Eastern’s women’s soccer team will wrap up its regular-season Ohio Valley Conference schedule this Sunday, as they play host to Southern Illinois University-Edwardsville with a postseason berth on the line.

The Panthers come into the final weekend of the season with a 4-4 conference record after dropping a pair of matches last weekend to Murray State and Austin Peay, 3-0 and 1-0, respectively.

The Panthers are currently locked in a four-way tie for third place, and Southern Illinois-Edwardsville is one game behind them at 3-5 in the conference.

Put simply, if the Panthers win, they’re in the OVC tournament, and if they lose they’ll have to rely on Tennessee-Martin to lose to Jacksonville State.

A Panther loss would have them tied with the Cougars and give Southern Illinois-Edwardsville the head-to-head tiebreaker between the two teams. It would also leave the Panthers behind or tired with Murray State and Austin Peay, who also hold head-to-head tiebreakers with the Panthers courtesy of their respective wins over Eastern last weekend.

With conference leaders Southeast Missouri State and Eastern Kentucky ahead of them, as well as, in the event of a loss Austin Peay, Murray State and Southern Illinois-Edwardsville, the Panthers would be the sixth and final seed if they and Tennessee-Martin both lose.

If Eastern wins, however, they guarantee a spot in the tournament and the only question become how the teams will be seeded.

The conference tournament would take place Nov. 3 to 5 at the home field of the top seed, which this year will be Southeast Missouri.

The Panthers will go into this weekend’s contest with red-shirt sophomore goalkeeper Jessica Taldone coming off a weekend in which she was pulled at halftime against Murray State after allowing three goals before playing 103 scoreless minutes against Austin Peay before allowing that match’s only goal in double overtime.

Sunday’s match is currently set for a 1 p.m. kickoff at Lakeside Field.

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