After five straight matches on the road, the Eastern women’s soccer team will be back at Lakeside Field Friday for the first time since Sept. 9.

The Panthers will play host to Tennessee-Martin at 3:30 p.m. Friday at Lakeside Field, and will round out the weekend homestand at 1 p.m. Sunday against Southeast Missouri.

The Panthers are entering the weekend with a record of 3-9 overall and 1-2 in the Ohio Valley Conference.

They are coming off not only their first OVC win, but their first win since Sept. 7, snapping a five-game losing streak.

The overtime win against Tennessee Tech last weekend saw three goals from the Panthers, which is more than the team had put up in its last seven games.

Prior to the Tennessee Tech win, the Panthers had been shut out in each of their previous five losses.

Tennessee-Martin enters as the defending OVC champions, having knocked off the Panthers in Eastern’s first game of the 2011 tournament.

The Skyhawks have an overall record of 5-4-3, with an OVC record of 2-0-1.

Tennessee-Martin’s senior forward Kendyl Wilson leads the Skyhawks with five goals this season, and is No. 2 in the OVC in points scored with 13.

Eastern’s senior forward Kristin Germann leads the Panthers in goals scored with four, recording her fourth goal of the season in the last game against Tennessee Tech.

Prior to that, Germann had not scored since her three-goal performance against Cleveland State.

The Panthers have never lost to the Skyhawks in Charleston, posting a 7-0 record when playing at Lakeside Field.

The Southeast Missouri Redhawks enter with a record of 2-7-3 overall and 1-1-1 in the OVC.

Eastern head coach Summer Perala has never beaten the Redhawks, losing twice and playing to a draw once.

All of those meetings were in Cape Girardeau, Mo.

The Redhawks will be without Bloomington native, sophomore forward Erin Shulman, who will be out for the year with a knee injury, head coach Heather Nelson announced Tuesday.

Shulman was a former OVC Freshman of the Year.

Senior forward Courtney Luehmann leads the Redhawks, having scored two goals and two assists. She leads the team in shots with 26.

The Redhawks were struck with tragedy when senior Meg Herndon passed away earlier last month.

Herndon suffered severe injuries in an automobile accident on Sept. 9 and had been hospitalized since.

She passed away Sept. 20 at Barnes-Jewish Hospital in St. Louis.

Dominic Renzetti can be reached at 581-2812 or dcrenzetti@eiu.edu.