Eastern beat Belmont 1-0 on Sunday after a first half goal from sophomore midfielder Cam Korhorn. The victory was important for conference play, but also for the seniors who were able to get an important victory for senior day.

“We knew this game was a really important one,” said fifth-year senior forward Pilar Barrio. “We want to climb places in the OVC so we can get into the tournament and host, hopefully. We knew if we played our game, which is basically possession, we knew we’d frustrate them and that’s what we did.”

“It feels good to win on a senior night,” said fifth-year senior Itxaso Aguero. “To win on a senior night and to see everyone put the effort in for the seniors is really special.”

“It’s really special,” said Barrio. “This was going to be one of our last games together. Hopefully we will have some more because we’re going to get into the tournament.”

Eastern played a competitive match that saw them come away with a 1-0 victory. It was a competitive back and forth that saw both teams trading exciting offensive possessions. The Panther defense held its ground, though, and with Cam Korhorn’s goal early in the match, it proved to be enough to hold out for the victory.

Eastern has two more matches in the regular season before heading into OVC Tournament play. With each point over these next two matches proving incredibly important, Eastern is ready to fight for every point and raise their placement as much as possible in the tournament standings.

“(The mindset of the team for this week is to) keep growing and keep grinding,” said Aguero.

“Get as many points as possible so we can climb the table,” said Barrio. “We know we can go all the way into the tournament, so we’re just focusing on that.”

The Panthers have two more matches left this season that will prove valuable heading into OVC Tournament play. They will host SIUE in a make-up match on Tuesday, October 19th, that was postponed at halftime for bad weather before taking on Austin Peay on Thursday, October 21st, to finish the regular season.

Nick Bays can be reached at 581-2812 or ntbays@eiu.edu.