The Eastern women’s soccer team, currently the top team in the Ohio Valley Conference, will host Jacksonville State, currently at the bottom of the conference, at 3 p.m. Friday at Lakeside Field.

The Panthers are coming off a weekend in which they suffered a road loss against Austin Peay, but rebounded with a road win against Murray State.

At 5-1 in the OVC, the Panthers are hoping to gain more ground in the conference standings.

Eastern, which has seen all of its wins come in conference play, will host Jacksonville State, which has seen none of its wins come against OVC opponents.

The Gamecocks enter at 4-9-2 overall, 0-5-1 in conference. Jacksonville State’s four non-conference wins came over McNeese State, Alabama A&M, Troy and Alabama State. The team’s last win over Alabama State came on Sept. 20.

The Gamecocks haven’t had much success when it comes to OVC play, with their last conference win dating back to Sept. 30, 2012, over Southern Illinois-Edwardsville.

The Gamecocks opened the 2012 OVC schedule with three straight wins over Tennessee Tech, Eastern and Edwardsville, but went on to finish 3-6-1.

Jacksonville State’s match against Tennessee Tech last Sunday ended in a 0-0 draw.

The Gamecocks took 25 total shots against Tennessee Tech, but were unable to put any past Golden Eagles goalkeeper Jordan Brown, who gave up four goals against Eastern on Sept. 29.

Junior Jackie Rush, who has scored five goals so far this season, leads the Gamecocks. Rush had two goals in the team’s Sept. 6 win over Alabama State, but has not scored since the Sept. 29 win over Morehead State.

Rush had four shots on goal in last Sunday’s match against Tennessee Tech.

Sophomore goalkeeper Taylor Hammond, who has appeared in 14 matches so far this season, did not play against Tennessee Tech after she was sidelined because of an illness.

Freshman goalkeeper Cate Eden played 110 minutes against the Golden Eagles in her first career start, recording the shutout.

Eden is likely the starter for Friday’s match.

Eastern goalkeeper Cortney Jerzy has started all of the team’s OVC matches this season following a hand injury to red-shirt freshman Kylie Morgan.

The two-time OVC Goalkeeper of the Week has recorded three shutouts this season.

Eastern is led by junior Meagan Radloff, who has scored give goals and has one assist this season.

Radloff has three game-winning goals so far this season.

Radloff has been instrumental in sealing victories for the Panthers in each of the team’s last three wins.

The team’s five conference win total is the most the team has had since the 2005 season — the Panthers still have four matches to play.

Friday’s match will be the Panthers’ only match of the weekend, making it only the second time this season the team has just one match. The team will return to action Friday Oct. 25 when it travels to Tennessee-Martin for a 7 p.m. match.

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