EIU is 'unfinished business' in Otahkians' OVC opener

Revenge will be on Southeast Missouri State University's mind today when the Otahkians host Eastern Illinois in their Ohio Valley Conference soccer opener.

The Panthers (4-5-1) ended the Otahkians' magical season last year, upsetting OVC regular-season champion Southeast 1-0 in the championship game of the conference tournament in Cape Girardeau.

"Nobody has forgotten that game," Southeast coach Heather Nelson said. "For us, that's unfinished business."

Sophomores Erin Slattery and Marla Gianino, two of the Otahkians' three returning first-team all-conference players -- along with senior Jenny Hamilton, the 2001 OVC defensive player of the year -- agreed.

"We owe them big-time," Slattery said. "Last year's game was extremely disappointing. Ever since then, everybody has wanted to play them."

Revenge aside, the Otahkians (6-3-1) expect a rugged challenge in a game between the teams expected to battle for the OVC regular-season championship and the right to host the conference tournament.

EIU, which won two consecutive regular-season titles until Southeast prevailed last year, was the 2002 OVC preseason favorite just ahead of the Otahkians.

"Whoever wins this game will have a good chance to win the conference," Gianino said. "I expect it to be a pretty rough game. They know we'll be out for them and we know they'll be out for us."

The Otahkians already have lost more games this year than they did all of last season when they went a school-record 16-2. But that was not totally unexpected because Nelson beefed up this year's schedule considerably.

"I think we've played pretty well so far," Nelson said. "We really strengthened our schedule and that should have prepared us for conference."

While Southeast and EIU will play their first league games tonight, four of the OVC's seven teams have already started conference play, including Tennessee Tech (8-1-1, 2-0) and Tennessee-Martin (5-2-2, 1-0). Nelson said she expects a balanced league race.

"I think there will be a lot of teams in the race," Nelson said. "Tech is off to a good start and Tennessee-Martin looks like they're dramatically improved. Those two, Eastern Illinois, Murray State and us all could be right there."

Junior Erika Todd leads the Otahkians offensively with five goals and 11 points. Freshman Lisa Schweppe has four goals and 10 points while sophomore Diana Poovey has four goals and nine points.

Freshman Lauren Fabbro and sophomore Amanda Wrzos, who have shared Southeast's goalkeeping duties, have allowed just seven goals as they rank one-two in the OVC in goals-against average, with 0.47 and 0.83 respectively.

EIU is led offensively by Cara LeMaster (five goals, 11 points) and Beth Liesen (four goals, 12 points).

"It's important to get off to a good start in conference so this is really a big game," Nelson said.

mmishow@semissourian.com

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