SAN MARCOS, Texas – Sun Belt Conference play kickoffs Thursday night as the top two teams in the women's soccer coaches' preseason poll faceoff Thursday night. Texas State (4-3-1) hosts South Alabama (5-2-1) at the Bobcat Soccer Complex for a 7 p.m. match.
 
Live stats will be available for the contest while there won't be a video stream. Admission, as it is for all home matches, is free.
 
Last Weekend: The Bobcats dropped both contests by 1-0 scores. They fell on the road to Northwestern State on Friday before seeing their nine-match home unbeaten streak come to an end on Sunday against McNeese.
 
Renny Moore paced TXST with a combined five shots in the two matches. Against the Cowgirls, Mackenzie Smith tied her career-highs with four shots and three shots on goal.
 
Between the posts, Heather Martin played the first half of each contest and ended the weekend with two saves and one goal allowed. Kathryn Budde also surrendered a goal while making one stop.
 
Scouting South Alabama: The Jaguars are coming off a 1-1 weekend in which they fell at Mississippi State (1-0) on Friday before defeating Ole Miss 2-1 Sunday afternoon. Others wins this year have been against Jackson State, Stetson, Southeastern Louisiana and UAB while the lone draw was the season opener against Tennessee Tech.
 
Briana Morris leads the team and the conference with eight goals and 17 points. The senior has taken 18 shots and placed 11 of them on goal. Coming in with three goals apiece are Ana Helmert, Chloe McGlade and Brenna McPartlan, who has seen two of her tallies come from the penalty spot. Both Fanney Einarsdottir and Moa Ohman have netted two goals each.
 
Justice Stanford has started all eight matches in goal and comes into the contest with a 0.91 GAA having allowed seven goals. She also sports a .767 save percentage with 23 stops.
 
All-Time vs. Jaguars: USA leads the all-time series 5-1-2. Last year saw Texas State claim its' first-ever win against the Jaguars with a 1-0 victory on Sept. 23 in Mobile, Alabama. Kaylee Davis scored the lone goal in the 10th minute. Martin also recorded 10 saves with seven coming in the second half. The teams played to a 1-1 draw in the Sun Belt Tournament semifinals with the Bobcats dispatching USA 4-2 on penalty kicks.
 
Only twice before have the programs played in San Marcos with the Jaguars winning both times. The last meeting was on Oct. 22, 2017 and saw USA win 2-0.
 
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