The Eastern’s men’s swim team will look for its first victory of the year as it, along with the women’s team, will host its first home meet of the year against Ball State on Friday.

The men are looking to bounce back in a big way after an underwhelming performance against Illinois-Chicago where head coach Elliott McGill said they ran into a strong opponent.

At 0-2 the men are hoping to replicate their first performance, when despite a 112-88 loss, McGill said the team came out with a lot of energy and were able to sustain it throughout the meet.

All though this meet comes 13 days after the previous meet, the Panthers still have seen more action than their opponents from Ball State as the Cardinals have competed in just an intra-squad meet in late October.

The Cardinals come in to Charleston with a rather young team.

Only four of the 17 swimmers are seniors for Ball State and seven of the Cardinals are underclassmen.

Eastern’s team is no stranger to underclassmen, but McGill said he has been impressed with his freshmen class so far, highlighting the early performance of Dylan Ferguson and Conner Conroy.

The women’s team is coming off a tough loss against the Flames, but with consistent performances by senior Hailey Foss and freshman Kaylee Morris they seem on the edge of a breakout meet as a whole.

McGill said the women had solid times in Chicago, as he pointed out a pair of juniors in Mary Lacine and Kate Paige on their swims.

Ball State’s women’s swim team began its year with a second-place finish at the Indiana Intercollegiate, and have recorded two wins against Akron and Bowling Green with respective scores of 162-137 and 176.5-117.5.

Head coach, Kristy Castillo, said the women’s team has been showing great consistency in their races from week to week.

Junior Haley Richter led the Cardinals against Bowling Green, winning three individual events and claiming victory in a relay.

Senior captain, Colin McGill, said the team is looking forward to their first home meet.

“We love seeing the bleachers packed for our meets with all the great EIU swim fans,” McGill said. “Also, with Ray Padovan being inducted into the hall of fame this weekend we know we will have a lot of alumni down here supporting us, so it adds some extra excitement to the meet.”

This meet marks half of the home meets the Panthers will have all year long as the second one will not come until February.

The meet will begin at 4 p.m. on Friday at Eastern’s Padovan Pool inside Lantz Arena.

Aldo Soto can be reached at 581-2812 or asoto2@eiu.edu.