THE COACHES
South Alabama
Richard Moodie (Carson-Newman. 2006)
Record at USA: 46-22-5 (4th Year)
Overall Record: 94-61-12 (9th Year)

Little Rock
Mark Foster (Trevecca Nazarene. 2008)
Record at LR: 22-18-12 (3rd Year)
Overall Record: 61-45-12 (7th Year)

After clinching the one seed in the Sun Belt East Division and earning a first-round bye, the University of South Alabama soccer team aims to add another tournament championship to the record books beginning with a quarterfinal match Wednesday at Foley Sports Tourism Complex in Foley, Ala.

With COVID affecting all of NCAA athletics, this will be the first year since the inaugural season for women's soccer in the Sun Belt (2000) that all members will participate in the post-season tournament but the key difference is the first year there were only eight members. The bracket was divided so the initial set of games feature cross-bracket matches. On day one of the tournament, Monday, three east-versus-west matches were played to determine three of four opponents on match day two of the tournament.

Little Rock advanced from the initial round, by a final score of 2-1, over Georgia Southern and will be South's opponent for the quarterfinal round. USA has won four of the last five against the Trojans with one match taking place in Foley, Ala., during the Sun Belt Tournament in 2017. The team based out of the capitol city of Arkansas finished fourth in the west with 11 points on the league table. The Trojans marched to three wins, three losses with a couple of draws and were a single point behind Texas State in the standings.

NOTES
- COVID guidelines will be in place at Foley Sports Tourism Complex requiring all people not directly involved in the match to socially distance and wear masks per the Sun Belt Conference and Alabama state mandate.
- Per the Sun Belt Conference, fans will not have access to the team(s) prior to or after the match. Fans are not to have access to the field during the championship ceremony. The conference office will set up a designated viewing area for the ceremony.
- Spectators will be encouraged to spread out along the grass areas throughout the venue as well as the bleachers and will be allowed to bring in their own chairs for seating along the perimeter of the field.
- Select prepackaged concessions will be available at the venue, and the only time when face coverings are permitted to be removed is while eating or drinking.
- The offensive prowess has been on display for the Jaguars this year as USA leads the Sun Belt in goals (23), goals-per-game (2.06), points (70) and assists (24).
- Defensively, South is third in the Sun Belt with five clean sheets.
- Freshmen Anita Gudmundsdottir and Kailey Littleford became the first pair of freshman from the same school to win players of the week in Sun Belt history. The Sun Belt expanded to include an offensive and defensive selection in 2012.
- Five Jaguars rank in the top 10 for points in the conference. In descending order junior Brenna McPartlan is second with 15, followed by Morgan Cross, Gracie Wilson, Ana Helmert and Littleford.
- McPartlan, Cross and Wilson are also represented on the points-per-game but are joined by graduate-student Athanasia Moraitou (seventh).
- Moraitou leads in assists-per-game with a 0.57 average. McPartlan is directly following with 0.45, and Cross is tied for third with 0.40.
- The Greek international has missed matches at South Alabama for matches with the Hellenic Football Federation organized national team, but will be available for this year's tournament following the most recent international match in the European Championships (1-0 victory over Montenegro).
- Six Jags are listed on the SBC assists category with senior Deanna Green, junior Tilly Wilkes and Littleford join McPartlan (tied first), Moraitou and Cross (tied third).
- Freshman Morgan White made her first pair of starts in the final two regular season playing a total of 118 minutes over the weekend.
- Four Jaguars have eclipsed the 1,000-minute mark for the 11-game season. McPartlan leads the club with 1,040 with Wilson (1,024), Wilkes (1,015) and Flury (1,007) close behind. Gudmundsdottir is the closest to joining the aforementioned four (932).
- The goalkeeper out of Kopavogur, Iceland has collected her fifth clean sheet and is on a 277-minute shutout streak after her 10th consecutive start.

THEY SAID IT
Head Coach Richard Moodie
- On the team performances to close the regular season: "As a coach you always want more and want the team to maximize the potential. If you look at complete performances, we had them with a good offense and were defensively sound. In the last three games, we have scored seven and conceded none, and that is where you want to be. There is always room for improvement, and we'll ask ourselves can we do things a bit better during the game and control the game a bit more. I think that we will come back this week and push them to work hard to get better and learn. I am grateful we have a coaching staff that is like that as well."

- On the week of preparation: "I always love this week because it gives us a chance to recycle or circle back around to see the area of concern where we need to get better. I think that now this week gives us a chance to get injured players healthy and players a bit of match fitness. As a group entirely, it gives us the chance to reemphasize the way we play and how we play. You go into tournament mode, you can't ever cater your team to the opposition; there are completely different styles of play and teams that we have not seen this year, so we will focus on us and get some players back."
 
For more information about South Alabama athletics, check back with www.usajaguars.com, and follow the Jaguars at www.twitter.com/WeAreSouth_JAGS. Season tickets for all Jaguar athletic events can be purchased by calling (251) 461-1USA (1872).

Join the Upper 90 Club, the soccer specific support club of the Jaguar Athletic Fund. All gifts to the Upper 90 Club go directly to support the South Alabama soccer program. For more information on how you can join visit: http://jaguarathleticfund.com/upper90