The Eastern rugby team lost its fourth straight game of the season, falling 25-11 to Grand Valley State on Sunday in Allendale, Mich.

Eastern took a 3-0 lead early in the first half on a penalty kick by sophomore Hannah Vieth, making it the first time this season the Panthers have had a lead in a match.

After getting off to an early lead, the Panthers made some mistakes in the middle of the field, which led to the Lakers scoring three straight tries, putting them up 15-3 at halftime.

“I don’t think that deflated us, but we were a little frustrated with ourselves for letting Grand Valley be down at the end of the field,” Eastern coach Frank Graziano said. “The errors that I was hoping that would not show up as much kind of showed up today.”

The Panthers cut the lead to 15-6 just six minutes into the second half after a converted penalty kick by Vieth.

The Lakers would add two more tries in the second half.

The Panthers’ lone try would come off a run by freshman Sara Fisher, which would be the first try of her career.

From an individual standpoint, Graziano said he was impressed with the way junior Ellen Wilson played.

“Ellen had her best game of the season,” he said. “This was probably the best game of her career, and she was certainly our best player out there Sunday.

Graziano said the team made some progress on Sunday, but not as much as he would have liked.

Graziano put different players in different spots because some players were improving faster than others, and he said he saw some positives and negatives.

“There were parts where it helped, but we could not consistently make it work,” he said. “We just haven’t had enough time to work with it.”

Graziano moved Fisher to scrum-half, which allowed him to move junior Carissa Burge to the center position.

Experimenting that move for the first time, Graziano said it worked fairly well.

“I’m hoping in a couple more weeks, Sara is really able to settle in to the scrum-half position allowing Carissa to settle into the center position,” he said. “I think that is the way we go forward. It was okay, but it will have to make improvements over the next few weeks.

Eastern dropped to 0-4 on the season.

Eastern will return to action when they head to Grand Rapids, Mich., to take on Davenport University at 3 p.m. on Oct. 5.

Bob Reynolds can be reached at 581-2812 or rjreynolds@eiu.edu.