This Saturday marks the last home match for three Eastern men’s tennis players: Jared Woodson, Grant and Trent Reiman.

These three players do have matches in the future with the conference tournament coming up soon.

And this is the Reiman brothers’ and Woodson’s first time playing in the conference tournament.

All three players have been with the tennis programs since their freshman year, and all three have seen their ups and downs in their careers.

So far in their senior years, Woodson has racked up three wins in singles play, and six wins in doubles competition with five of those coming with sophomore Gage Kingsmith.

“Being around people such as my teammates is priceless to me,” Woodson said. “It’s something I didn’t really expect coming here to Eastern. I didn’t expect to meet my best friends for a lifetime and that’s an unbelievable bonus and that’s something I’ll miss.”

Woodson also said he just wants to have fun and close out the season making the best memories as possible and bring home the win.

For Grant, he also has three wins in different singles positions, and he has also complied six wins with different doubles partners, including five with freshman Logan Charbonneau.

“It went by so quick, it’s crazy but I’m really looking forward to this last match and I hope we get a win,” Grant said. “We have a really good group of guys on the team and I wouldn’t want to go out with anyone else. It’s bittersweet for sure, I’m going to enjoy every moment looking forward to the future but just live in the moment.”

Trent has notched two wins in singles this spring, and for doubles he is another player for the Panthers earning six wins in doubles play with different partners.

“I’m going to miss the team chemistry for sure,” Trent said. “It’s tough to find a bond like we all had as a team,” I’m just looking forward to battling with the guys in our last match and leave it all out there.”

Trent also added the way the team picks each other up, and the team makes sure the everyone’s happy and at the end of the day we’re all going to be best buds.

For Eastern coach Sam Kercheval says Woodson and the Reiman brothers have been great all around.

“I’ve seen them develop into more vocal leaders,” Kercheval said. “They’ve always been great people, they’ve always been really social, great with recruits and teammates and they’ve done more mentoring to the younger guys.”

“They really embraced what the coaches have told them and passed it on and its bene great because that’s what you hope your senior would do and it’s been great to have them,” he said.

A big thing for this team currently is all three of these players bring leadership and knowledge of the game to help younger players on the team.

Once Woodson and the Reiman brothers graduate, there will be no seniors on the team for the next two years.

But with sophomores Freddie O’Brien, Gage Kingsmith and Braden Davis all going to be juniors next season, they will be relied on heavily to mentor some younger players.

“It doesn’t matter whether you’re a senior, junior, sophomore or freshman, players have a role and it’s going to be guys who know our standards,” Kercheval said.

Eastern hosts NAIA member Marian on Saturday at 2 P.M. for senior day.

Vince Lovergine can be reached at 581-2812 or vplovergine@eiu.edu