Eastern’s women’s soccer season is over, and the Panthers recovered from a 1-6-2 record in its pre-conference schedule to go 4-5-0 in the Ohio Valley Conference and make its 13th consecutive OVC tournament.

The Panthers opened up with three consecutive road losses to Northern Iowa, Missouri and Belmont before tying Indianapolis University-Purdue University-Indianapolis in Indianapolis.

The Panthers then returned home to fall 2-3 to Butler before finally capturing their first win in match No. 6 against Western Illinois in a 1-0 nail-biter.

The Panthers then proceeded to go 0-2-1 to limp into conference play, where they caught fire and won three of their first four matches, losing only to eventual regular season champion Southeast Missouri in Cape Girardeau, Mo.

The Panthers would then only win one of their remaining five regular season matches, including a 1-0 loss to Southern Illinois-Edwardsville on Senior Day at Lakeside Field.

The Panthers would then go on to lose 2-1 to Tennessee-Martin, who they had previously beaten in Martin, Tenn., in the first round of the OVC tournament.

The Panthers went into halftime of that match ahead 1-0, but Tennessee-Martin came out looking like a different team for the final 45 minutes, stymieing any Panther offense in the final 45 minutes while out-shooting Eastern 13-0 in the second half.

“I think the good thing is that Tennessee-Martin did a great job just adjusting to what we were trying to do,” head coach Summer Perala said. “From our perspective it was fantastic that we actually made a team have to adjust to us.”

The loss was especially heartbreaking for the team’s seniors, including defender Sam Balek, who scored her first career goal in her final match as a Panther.

The Panthers’ season went up and down, but despite the disappointing ending there were multiple post-season bright spots, including three seniors, defender Hillary Blake and midfielder/forwards Jessica Blake and Ashley Eck, being named Capital One Academic All-District V.

Also among the Panther post-season honorees were junior forward/midfielder Kristin Germann, who was named second-team All-Conference after a season that saw her lead the Panthers with five goals and tie for the team lead with two assists, as she was the only Panther with more than one goal on the season.

Also honored with All-OVC designation this year was freshman Meagan Radloff, who was named to the all-newcomer team.

Brad Kupiec can be reached at 581-7942 or bmkupiec@eiu.edu.