The Eastern men’s and women’s tennis team kick of three and five-match home stands to end the regular season with a meetings against in-state foe Southern-Illinois Edwardsville

The matches were scheduled to start at 11 a.m. Thursday, but have been pushed back to April 10, at the Atkins Tennis Center in the campus of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

After both of Eastern’s squads earned Ohio Valley Conference splits in their matches against Austin Peay and Murray State on Saturday and Sunday, the Panthers finish their season at home trying to improve on 3-3 and 2-3 conference records, respectively.

Men’s team

The Eastern men’s tennis team is coming off a 6-1 win against Murray State, which evened the Panthers’ record to 3-3 in the OVC, following a 5-2 loss to Austin Peay Saturday.

Senior Kevin Bauman is the only Panther that won both of his weekend singles matches and enters next week’s match with a 9-4 overall record in singles play.

Bauman is also 5-1 in singles competition in the OVC, with his only loss coming against Jacksonville State’s Felipe Diaz, which went to a tie-breaker in the third set, ultimately going to Diaz 10-8.

Eastern, despite only winning one of its two weekend matches, continued its consistent doubles play, winning both of the doubles points against Austin Peay and Murray State.

The Panthers are now 11-4 in doubles matches in the OVC this season, with one match going unfinished because the team point had already been won by Eastern.

Edwardsville lost its previous conference match to Austin Peay 5-2 Sunday, which dropped the Cougars to 3-3 in the OVC.

Overall, Edwardsville is 9-8 this season with a 7-7 road record, which includes going 2-2 in the OVC away from home.

The Cougars have gone 13-18 and 10-7 in singles and doubles play, respectively in conference matches.

This season, they have been able to beat Morehead State and Murray State on the road.

Morehead State defeated the Panthers 4-3 at home to start conference play.

Both Eastern and Edwardsville have three conference matches left on their schedule and they are fifth and fourth in the OVC standings. The top six teams advance to the Ohio Valley Conference tournament.

Women’s team

Like the men’s squad, the Eastern women’s tennis team is also coming off a conference split of its matches, but the Panthers started their weekend with a 5-2 win against Austin Peay.

On Sunday, Eastern was shutout, losing 7-0 to undefeated Murray State, which is only behind Eastern Kentucky (7-0) in the OVC standings at 6-0.

The Panthers and Cougars have identical 2-3 records in the OVC and are also tied with Tennessee-Martin, which is also 2-3.

Only half a game behind the 2-3 teams are Austin Peay and Jacksonville State.

The match could play a pivotal role heading forward into deciding the six-team field that will enter the postseason tournament.

Edwardsville is coming off an identical weekend as Eastern, winning its match against Austin Peay and losing to Murray State.

Eastern is led by sophomore Ali Foster, who is 9-2 in singles play this season and is the only Panthers with a winning record against conference opponents at 3-2.

In doubles play, Foster along with fellow sophomore Hannah Kimbrough have a 3-2 record, which is tied for the most wins with the duo of Kelly Iden and Kamile Stadalninkaite, who are 3-1 in the OVC.

The Cougars are 7-8 overall and have 11-16 and 8-5 records in singles and doubles play against OVC teams.

Edwardsville is 5-8 away from home and is 1-3 on the road in conference play.

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