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BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – University of South Alabama sophomore Chardé Hannah (Tupelo, Miss.) scored the final two goals of the match to lead the Jaguars to a 3-2 come-from-behind victory at Samford Sunday evening at the Samford Track and Soccer Stadium.

The Jags rallied twice from 1-0 and 2-1 deficits to keep their 20-game regular-season streak alive and improve to 2-0 on the season while the Bulldogs drop to 1-1.

"I thought we started extremely slowly and I was disappointed in the first half hour," USA head coach Graham Winkworth said. "We made a couple of changes toward the end of the first half—Danielle (Henley) and Emily (Farrell)—and they really helped us out. They started helping us control possession a little more, which is something we were struggling with in the first half.

"I don't think we've seen the best of South Alabama soccer yet this season, so to pick up two results on the road like that this opening weekend, I couldn't be happier from that standpoint. Today's result is big because Samford will be in the top 100 at the end of the season."

Hannah recorded her first and second goals of the season, and the final one 11 minutes from time provided the final margin of victory. Senior Jordan Duncan (Bay St. Louis, Miss.) assisted on two goals and sophomore Chelsea Followwell (Sachse, Texas) scored the Jaguars' opener.

"We worked hard on team chemistry and we've talked about handling adversity," Winkworth said. "I was pleased with the workrate in the second half. We could've stopped when we went 2-1 down because we went down twice, so to come back on two different occasions and go on to win the game, speaks highly of the girls' character."

Duncan found Hannah with a through-ball in the center of the Samford defense and Hannah poked it past the goalkeeper at the 70:34 mark to knot the game at 2-2. Sophomore Ashlynn Jones (Pickerington, Ohio) fed Hannah on the match winner, chasing down a pass from junior Nikki Shirtcliffe (Burnley, England) and crossing to Hannah at the six-yard box who one-timed it home.

"Chardé's going to continue to try and score goals for us," Winkworth said. "She had a very disappointing first half; I've got extremely high standards for her. I talked with her at halftime about her performance and I'm very happy with the way she responded. She defended a lot harder in the second half and she worked harder to be the first person to reach the ball, and was rewarded because of it. She's got to continue to make sure she starts games as well as she finished tonight."

Samford's Malcanisha Kelley opened the scoring in the 35th minute, but a cross from Duncan found the head of Followwell at 42:22 and the teams went into the halftime break tied at 1-1.

"That's one of the most athletic teams we'll play against; they've got some very good athletes on that squad," Winkworth said. "Similar to the Mississippi State game, we got caught up in trying to match them athletically but we're not as athletic. Once we started making those changes, we controlled possession a little bit more. Jordan put some good pressure on in the final third, put in a nice cross and Chelsea equalized. Even though we outshot them in the first half, I thought we were fortunate to come in 1-1. I was happy about the score considering our performance."

It took Kelley 3½ minutes after intermission to give the Bulldogs the lead again, splitting three USA defenders and beating the netminder just inside the penalty area.

"I thought we started the second half quite well; we were unfortunate to go 2-1 down," noted Winkworth. "Kelley is extremely fast and athletic, and we did not take care of her defensively very well. She put them 2-1 up which I thought was unlucky for us, but we made some changes, were very brave from a formation standpoint, attacked them with a lot of forwards and equalized."

Sophomore Courtney Baum (Cumming, Ga.), in her first start since Sept. 14, 2014, made two saves and permitted both goals. Samford's Katie Peters had three saves and allowed one goal in the first half, and Anna Maddox had two saves and two goals allowed in the second.

The Jaguars stay in state next weekend, traveling to Troy for the Trojan Classic Friday and Sunday. USA will face Louisiana Tech in the opener.

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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