The Eastern women’s volleyball team sits in sixth place in the Ohio Valley Conference prior to its final two regular season games this Friday and Saturday.

Although the Panthers and the Belmont Bruins share a conference record of 7-7, Eastern has the edge with a .500 overall winning percentage to the Bruins’ .462 winning percentage.

Leading the conference currently is Austin Peay. The Governors have suffered just one conference loss to Eastern Kentucky, who they played to four sets.

The OVC tournament will pit the top eight teams against each other. Austin Peay will host the tournament as it is the regular season champion.

Coach Sam Wolinski said winning this weekend would be beneficial to her team’s tournament rank.

“The goal is to pick up two additional wins to keep our seeding as high as possible,” Wolinski said.

Wolinski explained that, as she understands it, her team is guaranteed a spot in the tournament no matter what the results of this weekend’s matches are.

The Panthers will once again take on Tennessee-Martin and Southeast Missouri. Eastern triumphed over Tennessee-Martin in the teams’ first meeting, beating the Skyhawks 3-1. The Panthers swept Southeast Missouri on Eastern’s own turf this season as well.

Predictions for the tournament:

Austin Peay

Austin Peay is the clear choice for the No. 1 seed in the tournament and this reporter’s predicted conference champion. The Governors are 13-1 in the conference, and they beat the Panthers twice this season.

Austin Peay also leads the conference in hitting percentage at .241, kills with 695, assists with 650 and service aces with an average of 1.62 aces per set.

Murray State

Murray State was last year’s OVC champion, but that does not mean they will make a repeat this year. However, they will most likely win in an upset to take second.

Southern Illinois-Edwardsville sits at the No. 2 spot right now, but Murray State is an even match for the Cougars. Murray State won one and lost one to Southern Illinois-Edwardsville, but they loss was played in five sets.

Southern Illinois-Edwardsville

The Cougars are currently 11-3 in the conference and 21-5 overall. Southern Illinois-Edwardsville has won its last two games over Eastern and Southeast Missouri.

Southern Illinois-Edwardsville could fall in the OVC tournament, however. The team has no individual players leading in statistics, and the team ranks as high as third in team statistics in categories like digs and assists.

The rest of the teams in the tournament will be, in order, Eastern Kentucky, Eastern Illinois, Jacksonville State, Belmont and Tennessee-Martin. The Panthers will face Tennessee-Martin Friday and Southeast Missouri Saturday.

Kaitlin Cordes can be reached at 581-2812 or krcordes@eiu.edu