The Eastern women’s soccer team is riding high with confidence following a 3-1 win over Austin Peay Sunday at Lakeside Field.

After a 3-1 loss to Belmont on Friday, the Panthers bounced back and picked up a 3-1 victory of their own over the Governors to give them their first Ohio Valley Conference win of the season.

“The best feeling ever,” senior Madison Carter said. “It’s great to come from losing and then winning 3-1.”

Carter had the assist on the Panthers’ first goal of the match in the first half, finding Hannah Miller for her third goal of the season. The assist was Carter’s first of the season.

“It actually looked like I messed up, but it was on purpose,” Carter said of the goal. “I saw the girl coming and I knew if I would have taken my touch, she would have just stepped, so I saw her, overstepped so she would run past me. I knew someone would be trailing me and Hannah had me right there, I just placed it right to her.”

Carter said the win is a big confidence builder for the team going forward.

“We’re coming off of a win now, we’re ready to go for next weekend,” she said. “We’re going to have a good week of practice. It’s going to come through, we’re going to win this tournament.”

Eastern head coach Jason Cherry said the win was a much-needed one for the Panthers, who are now 1-3 in the OVC.

“Last year, based off the results of the teams we’ve played, we would have been 1-3 against them and we’re 1-3,” he said. “It puts them in a spot where they feel confident that we can still fight to win this conference. So that’s a big thing.”

The Panthers have been in situations before this season where they’ve had to come back from being down and against Austin Peay they were able to score three unanswered to secure the win.

“The nice thing is, we’re finding ways to score,” he said. “So, it was nice to see them fight back. I think we overcame some obstacles, which will help us in the future.”

The Panthers are on the road all this weekend, taking on Tennessee Tech at 3 p.m. Friday in Cookeville, Tenn., and Jacksonville State at 1 p.m. Sunday in Jacksonville, Ala.

Eastern beat both teams last season. Tennessee Tech is coming off two losses to Eastern Kentucky and Morehead State, while Jacksonville State split its weekend against the same two teams, losing to Morehead State and beating Eastern Kentucky.

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