conference record.

Murray State (No. 3) will play Eastern Kentucky (No. 6) at 8 p.m. Thursday following the Panther match.

The Panthers have a record of 1-3-1 against the teams in the postseason tournament and have been outscored 7-4 against them – their worst defeat coming against Murray State, 3-1.

The winner of Eastern’s first round game will play Morehead State, the No. 1 seed.

Around the OVC

Jacksonville State, Southeast Missouri, UT Martin, Southern Illinois Edwardsville, and Murray State all got wins in the OVC last weekend.

Jacksonville State defeated Austin Peay 1-0. The loss solidified Austin Peay’s spot as the last place team in the OVC.

With UT Martin’s win over Eastern, the Skyhawks clinched a share of the regular season conference title and the No. 2 seed in the tournament.

Murray State’s victory clinched the No. 3 seed in the tournament, as they were too far ahead of Eastern in points.

Alex McNamee can be reached at 581-7944 or admcnamee@eiu.edu.

Senior goalkeeper Jenny Williams does a goal kick during the game against Tennessee Tech on Oct. 16 at Lakeside Field. (Amir Prellberg/The Daily Eastern News)

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