With Ohio Valley Conference play beginning this weekend, the Eastern women’s soccer team enters at 0-9-0.

But it’s not the only team that struggled through its non-conference portion of the schedule.

Eastern Kentucky is also winless, currently sitting at 0-7-1, with the Colonels’ only draw coming against Xavier on Sept. 6.

Like the Panthers, the Colonels have had trouble scoring goals. Eastern Kentucky and the Panthers have both scored just two goals so far this season.

The Panthers snapped their seven game streak of scoreless matches last Sunday against Drake. The Colonels have been shut out in their last four matches.

At the top of the OVC, Southern Illinois-Edwardsville currently has the conference’s best record at 6-1-2.

The Cougars were the No. 6 seed in the OVC tournament last season, losing in the second round to No. 2 seed Austin Peay. The Cougars are already one win away from matching their total win count from last season.

Edwardsville’s freshman forward Kayla Delgado is the No. 2 point scorer in the conference with 12 points in nine matches. The Belleville native has six goals this season, which leads the team.

The back-to-back defending champion, Tennessee-Martin, is off to a rough start, finishing 2-6-1 at the end of the non-conference schedule. The Skyhawks snapped a four-match losing streak on Friday, beating St. Louis 1-0.

Senior Abi Sanvee leads the team with two goals so far this season. The team’s leading scorer and OVC Newcomer of the Year from last season as well as pre-season All-OVC selection from this season, sophomore Saphyra Coombs-James, has yet to appear in a match for the Skyhawks.

Tennessee-Martin was the overwhelming favorite to repeat as champions, picked first in the OVC preseason poll with 198 votes and 18 first place votes.

Austin Peay will open its OVC schedule against Tennessee-Martin this Friday in Clarksville, Tenn. 

The Governors have opened the season 5-1-1, giving them the second best record in the OVC.

Austin Peay’s leading scorer is Tatina Ariza, who has six goals and two assists. 

She has 15 shots on goal and was last year’s Ohio Valley Conference Offensive Player of the Year.

Tennessee Tech’s Jordan Brown leads the OVC in saves with 61 in her nine games played. 

Eastern has played three different players in goal this season, with red-shirt freshman Kylie Morgan getting the most starts.

Morgan started Friday’s match against Drake, but sophomore Emily Hinton started on Sunday against Valparaiso. 

Sophomore Cortney Jerzy has also started in goal this season for the Panthers, but played in the field against Drake Friday.

Interim head coach Jason Cherry said after Friday’s match that Jerzy, a transfer from Saint Xavier, is a versatile player on the field.

“We put her on the field this week in practice, and she did really well,” he said. “I wanted to give her a go before conference goes and see if she could do it.”

Eastern opens its conference schedule this weekend with a match Friday on the road against Belmont and another Sunday at Lakeside Field against Tennessee Tech.

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