Eastern’s women’s soccer team lost its final Ohio Valley Conference match yesterday, falling 1-0 to Southern Illinois University-Edwardsville at Lakeside Field.

The loss drops the Panthers into a tied position with The Cougars at 4-5 in conference, but because Southern Illinois- Edwardsville is ineligible for the tournament, Eastern is in as the sixth and final seed, despite losing three consecutive matches to finish the OVC season.

The game’s only tally came early, as Cougar forward Meagan Iffrig scored in the 21st minute to give Southern Illinois-Edwardsville a lead they would not give up despite allowing more shots than they shot, as the Panthers put six balls on net to the Cougars’ four.

Despite winning the shots on goal battle, the Panthers were out-shot overall 16-13.

The match was the Panther’s Senior Day, as their five seniors played their last home match at Lakeside Field, and the game was also played on the birthday of senior defender Erika Prazma.

“I was really excited, but anxious to play today,” Prazma said. “I knew the team and I had to leave it all out on the field being our last game at Lakeside for the season and my last game ever at Lakeside. It was really bittersweet; unfortunately we couldn’t get the win.”

Despite the loss, the Panthers played a solid game, according to head coach Summer Perala, and they improved over last weekend’s losses to Murray State and Austin Peay.

“We had more attacking opportunities in this game than we did over the past weekend,” Perala said. “We had several chances, we just couldn’t find the back of the net to save our lives.”

Sunday’s match saw the Panthers take only one corner kick to the Cougars’ five. The match’s only caution issued in the contest was a yellow card shown to senior defender and all-time Panther minutes leader Sam Balek in the 80th minute.

The Panther offense was led Sunday by junior midfielder Kristin Germann, who took five shots, including one on goal. Also leading the Panthers was freshman midfielder Meagan Radloff, who took three shots, with two on goal. Radloff was the only Panther with more than one shot on target.

The Panthers will now travel to Cape Girardeau, Mo., for the OVC tournament where they will take on No. 3 seed Tennessee-Martin Thursday at 4 p.m. The Panthers beat Tennessee-Martin 1-0 in the only 2011 meeting between the two teams, a match that took place in Martin, Tenn., and served as Eastern’s only OVC road win of the season.

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