It started with an online forum last summer, a discussion about interest in a paintball team at Eastern. From those simple beginnings, the Colonel paintball team has grown into a bona fide national contender. At the beginning of last semester, five people met at the Powell Building to begin forming what would become Eastern's paintball team.…

Dear Eastern sports fans, Please allow me to apologize in advance for this letter of disappointment to the Colonel fan base. Eastern sports fans have generally impressed me over the course of my collegiate career. Football games are often a haze of tailgating (this haze may or may not be caused by certain mind-altering liquids) and thousands of Colonel fans screaming in the stands at Roy Kidd Stadium on any given Saturday in the fall.…

The Eastern women's tennis team wasn't as busy as they had expected to be after a home match against Wright State on Saturday was canceled. It was canceled after an injury-plagued Wright State squad found itself unable to produce enough players for the match.…

Eastern's baseball team opened the 2008 season by going undefeated in their three games in the Early Bird Tournament held at Turkey Hughes Field against Bucknell and Toledo. Eastern opened play with a marathon game against Bucknell Saturday. The Colonels and the Bison played to a 7-7 tie during a 14-inning game that lasted more than four hours and was eventually called due to darkness.…

This year's ESPN "Bracket Busters" would see Eastern face Ball State in a showdown that would be decided in turnovers and missed shots, as the Colonels prevailed over the Cardinals, 51-48. Defense is one word best describing the key element in this low-scoring contest, as the final 30 seconds would decide the win.…

The Eastern women played UT-Martin and Southeast Missouri last week to close out a four-game road trip. The Lady Colonels (13-11, 8-9 OVC) defeated UT-Martin 68-53 (5-24, 2-17 OVC), but conference leader SEMO (21-6, 16-2 OVC) bested Eastern 68-52. Eastern started slow against the cellar-dwelling Skyhawks, clinging to a 19-17 lead with 7:14 to play in the first half.…

Eastern's baseball team will look to improve on their third-place finish in the OVC last season with the help of a potential top-10 draft pick and a slew of other returning contributors from the 2007 team. Junior pitcher Christian Friedrich will anchor the Colonel pitching staff.…

The Tennessee Vols skated back to Knoxville after an 8-4 victory against Eastern Saturday night in Lexington. The game wasn't, as one-sided as their previous encounter this season, and the Colonels made the Vols earn every goal. From the initial faceoff, it was clear the Vols weren't facing the Colonels of past.…

The softball team looked to avenge a first game defeat -3-1 to Iowa State - as the Colonels won their second game of the Chattanooga Challenge last friday over Akron, 11-1. Sophomore Shyenne Hussey hit her first home run of the season and knocked in four runs in the afternoon affair.…

It was during a trip to Muncie, In. over the weekend when the Eastern men's tennis team realized exactly how valuable Alex Das Izquierdo is to them. The freshman No. 1 seed sat out the match against Ball State University (4-6) due to a sprained ankle, and with a noticeable outcome.…