MOBILE, Ala. – The University of South Alabama soccer team will look to get a pair of results this weekend after splitting the first four contests of the year when the Jaguars host Southern Miss Friday and travel to Southern on Sunday.

Kickoff Friday will be 7 p.m. at The Cage. Sunday's contest is scheduled to start at 1 p.m.

Friday's tilt is the only home contest in a span of six matches. The clash with Southern will start a three-match road swing.

"Just getting home Sunday and seeing our facility again made me feel good," USA head coach Graham Winkworth said. "I was obviously disappointed after a defeat, but it really does feel like home coming back to The Cage. I look forward to getting to training this week and getting back on our field and playing on it again. Troy has a lovely facility too but it is exciting to get back on our pitch. I'm excited and I know the girls are too."

South Alabama went 1-1 at the Trojan Classic last weekend, getting a dominating 5-0 victory over Tennessee Tech behind junior Jordan Duncan's (Bay St. Louis, Miss.) hat-trick before falling 2-1 to Kennesaw State on a goal in the last 10 minutes.

"The last result is the one that sticks in your mind so right now I'm feeling a little disappointed," said Winkworth. "Overall I'm pretty happy with the team. We put together a good game on Friday night and played extremely well as a squad. On Sunday we battled and battled but showed some naivety on both ends of the field. We've made a couple of errors at the back that have cost us dearly, and on the other end, we've lacked ideas a little bit against a well-organized opponent where I felt we should have been a little more patient with our play.

"All in all, I'm pretty happy with where we are. Over 60 percent of the squad are freshmen, so for us to be 2-2 against four quality opponents at this stage of the season is encouraging. Putting together two positive results together in the same weekend is our next goal."

The weekend in Troy mirrored the opening weekend of the season where the Jags fell on a last-second goal by UAB, then turned it around and allowed no shots on goal in a 3-0 win vs. Nicholls State.

"We've played well in two games to win those two, but in the other two, it's not like we've been outplayed," noted Winkworth. "We've been ahead in both games and we've lost in the last seconds or last few minutes. We're close, we just have to be able to focus on sustaining that lead. We don't necessarily need to be in all-out-attack mode, trying to double and triple it, we need to make sure we can hold that lead and not concede silly goals and lose games. That's part of having a more experienced team; the more we get used to playing at this level, hopefully we can become a little more mature, in a way, to protect leads."

Duncan recorded the first Jaguar hat-trick of the season and added an assist for the first seven-point outing by a USA player in almost a year. It was the first multi-goal performance in her career, and her team-leading point total of eight is already over halfway to her points output last season (14).

"Jordan did very well," Winkworth said. "She's a very powerful player and when she goes in off the bench and the defenders have been worn out for awhile, she can cause some real problems because she's full of energy and strong. When she went in against defenders that were tired, she did well to finish and help create the other chance as well. I was really proud of her."

Southern Miss is also 2-2 on the year and is coming off a 2-1 overtime road defeat at the hands of Mississippi State. South Alabama has won the last three meetings, including a 3-2 win in extra time last year, and lead the series 8-4. The Golden Eagles are led by a pair of familiar faces: head coach Mohammed El-Zare, a former USA assistant, and assistant coach Jess Oram, a member of last season's Sun Belt Conference championship team.

"They have a lot of experience with eight starters back from last year," Winkworth said. "Last year I thought we were very fortunate to get the victory. I thought they outplayed us for large parts of the game. They play a very attractive style of soccer which I have a lot of respect for. They try and move the ball around on the ground, which should make for a very entertaining game. They're great people from a coaching standpoint and I look forward to having them into town."

Southern, which compiled an 8-9-2 record last season and won the SWAC Western Division, is 0-3 entering the weekend and has been outscored 13-0. South Alabama won last year's meeting 8-0 in Mobile.

"I have a lot of respect for their coach, Courtnie Prather," Winkworth said. "She's a lovely lady and took the job there at a similar time that I did here, so she's still going through the changes of bringing in her own players and getting them settled in. Although they took a bit of a heavy defeat to us last year, they did show signs of improvement from the year before. I don't know much about them so far this season, if they continue the trend that they showed last season, they'll continue to be a force in the SWAC."

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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