Oct. 21, 2004

Cape Girardeau, Mo. - The Southeast Missouri State women's soccer team will try to keep hopes alive for hosting a first round Ohio Valley Conference tournament game when the Otahkians close the OVC regular season on Friday, 3 p.m., at Eastern Illinois.

Southeast is 3-2-2 in the OVC with just the Eastern Illinois game remaining on the OVC regular season schedule.

"Obviously this is a very big game for us," said Southeast coach Heather Nelson. "It is always an advantage to open tournament play at home and a win at Eastern Illinois will give us a chance to do that, depending on how the other OVC games go this weekend. Eastern Illinois has a very big and athletic team that will give us a physical game.

"We will have to score some goals and continue to get solid play in goal by Amanda Wrzos who has been outstanding in recent games. We've had a lot of scoring chances in our last four games, but we've put the ball in the net just once. It is time for us to break out."

Following the Eastern Illinois contest, Southeast will return to Houck Stadium on Sunday for an 11 a.m. match against Texas Tech of the Big 12 Conference.

"We will use our final three non-conference games to get ready for the tournament," Nelson said. "We can relax and work on getting sharp for the tournament."