Game 16
#7 Southeast Missouri State (2-10-3, 2-4-3 OVC)
vs #6 Eastern Illinois (5-7-6, 3-3-3 OVC)
 
Match Information
Date: Thursday, Oct. 31, 2024
Location: St. Charles, Mo.
Venue: Hunter Field
First Kick: 7:00 p.m., CT 
All-Time Series: SEMO leads 16-11-4
Last Meeting: 2-1 Loss | Mattoon, Ill. | Oct. 3, 2024 

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#7 Redhawks Play #6 Eastern Illinois in First Round of OVC Tournament Thursday
#7 Southeast Missouri State (2-10-3, 2-4-3 OVC) will head to St. Charles, Mo. to take on #6 Eastern Illinois (2-10-2, 1-6-1 OVC) in the first round of the 2024 Ohio Valley Conference Tournament. First Kick is slated for 7:00 p.m., CT.

Tournament History
Southeast Missouri women's soccer has made the OVC Tournament in eight straight seasons, dating back to the 2017 season. Overall SEMO has made postseason play 23 seasons from their 26 year history. The last time they made the championship game was in 2020-21 and the last time they won was in 2006 against Morehead State. 

Overall SEMO is 17-16-8 in tournament games after falling just short to Morehead State 0-1 in the semifinal game. 

In tournament history, the Redhawks have a neutral site record of 8-6-2. The Redhawks will face EIU at Lindenwood university on Thursday night. The winner will advance to face Lindenwood on Sunday evening.

Series History
The Redhawks and Panthers will meet for the 33rd time between the two programs on Thursday and for the second time in 2024. SEMO holds a 16-12-4 advantage over EIU, but dropped the lone regular season matchup, 2-1, in Mattoon, Ill.
 
The Redhawks beat the Panthers for the first time in OVC Tournament play last season in the first round when both teams were also the #7 and #6 seeds. SEMO bested EIU 1-0 for the win last season. Specifically in tournament play EIU holds a 3-1-2 advantage against SEMO in the postseason.

Scouting Eastern Illinois
The Panthers come into the OVC Tournament as the number six seed. During their last game of the season EIU competed against Little Rock for a 0-0 tie. 

During the Little Rock game the Panthers had eight shots with half of them on goal. Sophomore Alex Tetteh paced EIU with four shots and one SOG. Tetteh leads the team this year and is ranked eighth in the OVC with 35 shots.

Ella Kratochvil, EIU's goalie, had seven saves during the contest to bring her season total to 39. 

Eastern Illinois rotates between two goalies, Kratochvil has started eight games, has six goals allowed, and a 0.867 save percentage. Ashlyn Hoover has started 10 games, has 39 saves, 18 goals allowed, and a 0.684 save percentage.

Abby Reinl leads EIU with eighth goals (2nd OVC) and 17 shots on goal (9th OVC). Kate Germano has three assists which is the most on the team. 

As a team, the Panthers this season have 161 shots (8.9 per game), 78 SOG's (0.484 save%), and 14 assists.

Eastern Illinois ended the regular season with 12 conference points and won 3 out of their last six games.

Last Time Out
The Redhawks won 2-0 against UT Martin to clinch the seventh seed in the OVC Tournament.

SEMO notched a season high 22 shots against UT Martin  with six of them being on goal. UT Martin recorded 12 shots with three on target.

Cayla Koerner, Zoe Houston, and Alayna Jakul led the Redhawks with four shots apiece. Elizabeth Rater and Houston paced SEMO with two SOG's.

Houston scored the first goal of the contest to give SEMO the early 1-0 lead in the first half. Off of a pass from Koerner, Alli Saviano slotted it to Houston, who put the ball to the top left of the net to score in the 17th minute of the game.

The Redhawks dominated the first half box with 14 first half shots compared to UT Martin's 4. Out of those 14 shots three shots were on goal. 

Coming out of halftime Emily Baker and Koerner both fired off a shot within the first 11 minutes of the second half. 

Twenty-one seconds later the Redhawks were in the corner. In the corner, Justi Nelson kicked a perfect ball into the box right to the head of Rater to score SEMO's second goal of the contest. 

Looking Ahead
The Redhawks look to advance past EIU on Thursday and verse #3 Lindenwood in the quarter finals on Sunday at 5:00 p.m., CT in St. Charles, Mo.