CHARLESTON, Ill. -- An extremely heavy downpour rendered Lakeside Field on the campus of Eastern Illinois unplayable less than 15 minutes before Friday afternoon's scheduled contest between the Sycamores and Panthers. The two teams were fortunate that an auxiliary field across the athletics complex and about 50 feet higher in elevation was damp but useable and the slightly delayed contest was back on which eventually saw the Sycamores capture a 3-1 victory over Eastern Illinois.

The Sycamores improved to 4-2-2 on the season while Eastern Illinois fell to 1-3-2. It was a historic victory as Indiana State has now gone undefeated over its last four road contests -- a first for the program which began play in 2000. Indiana State owns wins at Illinois-Chicago, Wright State and Eastern Illinois as well as draw at Akron.

ISU has now won four road games for the first time since 2015 which is the second-best for a single season. Only the 2006 team -- who won five matches away from home -- have won more in a season outside of Terre Haute. The Sycamores have played each of their first eight regular season contests on the road before finally seeing the home turf of Memorial Stadium on Sunday against Rose-Hulman.

It would be a come-from-behind victory of sorts as Eastern Illinois capitalized on an early opportunity to grab a 1-0 lead when Itxaso Aguero scored in the 21st minute. It was a redirected kick following a pass at the of the box off the feed from Sarah DeWolf for the score.

Katie Sidloski, who entered the match with just one goal to her credit scored last season, tallied the first of her two goals in the match in the 39th minute. Sidloski took a quick pass from Katie Wells at the top of the box and pushed a one time kick past the diving attempted stop of the goal keeper to level the score at 1.

That wouldn't be the only time that the two got together for a score as she pushed another into the back of the net in the 49th minute. Sidloski took another one time feed from across the goal box by Wells for a 1v1 opportunity which she crushed into the bottom right corner of the box to beat the keeper. That score gave the Sycamores a 2-1 advantage.

Sidloski ties a host of Sycamores over the years for second on the ISU single-game goal scoring chart with her pair of goals. Wells tied herself and others for No. 4 on the ISU single-game assists list with a pair.

The Sycamores had a chance to bolster the lead as the rain began to fall for the first time in the second half when the Panthers were whistled for a penalty inside the box. Danielle Varner, the reigning Missouri Valley Conference Defensive Player of the Week, opted for a straight on kick in the weather and it was stopped by Sara Teteak to keep the Sycamore lead right there at 2-1.

Katie Wells then got into the scoring action herself in the 70th minute when she took a quick pass from Kathryn Besserman near the 18 yard mark and shot the ball past the defense and into the back of the net for her 15th career goal. 

In the match, Wells moved into a tie for No. 6 with Kate Johnson on the ISU career goals scored chart with 15. She also took over sole possession of second place on the ISU assist list with 16 as she moved past Sydney Lovelace. Her 46 career points are still No. 6 on the ISU career list and trails Claire Hemkens by just one.

ISU owned a 7-5 advantage in shots, including a 4-3 edge in shots on goal. Indiana State led in corner kicks for the fourth consecutive match -- this time by a 9-2 margin over the Panthers. 

Hannah Sullivan allowed the early goal to EIU but made two spectacular leaping saves in the second half to record her fourth victory of the season.

In addition to the shots by Sidloski, Wells and Varner, Alexis Harte made a wide variety of contributions on offense and defense and recorded a pair of shots while playing the entire 90 minutes in the adverse conditions.

As mentioned earlier, the Sycamores open play at home on Sunday, September 9 when they host Rose-Hulman at 3 pm (ET) inside Memorial Stadium. It will be the first-ever meeting between the two clubs on the pitch.