Eastern’s women’s soccer team has lost its last three matches, but it’s still in the Ohio Valley Conference tournament.

The Panthers will be a six seed, playing their first match Thursday against third seeded Tennessee-Martin, which they beat in Martin, Tenn., in the only meeting between the two teams this season. The Panthers have also played two great matches after their 3-0 loss to Murray State the weekend before last.

The Panthers have rebounded from that 3-0 loss in Murray, Ky., to battle to a pair of 1-0 losses, in double overtime at Austin Peay and at home against Southern Illinois-Edwardsville Sunday.

While those matches go down as losses, both featured the Panthers showing plenty of heart and fight as a team, and if they keep plugging away and getting scoring chances, eventually something will find the back of the net.

Sunday’s match with the Cougars saw the Panthers put more shots on goal than their opponents, and if that trend continues in the postseason, they’ll be setting themselves up for success. Assuming all other things are equal, including goaltending, more shots on goal than your opponent will lead to more goals, and, in turn, wins.

Speaking of goaltending, after a sub-par performance that saw her yanked at halftime, red-shirt sophomore goalkeeper Jessica Taldone has played well in the last two contests, making 10 saves versus two goals allowed, good for a .833 save percentage.

If Taldone can keep the opposition to one goal per game this weekend and the offense can start finding the back of the net at the other end, the Panthers will be set to shock a lot of teams in this OVC tournament.

The Panthers have been lucky this season not to have had any major players go down to injury, and if that remains the same, they should be in good shape health-wise should they advance in the tournament.

Something else that stands out statistically in Eastern’s loss to Southern Illinois-Edwardsville is the fact that they put four shots on goal in the second half to no Cougar shots on target, after a first half that was tied 2-2 in that category.

This indicates not only a stronger Panther attack in the second half than the first, but a sense of urgency that they’ll need to harness in both halves if they are to do well this weekend.

Finally, looking at the OVC tournament, it’s been said many times but I’ll say it one more: Any team can beat any other team on any given Sunday (and Thursday and Friday in the case of Eastern).

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