MOBILE, Ala. – After a four-match road trip, the University of South Alabama soccer team will host its first home game in over three weeks when the Jaguars welcome Appalachian State and Texas State to The Cage this weekend.

Friday's contest against the Mountaineers will commence at 7 p.m., and Sunday's tilt vs. the Bobcats will start at 1 p.m. Live stats will be available for both games.

The Jags are 3-0 in Sun Belt Conference play – 9-2-1 overall – for the first time in school history after three straight one-goal road wins, with the last two coming in double overtime. Friday's game will be the first at home since a 1-1 tie with Marquette on Sept. 17.

"There's been a lot of travel all season long and I think the girls have done a fantastic job adjusting to it and keeping their studies up," USA head coach Graham Winkworth said. "For us to be 3-0 and all of those games on the road puts us in a good position right now."

The last two wins – a 2-1 decision at Louisiana-Lafayette and a 3-2 victory at Louisiana-Monroe – came after equalizing goals by the opposition in the final eight minutes of regulation. Despite being forced to play consecutive double-overtime games for the first time since 2004, golden goals from sophomore Rio Hardy (Workington, England) and freshman Jemma Purfield (Cottingham, England) extended the program's conference win streak to nine dating back to last year.

"It shows that we have a lot of character, and it shows that we have a good level of fitness since we played almost 40 extra minutes last weekend," Winkworth noted. "It shows immense character when the momentum swings and the fans are cheering for their team and we've conceded a late goal. It shows tremendous character for the girls to dig their heels in and get a result, and fortunately on both occasions we managed to do that."

Last weekend the Jaguars attempted 57 shots – the most over a two-game stretch all season – but only 22 found the target. South Alabama leads the Sun Belt with 17.92 shots per game.

"It is an area of the game that we have to focus on this week," Winkworth said. "We have to focus on being more switched on in both penalty areas. Our shot percentage was very poor against Louisiana-Lafayette and wasn't much better against Louisiana-Monroe, and that's an area we've been good in the past. What I want to look at is the positive side of things, in that we're creating lots of chances. Somebody is going to be on the end of a very good South Alabama result very soon, because we are creating lots of chances, and as soon as it clicks for our players in front of goal, it will be good for us. With the chances that we're creating, we're going to score a lot of goals in the coming weeks."

Appalachian State (6-3-3, 2-0-1) is unbeaten in its last four matches (2-0-2) and is coming off a 5-0 home win over Texas State. The five goals are the Mountaineers most this season and matched their total in the previous seven games combined.

"They got a very nice result over Texas State and they're a very good team," Winkworth said. "Boone is a very difficult place to play games – it's often raining and they play on a turf field, which is very different to grass – so it's hard to go up there and get a win, as we found out last year. I think Texas State probably struggled to adapt to the playing environment, but all credit to Appalachian State, they did the job extremely well. They are a very good team and have some good results this season, so we look forward to hosting them on Friday."

Sunday's loss at Appalachian State snapped a seven-game win streak for Texas State (8-3, 2-1). During their streak, the Bobcats scored multiple goals in each contest, including three or more four times. They are the third-highest scoring team in the league with 2.09 goals per game, led by Lauren Prater (1.64) and Lynsey Curry (1.27), who rank second and fifth in points per match in the Sun Belt. Prater leads the league with 0.73 goals per game.

"Obviously the Troy weekend is extremely tough for us because of their rankings, but potentially this is the toughest weekend we've had so far this season," Winkworth said. "We've not just one good team coming in to town, we have two very good teams coming in that we've got to show a lot of respect to, and we have to prepare for them in a very professional manner. Hopefully we can grind out a couple more results."

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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