By Dylan Vazzano, TTU Athletics Media Relations
COOKEVILLE, Tenn. – A chance for a championship and a significant piece of OVC history is on the line in Sunday's regular-season finale for the Tennessee Tech soccer team.
The Golden Eagles will welcome Eastern Illinois to Cookeville with an opportunity to clinch the conference's regular-season crown, earn the No. 1 seed in the OVC Tournament and become just the second school in league history to claim four straight regular-season crowns. Kickoff with the Panthers is set for 1 p.m. CT.
Admission to Tech Soccer Field is free of charge. The match will be livestreamed on ESPN+. Click here to watch. Live stats will also be available. Click here to view.
A look at Tennessee Tech
The Golden Eagles (5-6-7, 5-0-3 OVC) enter the final day of the regular season with the possibility of earning the No. 1, No. 2 or No. 3 seeds in the OVC Tournament. A Tech victory ensures a top-two seed, while a Golden Eagle defeat would drop them to the No. 3 seed. The top two seeds earn a double-bye straight to the semifinals, hosted by the top seed. The No. 3 and No. 4 seeds earn a bye to the quarterfinals to go along with hosting responsibilities in that round.
The Golden Eagles are currently tied with Little Rock for first in the OVC thanks to 18 conference points. Eastern Illinois and Lindenwood are knotted for third behind 16 league points.
A Tech victory also ensures at least a share of the conference's regular-season championship for the fourth-straight year, which would be just the second-ever four-peat in OVC history. Samford claimed four consecutive crowns from 2003-06.
TTU enters the contest on an eight-match unbeaten streak, one shy of tying the longest unblemished stretch in program history. The 2023 and 2017 versions of the Golden Eagles put together a nine-match unbeaten streak.
Tech hosts EIU on the heels of back-to-back shutout wins for the first time this season. The Golden Eagles blanked Southern Indiana 2-0 on Oct. 16 before collecting a clean-sheet, 1-0 triumph at SEMO on Sunday. The pair of shutouts led Claire Palya to her first career OVC Defensive Player of the Week honor for Tech's first weekly accolade of the season. The red-shirt junior out of Knoxville, Tenn. helped guide a Golden Eagle defense that surrendered a season-low two shots in the victory over SEMO, holding the Redhawks without a shot on-goal in the process.
The two clean sheets pushed senior keeper Maggie Conrad's career total to 21, second-most in program history. Sunday's win also gave the Cedar Rapids, Iowa native's 28 career victories to tie Carly King (2001-04) for second-most in school history.
Offensively, Natalie Howard, who scored the game-winning goal in the nod at SEMO, leads the Golden Eagles with six goals to tie for fourth in the OVC. Lucia Cuadra and Melina Hamm are knotted atop the conference in assists behind five helpers apiece. Cuadra's five goals gives the graduate student out of Barcelona, Spain a team-leading 15 points to tie for third-most in the league.
Katie Toney is currently third on the team with four goals. The McMinnville, Tenn. native has scored in three of the last four matches to up her career total to 20, the third-highest mark in program history.
The Golden Eagles flock into Sunday having dropped only three of the last 40 conference regular-season contests, dating back to October 2021. Tech has a 26-3-11 record over that span with all three losses coming on the road.
A look at Eastern Illinois
After racing out to a 5-0-1 conference beginning, the Panthers have since dropped back-to-back matches with a 1-0 loss at Lindenwood on Oct. 16 and a 1-0 defeat to Little Rock on Sunday. Eastern Illinois (8-6-3, 5-2-1 OVC) is currently tied with Lindenwood for third place in the league with 16 points. The Panthers can finish as high as the No. 2 seed with a win and are already guaranteed a first-round bye in the postseason tourney.
Alex Tetteh leads the club with eight goals to rank second in the OVC. The 5-foot-11 forward made history earlier this season after finding the back of the net four times in a win at Western Illinois to become just the eighth player in league history with four goals in a match.
Abby Reinl's six goals are second-most on the team. The Sheboygan, Wis. product is tied with Tech's Natalie Howard for fourth-most goals in the conference.
Defensively, EIU keeper Ella Kratochvil leads the league with a 0.75 goals against average. The 5-foot-11 junior is also second in the OVC in both shutouts with eight and save percentage at .855.
Inside the series
Sunday's regular-season finale will mark the 37th meeting in the all-time set. Eastern Illinois leads the series 20-9-7 after picking up a 2-1 win last season in Charleston, Ill. for one of the only three teams to top Tech in a regular-season OVC match over the last four calendar years. EIU's win last year also snapped a five-match Golden Eagle winning streak in the series.
Photo: Jim Dillon
