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Eastern senior midfielder Lindsey Wilkening plays for the ball against a Southeast Missouri player at Lakeside Field. The Panthers lost 2-1 on Tuesday night against Morehead State in Morehead, Ky. (Amir Prellberg / The Daily Eastern News)

Women's Soccer: Panther's season ends

By: Collin Whitchurch/Staff Reporter

Posted: 11/5/08

Morehead State junior midfielder Lindsay Stefanini scored the game-winning goal in the 80th minute as the Eagles ended Eastern's season with a 2-1 victory Tuesday night in the first round of the Ohio Valley Tournament.

The Panthers took an early lead when sophomore forward Kaitlin Sullivan scored her second goal in as many matches in the 26th minute to put the Panthers up 1-0.

Eastern took that lead into halftime, but Morehead State came out firing in the second half with two goals to gain the victory.

"We knew (Morehead State) was going to come out and put a lot of pressure on us because they were trailing at halftime at home," Eastern head coach Tim Nowak said. "They came out fired up. We were ready for it but they score two very, very nice goals."

Freshman forward Jillian Birchmeier had the first goal of the half for the Eagles in the 56th minute.

Sophomore goalkeeper Kaylin Lorbert started for the Panthers and made 11 saves despite allowing two goals. Nowak said that he thought Lorbert played very well despite allowing the two goals as he credited the scores to great plays by the Eagles rather than mistakes by the Panthers.

"(Lorbert) was great all night just as she's been most of the year," Nowak said. "She made some quality saves throughout the game and a very, very nice save at the beginning of the second half."

Tuesday's loss ended the Panthers' season at 3-14-2. The Eagles (8-8-2) will move on to play top-seeded Murray State on Friday.

Nowak said that his team was obviously upset following the season, but has a lot to be proud of.

"They're upset because they know they're good enough to compete against anybody and it's never easy ending your season with a loss," Nowak said. "But they should be, and are proud of the effort they gave not just tonight but over the last month. We did some things very well and they should all be proud of themselves."

Nowak said the play of his team over the past month has made him optimistic about the team's future. He said that while the season didn't live up to expectations as far as wins and losses are concerned, the team's play over the final month, when they went 3-1-1 over their last five regular season matches, showed how much fight his team has.

"When you look at all the things we went through early in the season, we never quit and that's a great testament to the team," Nowak said. "They never gave up and never made excuses and when things started going out way we started showing the world what we could do."

Even with that optimism, Nowak said Tuesday's loss was a tough one to take because he said it was one of the better matches his team played all season.

"It was a pretty even game," Nowak said. "We both had equal chances throughout the game and we put a lot of pressure on them in the final 10 minutes. It just ended up that they got one more break than us."

Collin Whitchurch can be reached at 581-7944 or at cfwhitchurch@eiu.edu.