Box Score
BATON ROUGE, La. – Six different University of South Alabama soccer players scored a goal, with the Jaguars getting five in the first half alone, to cruise to a 7-0 victory against Southern University Sunday at A.W. Mumford Stadium.

The two teams battled lengthy weather delays that caused the match to end nearly 4 ½ hours after it started.

USA won its second straight to move to 4-2; Southern fell to 0-5.

"It was a very team-oriented, professional performance," USA head coach Graham Winkworth said. "The first half, we started slowly; Southern sat back and we didn't move the ball quickly enough. But once we started to move the ball around a little bit quicker, we started creating more chances. The field was only 58 yards wide—which is very narrow—so there wasn't much space to play, but I thought the girls did a decent job moving the ball around and creating chances in the first half in particular."

Freshman Rio Hardy (Workington, England) scored a brace and added a pair of assists for the first six-point performance of her career.

"Rio was great," Winkworth said. "I recruited her to come in and score goals, but there's so much more to her game as well. She's a strong target player and it's the little things that she does in her game that doesn't get on the scoresheet or get recognition, so she brings that as well."

Freshmen Chardé Hannah (Tupelo, Miss.) and Chelsea Followwell (Sachse, Texas) had a goal and an assist each. Followwell's goal was the first of her career. Junior Nini Rabsatt-Smith (Montgomery, Ala.) had two assists and freshman Meagan O'Loughlin (Monroe, Ga.) also found the scoresheet for the first time late in the contest.

"That shows how good we are from a depth standpoint," Winkworth said. "We have a lot of quality; we're not a one-player team. When an opposing side is trying to scout us, who do they want to mark? You're going to have to mark everybody because we've got a pretty solid group, and that's not necessarily the players starting either; we have some quality coming off the bench. We emphasized that again today with scoring two more goals off the bench."

Hannah and freshman Danielle Henley (Hattiesburg, Miss.) gave USA a quick 2-0 after goals in the 13th and 14th minute, respectively.

South Alabama got another set of goals less than two minutes apart midway through the first half when Hardy and Followwell found the back of the net for a 4-0 advantage, and junior Jordan Duncan (Bay St. Louis, Miss.) made it 5-0 at the break.

USA held Southern to four shots overall as the defense picked up its fourth cleansheet of the season.

Freshmen Courtney Baum (Cumming, Ga.) and Lauren Steil (Huntsville, Ala.) combined on the shutout for USA. Steil made two saves.

"Our defense played very well," Winkworth noted. "I was happy for Lauren to get her first collegiate minutes and she made a couple of important saves at the end. I'm also very pleased that the team put the team before themselves. We were concerned about lightning in the area and were on our last attempt to get the game in. We decided to possess the ball for long periods of the game and not focus on trying to score a bunch of goals. That emphasizes that we've got players that put the team before their individual statistics, which is crucial, and shows the type of character we have."

South Alabama will complete its three-match road swing next weekend, starting Friday at Mississippi State.

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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