The Ohio Valley Conference Tournament begins today, as Eastern (7-7-5, 3-3-2 in the OVC) will play Tennessee Tech (5-10-3, 3-3-2 OVC) at 5 p.m. in Morehead, Ky.

The Panthers played Tech at home during the regular season to a 2-2 tie, but this time around freshman midfielder Kristin Germann is confident the team can win.

“We have to keep pushing,” Germann said. “We played them once and tied them. We should be able to beat them if we play like we can.”

Junior midfielder Sarah Rusk and senior midfielder Sam Kohen each scored come-from-behind goals in the Oct. 16 tie.

Head coach Summer Perala said the team is prepared to come out differently than it did in the two teams’ first meeting.

“We have to go in with a mentality that it’s a team we’ve seen before and we know we can beat,” Perala said. “Now it’s about focusing on what we can do well.”

Based off the scouting report Perala received for Tech, she said it has the same key players it had before. So now Perala said she’ll look at the tapes.

Perala won’t have any players watch the tapes unless she believes it’s necessary. She said that most likely she would notice the problem and address it at practice.

“If there are groups that we think we need to see certain points of it then we’ll bring them in,” Perala said. “Otherwise, we’ll watch it and kind of let them know of the breakdowns that we had and how to fix it.”

Germann said she’s excited to play in her first OVC Tournament and said the team is prepared to come out strong and get the offense going.

“We just want to make as many offensive runs as we can,” Germann said. “We’ve got to stay focused.”

If Germann and the rest of the team isn’t psyched up enough to play, Perala said she has been using some motivation.

“We told them at the end of practice that they were picked to finish eighth in conference and here we are in fifth and have made top six in conference,” Perala said. “They should be proud of where they are, but the job isn’t done – they have to go out and prove something to people.”

For the five seniors on the team, today’s game could be their last, but Perala said they are making themselves heard during practice, telling the younger players they’re not ready to be done.

“I’m sure they’re kind of kidding but also not kidding about the fact that they don’t want to go home,” Perala said.

The game can be seen at OVC Sports.TV or followed online by live stats at EIUpanthers.com.

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