The Eastern men’s tennis 2015 season was full of potential but was never able to get headed in the right direction.

Coming into the season, the Panthers were coming off an Ohio Valley Conference tournament appearance last spring.

After getting the four wins needed to qualify for the OVC Tournament, the team fell to Austin Peay 4-3 in the first round.

Coming into this season, Eastern had four players returning from that team including junior Robert Skolik, junior Rui Silva, junior Ryan Henderson and senior David Constantinescu.

There were more expectations of winning after missing the tournament for five straight seasons prior to the 2014 campaign.

None of those expectations and hopes of a winning year happened for Eastern by the end of the season.

The Panthers ended the season 4-15 overall and 3-6 in the conference season after going 7-10 overall with a 4-5 conference record last season.

Eastern finished towards the bottom of the conference standings with only Tennessee State and Murray State below them.

Those numbers may not look much different but according to Stark, Eastern expected much more from their squad.

The Panthers struggled out the gates starting the season on a eight-game losing streak.

Eastern went 1-9 in their non-conference schedule with their only win coming at Chicago State on Feb. 28.

The Panthers conference wins were at Tennessee State, Murray State and Morehead State.

Though the season ended in disappointment for Eastern, the team will have all but one of their players returning next season, which will include three seniors to lead the way.

The Panthers will have a large amount of sophomores as well, which will include freshman Preston Touliatos, who showed signs of becoming one of the better players for the future this year.

Touliatos led all freshmen on the team with 10 wins in singles matches. The freshman also helped lead the team in doubles wins with his partner Skolik with five wins.

Stark will look to come back next season looking to build up leadership with a roster that won’t have had much change.

The players and Stark believed they played a tough schedule and were always in every match. The Panthers were only shut out four times throughout the season.

“We competed well throughout the season and our handful of points being 5-2 consistently,” Stark said. “We have been in every match, but we just didn’t close out matches.”

The Panthers will return to action in the fall.

Cody Delmendo can be reached at 581-2812 or cddelmendo@eiu.edu