MOBILE, Ala. – Holders of a 4-0 record for the first time in school history, the University of South Alabama soccer team finally opens the home portion of its schedule Friday with the hosting of the Jaguar Classic.

USA will welcome South Florida, Austin Peay and Troy to The Cage for the two-day event featuring a pair of doubleheaders. APSU and Troy open play Friday at 4 p.m., followed by South Alabama and USF at 7 p.m. On Sunday, Troy and South Florida will start things off at 11 a.m. before South Alabama vs. Austin Peay at 2:30 p.m.

"We're excited and I know the girls are buzzing," USA head coach Graham Winkworth said about finally playing at home. "The new girls have never played in a home game here, even in an exhibition they don't know what it's like, so it should be a lot of fun. We're hoping for a big crowd against a very tough opponent."

Both South Alabama (4-0) and South Florida (3-0) are receiving votes in the most recent NSCAA top 25, and Troy enters the weekend with a 4-1 record, the lone loss coming to Alabama.

"South Florida isn't in one of the power five leagues, but if the power five was done based off of soccer, they'd be in one of the top leagues because they're one of the best teams in the country," Winkworth said. "We played them two years ago and they were very strong then. They have a lot of players that play for their respective countries, and at least one of their girls played in the World Cup this past summer.

"We know we're in for a massive challenge on Friday night, but we're excited to host both them and Austin Peay as well. Austin Peay had a couple of girls that played for Colombia and they've added a couple more this year. I don't know much about them but I'm excited to see them play Troy and hopefully we can have a good game against them Sunday."

The Jaguars outscored their opponents 8-0 in two wins last weekend, scoring a season-high seven goals against Tennessee-Martin. Seven different players found the net, giving the team a total of 10 goal scorers this season. Sophomore Chardé Hannah (Tupelo, Miss.) leads the team with three.

"One of the most pleasing things about us offensively is that we're so balanced in the fact that we're bringing goals from the back, the midfield and the forwards," Winkworth noted. "We have a lot of goal scorers this season, which is great; we're not relying on one or two players to score all the goals for us. When we can get a large number of players forward it makes us difficult to defend and prepare for. Hopefully we can continue that this weekend."

South Florida swept through the competition last weekend at the USF Tournament by a combined 8-0, defeating Long Island 5-0 and Mississippi State 3-0. Olivia Chance has already racked up 10 points on four goals and two assists.

The Bulls lead the series 2-0; both meetings came in Tampa, with the most recent in 2013 by the score of 1-0.

"I haven't seen them this year, but they were very good two years ago and played attractive football," Winkworth said. "They've got some very dynamic and intelligent players. They have a lot of players that have represented their countries at various levels. They score a lot of goals; they've scored more per game than even we have this season, and that's saying something. They're going to be a very difficult team to defend against and they haven't been letting in goals either. We're definitely in for a tough challenge on Friday."

Austin Peay has given up four or more goals in a game twice this year in losses to UAB (4-3) and Ole Miss (5-0), and defeated Chattanooga 1-0. Nicole Wojcik leads the team in both goals (two) and points (five).

The Jags have won three of the five meetings between the two schools, including the last two.

"I've known Coach (Kelley) Guth for a long time now and she always puts a quality side together," Winkworth said. "I haven't seen them play since I was at North Alabama many moons ago. I don't know too much about them at all; hopefully we can watch them play against Troy on Friday and learn a few things. I'm expecting some very good individuals on their team, and they've added at least one more Colombian to their roster. Some of the players from South America are very flamboyant, dynamic and can really cause teams problems. We're expecting another tough opponent on Sunday and hopefully we can get another positive result."

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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