MOBILE, Ala. – Holders of a 6-2-1 record, the University of South Alabama soccer team turns its attention to the Sun Belt Conference portion of its schedule when the Jaguars travel to Troy for a Friday night contest.

Kickoff is set for 7 p.m. at the Troy Soccer Complex. Subscribers to South Alabama All-Access can watch online on JagNationTV.com.

"We put a lot more emphasis on our non-conference play this year than ever before because of the schedule we set," USA head coach Graham Winkworth said. "We have the ambition to make the NCAA Tournament again and we wanted to be in a position from an RPI standpoint to compete for that and we've gotten ourselves in a strong place right now. But that part of the season is over and we're looking forward to playing what will be a tough conference season as only two teams have a losing record.

"It's a shame we start the conference season with such a big game, because it would have been nice to play a rivalry game a little bit later in the year, but it's just the way the schedule has panned out. We're excited to get going and we're looking forward to what I'm sure will be a lively atmosphere and entertaining game at Troy."

The start of the league season comes on the heels of the most challenging non-conference schedule in many years, with two top-25 RPI opponents (South Florida and Auburn) and two more in the top 100.

"I think we're more prepared this year than we have been the last two years going into the conference season," Winkworth stated. "We're going to need to be because the level of competition is higher than ever before. One result doesn't define the season, as we've said all season long, but getting consistent performances and results playing teams like Marquette, Auburn, South Florida and Samford are certainly great preparation for the business part of the season."

The Jaguars are coming off a 4-0 win Sunday against Southern Miss, which saw sophomore Ashlynn Jones (Pickerington, Ohio) record the team's first hat trick of the season. The four-goal outburst is the second-most scored in a game this season.

"We were creating chances and probably could've scored more than that," Winkworth noted. "I was happy with how the team played offensively. We need to continue to work on our movement off the ball this week and beyond, but I was happy we were starting to create more chances, and doing it in a way that was attractive to watch."

Friday will mark the clash of the top two teams in the final regular-season standings of 2014 and the 2015 preseason poll, as well as a rematch of the 2014 Sun Belt Tournament championship game. Troy sits atop the Sun Belt standings with a 7-2 record and has won six of its last seven games.

"Troy are a well-coached team and played two good games against us last season, but the conference isn't going to get decided Friday night," Winkworth said. "We have another eight games beyond that and we have to show respect to all of our opponents. Any one of the other nine teams in the league are capable of beating us, so we'll show a lot of respect to Troy Friday night. The league will be decided later on in the year when we, and everybody else, have had a chance to play many more games."

The league's toughest defensive team, Troy paces the SBC with a 0.67 goals against average and has allowed just six goals all season with four shutouts.

Chelsey Williams leads the team with four goals, while Alissa Jones and Brooke McKee have three apiece.

"They're very well organized – last year they showed they're very difficult to score goals against. They're very good defensively, but they have some very special offensive players too, like Jones and Williams to name a few."

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).

—USA—