The Eastern women’s soccer season finished, and the team was able to make the Ohio Valley Conference tournament, led by two sophomore roommates.  

Abby Reinl, OVC midfielder of the year, and Alex Tetteh, All-OVC second team forward, topped the stat charts for the Panthers this season.  

Reinl led the ream with eight goals, and Tetteh was right behind with seven.  

Tetteh had a good season last year, as she was named to the All-OVC newcomer team and finished with three goals and one assist.  

Reinl had a similar season with three goals and assists last season. 

Reinl and Tetteh both said that they went into the offseason ready to get better. Tetteh said she joined a club team near her in Aurora. 

Tetteh played for was River Light FC. She joined the team over the summer, and She said that her training was able to keep her momentum from last year and keep up her production.  

“Now I feel like I’m more confident when I play, taking more shots. And I feel like it’s just shown on the field,” Tetteh said. 

Reinl had a different experience over the summer. She was not able to join a team, as she had none close to her. 

She ended up starting out the year slow. She was only able to score one goal with zero assists in her first eight games before conference play. 

Reinl said that she started out slow because she was not able to keep up her training as hard as she was working the previous season. 

“When I got here, I was just trying to find my fitness, get back to where I was when I left the season because last year, I left at a pretty good point and just continued to work off that point,” Reinl said.  

Reinl was able to kick things up right at conference play. She was able to score seven goals in 10 regular season conference games and led EIU to the sixth seed.   

“Everything clicked before conference,” she said.  

Reinl and Tetteh were able to find their spark and keep the momentum going through the rest of the year.  

But not only do they tear it up on the field together, the two top scorers also live together. 

The two became roommates last year, as they happened to know each other a bit before they came to school. Tetteh said that her cousins knew Reinl, so when they started talking to each other they were able to hit it off instantly.  

The two began talking, Reinl said, about their hobbies, when they went to sleep and other introductory roommate questions.  

“I actually asked her really early on if she wanted to [room together], like way earlier than everyone else,” Reinl said. 

Reinl and Tetteh both said that they became friends right after they got to campus. They also said this started a friendly rivalry.  

“But I think it’s just a good, friendly competition. And she’s one of my best friends, so I wouldn’t want to be competing with anyone else,” Reinl said. 

Tetteh and Reinl started to compete against each other in practices. They also said that they had a competition going on to see who would score the most goals by the end of the season.  

Head coach Dirk Bennett said they make the rest of the team better with how competitive they are. 

“Alex [Tetteh] is really, really nice but she is still very competitive,” Bennett said. “Abby [Reinl] is extremely competitive. You could be playing checkers, and it might ruin her whole day if she loses.”  

Bennett says that their friendship and rivalry makes the entire team better.  

“That healthy rivalry only helps us, I think,” Bennett said. “It helps them individually, but it really helps us as a team develop those two players and then I think other players feed off of that too.”  

Patrick Schmitz can be reached at 581-2812 or at pfschmitz@eiu.edu.