Eastern women’s soccer will end their four-game home stand with a conference matchup against Eastern Kentucky Friday.

Eastern enters the game at 3-10-2 on the season and 1-4-1 within OVC play. Eastern Kentucky comes in with a 2-12 record and are 2-4 in the OVC.

Eastern coach Jason Cherry said he’d like to pick up another win while his team plays at home for the last time until Halloween weekend.

“I think it’s a big game for us,” Cherry said. “We’ve built some confidence on our own field, going 1-1-1 and beating teams ranked highly in the conference. We definitely seem to play a bit better over at Lakeside.”

Cherry said having one game this weekend also benefits his team. He said it’s preferable to prepare for one opponent rather than two.

In their last game, Eastern fell just short to Morehead State 1-0 in double overtime after a late penalty kick. Cherry said he’d like to see his team move on from the close loss.

“It was tough to lose that way,” Cherry said. “But we learned from it and now know what we need to work on to improve.”

Eastern scored one goal during the three-game of the current home stand, which came from midfielder sophomore Ali Carlson for her first of the season.

Cherry said he’d like to see some improvement all along the offensive side, mainly when it comes to finishing on scoring opportunities.

“We’ve created quality chances for ourselves, but we came up just short on a lot of them,” Cherry said. “It might just be a case relaxing and taking a smart shot when the chance arises.”

Eastern Kentucky enters the game ranked ninth in the OVC in goals allowed during conference play, with 10.

Cherry thinks that his team will have chances and expects the early-season stars to rise again as well as players who have yet to break through, like forward sophomore Madi Fisher.

“I think gets better every game,” Cherry said. “I expect her to perform and end up somewhere on the box score.”

He pointed out players like senior forwards Molly Hawkins and Hannah Miller who he also thinks can be difference makers.

Cherry said is looking for more of the same out of his team defensively.

“We always have things to work on with the defense,” Cherry said. “But we’ve done well lately and we have built a lot of pride in that.”

With Eastern Kentucky, Cherry said he will have his team ready for whatever their offense comes out with.

Eastern Kentucky sits at 1^st in the OVC with over 14 shots per game. However, Eastern goalkeeper Maddie Lyon leads the conference in saves to this point.

“We’ve come to expect great play out of her,” Cherry said. “She’s helped give our defense more confidence and keep us in these games.”

Lyon is coming off a third-straight regulation shutout.

Cherry said his team needs to continue to perform well on both ends if they hope to contend when the postseason begins.

“It goes back to doing the little things,” Cherry said. “We want to pick up points, but we’d like to turn some of these into wins to put ourselves in the best position.”

Eastern will host Eastern Kentucky at 3 p.m. on Friday.

Elias Albert can be reached at 581-2812 or at ewalbert@eiu.edu