Another semester of Eastern athletics are in the books and it’s safe to say fall 2009 will go down as one of the more successful sports seasons in quite some time.

Sure, the highlight of the season was the football team winning the Ohio Valley Conference Title, but when you keep things in perspective, it was a successful season all around.

At the end of 2008 things were looking glum for both the volleyball and women’s soccer teams. Both were coming off program-worst seasons and both said sayonara to their head coaches following dreadful seasons.

It’s safe to say expectations were quite low as the volleyball team entered 2009 with new head coach Alan Segal and women’s soccer welcomed Summer Perala.

On the surface, the volleyball team’s season appeared to be miserable. It finished 11-20 overall, 4-13 in the OVC and suffered through a grueling schedule that saw the team on the road for extended periods of time.

But when you look at it, a six-win improvement from one year to the next is a drastic improvement. Segal brought an immediate winning mentality to the squad and the future appears bright if the team can continue to build off that success.

The case is similar for women’s soccer. The team scored just nine goals in 2008 and finished just 3-14-2. 2009 was a drastic turnaround as the team improved its win total by four, scoring a plethora of goals with basically the same roster from 2008.

Like Segal, Perala instilled a winning mentality and the team seemed re-invigorated under her guidance.

The women’s soccer team loses several key members to graduation, but there’s a good chance Perala’s success will continue and we could see more improvement next season. As we dive head-on into the winter sports season there are numerous things that are clear.

While we don’t know how good the men’s and women’s basketball teams are going to be once OVC play gets in full swing, we can be fairly confident both will be competitive.

The chances of either team winning an outright OVC Title appear slim, but they will definitely make waves.

Both have a wide array of talent. The women have freshman superstar-in-the-making Ta’Kenya Nixon and the men have the highly touted freshman Shaun Pratl.

Both are going to gain valuable experience this season and, regardless of the outcomes of their team’s respective seasons, will have their teams thriving for years to come.

Sure, there are a lot of questions, but one thing is for sure, if the winter and spring seasons can garner the type of success we saw in the fall, we’re in for another exciting semester of Eastern athletics.

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