MOBILE, Ala. – The preseason portion of the 2014 University of South Alabama soccer season is coming to an end as the Jaguars finally begin the regular season this weekend at The Cage against UAB and Nicholls State.

Friday's match against UAB will start at 7 p.m. while Sunday's tilt vs. Nicholls State kicks off at 1 p.m. In-game updates will be available via live stats on USAJaguars.com and Twitter at @SouthAlabamaSoc.

"We're very excited," USA head coach Graham Winkworth said. "It's going to be nice to be playing against somebody different and the games start to get competitive now. We're quite relaxed about it, to be honest. We don't feel too much pressure this season and we're just excited to play games. Preseason is fun; you wait for it forever, but after a week of a couple of practices a day, it can get old pretty quickly. I know once the games start coming around the girls will enjoy it a whole bunch more."

The Jaguars got their first taste of match action last Friday in a friendly vs. Jacksonville State. USA received goals from freshmen Chardé Hannah (Tupelo, Miss.) and Rio Hardy (Workington, England) and outshot the Gamecocks 16-10 in a 2-1 victory.

"I learned that I see a lot of potential," Winkworth said. "I see that we've got talent, but we've got to learn to play as a team and not individuals, but that's going to take time and work. We played a lot of young players in that game so we've got time on our side, but we've got a lot of work to do. At times in the exhibition game we looked solid defensively. We've got goals in the team as well, we just have to get used to playing together. If we can come together and defend as a team and attack as a team, we can be quite dangerous."

Not only did Hardy and Hannah find the back of the net, they also assisted on each other's goals. Hannah started the scoring in the 14th minute, and after JSU equalized at the 64:16 mark, Hardy put the Jags on top for good just 4 ½ minutes later.

"They did a good job," Winkworth said of the two newcomers. "What goes unnoticed is Tiina (Trutsi) (Tallinn, Estonia) assisted the assist on both goals. She won the ball in the midfield for the first one, passed it off to Rio who set up Chardé. She played a great through-ball for Chardé on the second one, who played it off to Rio.

"I thought Jordan (Duncan) (Bay St. Louis, Miss.) and Alyssa Pejic (Pensacola, Fla.) came off the bench and gave us good minutes as well in the attacking part of the field. The combinations between the two were excellent and if it wasn't for some finishing they could have been on the scoresheet as well."

South Alabama will be looking for a measure of revenge this weekend after going winless against the two schools last year. USA dropped a 3-2 decision in Birmingham last season after falling behind 3-0 in the first 30 minutes, and tied the Colonels 1-1 on a late Clarissa Hernandez free kick.

"I know we didn't beat either one of them last season so they're both going to be really good," Winkworth said. "They both return the vast majority of their squads so they're much more experienced than we are. Nicholls were a very aggressive team last season, so we've got be ready to play that and play a little bit quicker.

"Most of these girls don't know anything about our opponents. That can be an advantage or a disadvantage, depending on how you look at it. We're going to look at it from an advantage standpoint and treat everyone with respect. UAB and Nicholls State are both well-coached, quality teams; we're a quality side as well, we just have to get used to playing together."

For more information about South Alabama athletics, check back with www.usajaguars.com, and follow the Jaguars at www.twitter.com/USAJaguarSports. Season tickets for all Jaguar athletic events can be purchased by calling (251) 461-1USA (1872).

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