Eastern’s women’s soccer team can win on the road against Ohio Valley Conference competition.

Not that this is some sudden revelation-the Panthers were, after all, 2-0 in OVC play before last weekend. But without a pre-season win on the road, it had yet to be proven whether this team could win away from Lakeside Field.

The road win at Tennessee-Martin means several things for the Panthers, apart from just getting over that proverbial first-road-win hump.

For one thing, it always helps a team’s psyche to get that first road win and knowing that it can go into a hostile environment against a conference foe and come out victorious. Having that peace of mind is crucial going into the OVC tournament, if you have that doubt in the back of your mind as a team, you’re going to have a tough time focusing on soccer.

That being said, if you’ve gone a whole season without a single road win, odds are you won’t be in the tournament to begin with.

The second thing this win does is give the Panthers confidence going into what is essentially a bye-week in their schedule.

The Panthers don’t play this weekend, and as anyone who’s ever been involved with an NFL or collegiate football team can tell you, going into a bye-week after a loss is an awful feeling to have.

Going into a bye-week off a win, though, lets the team’s confidence soar to new heights, and confidence is just what any team needs to propel it through mid-season into a successful post-season.

Obviously, a team going into a match with doubts will be worse off than a team without those doubts, being confident in its own abilities.

While the win does boost a team’s confidence, specifically this team’s confidence, the Panthers absolutely cannot afford to get carried away with their belief in themselves going into this two-week stretch.

The Panthers have to make sure they stay focused, practice hard, and do the things that got them to their current position of 3-1 in OVC play.

The third thing a win on the road can do is take the pressure off a team at home. When a team is winning at least some of its matches away from home, it feels less pressured to win the ones it can at home.

This reduction of pressure will relax the Panthers enough to keep them winning at home, but not enough that they back off, because no team can afford to back off because of confidence and wins.

With any luck, all these things will hold true for the Panthers, and they’ll keep winning right on through the OVC tournament.

Brad Kupiec can be reached at 581-7944 or bmkupiec@eiu.edu.