Jaguar Soccer Advances To Semifinals Of SBC Championships
Clarissa Hernandez scored both goals in the Jaguars 2-0 win over Georgia State. They advance to play #6 seeded Arkansas State Friday at 4pm. | usajaguars.com
The Sun Belt Championships began in San Marcos, Texas on Wednesday. South Alabama kicked off the tournament with a 2-0 win over Georgia State.
South Alabama (13-5-2, 3-2-1 SBC) is the second seeded team in the tournament and earned their first postseason win since 2005. They advance to Friday’s semifinals where they will face the #6 seeded Arkansas State Red Wolves after they upset the #3 seeded UL-Lafayette 2-1.
The match took place during some harsh weather. They opened the game with a strong wind at their back and used it to their advantage as they outshot the Panthers eight to two. Panther’s goalkeeper made three stops before Hernandez netted a goal.
Hernandez then doubled the Jaguar lead just five minutes into the second period when she netted freshman Nikki Shirtcliffe’s free kick.
GSU did not go down easy as they produced 13 of the match’s final 14 shots but the Jaguar defense and senior goalkeeper Melissa Drish turned them all away as the Jags earned their eighth shutout of the year.
Hernandez moves into eighth place all-time in career points at South Alabama with her fifth and sixth goals of the season. With 53 points, she is just one shy of seventh place.
Also, Hernandez, Jess Oram and Shelby Owen all move into a tie for second place in games played at USA as each of them have 81 games each.
The Jags will face Arkansas State on Friday at 4pm. They defeated the Red Wolves 2-0 in Jonesboro, Arkansas back on October 6.
In the other side of the bracket, #4 seeded Texas State defeated #5 Troy 2-1 in overtime and will face #1 seed Western Kentucky, who defeated #8 seed Arkansas-Little Rock 2-1.
USA Men’s Basketball Defeat Mobile In Exhibition Game
Head basketball coach Matt Graves coached his first game on the sidelines as USA’s head coach against Mobile in an exhibition game. | Photo by butler.edu.
The South Alabama Men’s Basketball team defeated the University of Mobile 65-55 in their exhibition game Tuesday night. The Jags held the Rams to 29.1% shooting for the game while Augustine Rubit recorded 18 points and 12 rebounds.
South Alabama’s defense held the Rams to 18.2% from outside the three-point line and forced 20 turnovers.
However the Jaguars first half was wasn’t much better for the Jags as they only scored 23 points while committing 24 turnovers with only six assists. Rubit scored 16 of his 18 points after halftime after an 0-for-4 effort from the floor in the first half. Rubit blocked four shots and went 6-of-7 from the foul line.
Freshman Ken “Juice” Williams added 13 points and two 3-pointers while coming down with six rebounds. Junior Mychal Ammons also came down with six rebounds while adding 12 points.
“I told the guys in the locker room after the game that I was really proud of their effort and if they continue to throw the ball all over the place like that I’m going to lose the rest of my hair,” head coach Matthew Graves said after the game. “It’s a learning experience for all of us and the thing I told them I was most proud about was the way they defended. Normally, when a team throws the ball all over the place, they don’t shoot a high percentage and they’re playing from 10, 12 points down. Right out of the gate I thought we did an excellent job of guarding them and making them take contested shots, so I was really pleased with our defensive effort tonight.”
“Walking up and down the side line it felt really good,” Graves said about his first game as a head coach. “It was a dream of mine to do that and making that dream become a reality. We have a great team and a great staff and it was a lot of fun tonight.”
The exhibition allowed the Jags to get some game-time experience in their new system. “It’s a new system, new time and I think we had four freshmen on the court at one time,” said Graves. “It’s a learning experience and I think what people can take from this is how good were going to be three games from now, five games from now, ten games from now. It’s going to be a growth process for this team.”
In the first half the Jags only hit 24% of their shots with 12 turnovers but they opened the second half with a 12-4 run to give USA the largest lead of the game. The Jags almost doubled their scoring in the second half as they hit 13-of-23 for a 56.5% clip.
The Rams ended the Jaguar’s threat to run away with the game with an 11-3 run to cut the Jaguar lead to 42-39 with 9:20 left in the game. Ammons hit two free throws to start a 6-0 run that ended up being a 13-2 run to put the game away.
USA blocked 10 shots as a team which included four from Rubit and two from Williams. Senior Antoine Allen was held out of the game for a violation of team rules.
South Alabama will open the season against Detroit on Friday. The game is scheduled for a 7:05pm tip.
Woodson To Undergo Surgery Today
Danny Woodson Jr. ends the season with 26 catches for 439 yards and four touchdowns. | usajaguars.com
Jaguar wide receiver Danny Woodson Jr is scheduled to have surgery today to repair his ruptured Achilles’ suffered near the end of the Jags game against Arkansas State.
Woodson’s injury typically has a six month recovery time.
The sophomore transfer from the University of Alabama was granted a waiver from the NCAA allowed him to play immediately for the Jags. He caught two passes for 54 yards against the Red Wolves including a 47-yard completion to put the Jags at the 2 yard line and gave him his third reception of over 40 yards in the last two games.
His season ends with 26 receptions for 439 yards and four touchdowns. He ranked fourth on the team in catches, third in receiving yards and second among those with 14 or more catches in yards per catch (16.9).
The previous week at Texas State, Woodson caught two touchdown passes of 42 and 43 yards to help the Jaguars rally back and take the lead in the fourth quarter.
The Jags will take three days off starting Thursday before returning to regular game-week preparation mode to prepare for their game at Navy on Saturday, November 16.
USA Women’s Soccer Opens SBC Championships At 10am
South Alabama women’s soccer team opens the SBC Championships at 10am in San Marcos Texas. The #2 seeded Jaguars will face the #7 seeded Georgia State Panthers in the opening match this morning.
Go Jags!!
Jags Land Four On All-SBC Team; Allison Named Offensive Player And Freshman Of The Year
The University of South Alabama women’s soccer team had four student-athletes named to the All-Sun Belt Conference at the 2013 Women’s Soccer Awards Banquet on Tuesday. Also Lauren Allison was named the Offensive Player of the Year and Freshman of the Year.
Allison along with senior midfielder Clarissa Hernandez were named to the First-Team All-SBC team. Senior defenders Jess Oram and Shelby Owen were named to the second team. This marks the first time a Jaguar player has earned postseason All-Conference since 2008 and four selections are the most for the Jags since 2002.
Allison becomes the first student-athlete in Sun Belt History to win both the Offensive Player of the Year and Freshman of the Year honors in the same season.
Allison, a Bicester, Oxfordshire, United Kingdom native, finished the regular season with 39 points which ranks fourth-most in South Alabama’s single-season history. She had 14 goals and 11 assists. She led the Sun Belt in goals, goals per game, assists, assists per game and game-winning goals. She was twice named Sun Belt Conference Player of the Week. She also ranks in the Top 25 in the NCAA in six offensive categories including points per game (5th), total points (8th), total assists (12th), assists per game (12th), total goals (19th) and goals per game (19th).
Hernandez was a 2013 preseason All-SBC selection and performed as expected. The senior recorded five goals and assists. Hernandez was named to the CoSIDA/Capital One Academic All-District for the third year in a row.
Oran and Owen were the anchors in the Jaguar defense for the fourth consecutive year. They combined to keep seven opponents scoreless. The three seniors, Oram, Owen and Hernandez, could set a new South Alabama record for games played if they can advance to the Championship Match of the 2013 SBC Championships which begin today in San Marcos, Texas.
“I am delighted that these girls have been recognized by the coaches in the league,” said Jaguar head coach Graham Winkworth. “It is a huge honor to be an all-conference player in what is a league full of talent.”
“I am delighted for our three seniors: Riz, Jess and Shelby,” he continued. “They have been wonderful leaders in this squad and their work ethic since my arrival has been truly unbelievable. I am also very excited for Lauren. I knew from when I was recruiting her she would provide us with an additional threat up top and I cannot speak highly enough of her work for this team.”
“One of the greatest things about all these girls is that they always put their team first,” Winkworth concluded. “This team has worked magic over the last 10 months moving from number seven to number two in the league, and I am so proud of every one of them. They have also improved over 80 places in the NCAA RPI ratings. This team can really hold their heads very high with all they have achieved.”
Monday Press Conference
Head coach Joey Jones met with the media on Monday to reflect on the Jaguars loss to Arkansas State. He was joined by quarterback Ross Metheny and defensive lineman Romelle Jones. Below are highlights from the press conference.
Coach Jones opened by talking about the team’s ability to move forward after so many tough losses. “I think that comes back to our leadership, the leadership on our team and our staff, and making sure they understand that whatever cards you’ve been dealt is in the past. Our players are learning a life lesson and I’m learning a life lesson, but you have to move on. How you compete when the going gets tough is how you find out about people. The one thing I’ve found out about this team and our staff is they are competing every minute of every day. You saw how we played the other night, if you looked at how we played the two-time Sun Belt champions, we were knocking them around. I thought we played a very good game but were a play or two short.”
“This program is getting better. I told our team we want to win, everybody knows that, but if you look at the whole picture we’re taking every team that we’re playing down to the wire. We have to find a way to close it out.”
Coach Jones addressed what he wants to work on during the teams bye week. “We always back off and work on fundamentals, any time you have extra time we want to clean those up. The game with Navy is not going to be a schematic game, it’s going to be a game about blocking and tackling, especially playing their offense. We are going to work hard on what they do, it’s totally different, but it still goes back to fundamentals.”
Jones then answered a question about another close loss serving as motivation. “I’ve answered that question about 40 times, all I know is we’re going to keep working and fighting, that’s the character of the people we have. Rather than it being such a negative, I think it can be a positive thing. Our guys have really worked their tails off to get to this point, people ought to know that.”
“Do we want to win? You’re right we want to win. But our guys have fought to get where they are, which is a tribute to them. You look at last year’s team and this year’s team, not taking anything away from last year’s team, and we’ve improved a bunch. We have to keep focusing on that. We’ve lost a couple of close games but we have to keep moving.”
Jones spoke about how disappointed he is for the student-athletes. “From my standpoint, I want the kids to be successful, that’s my main goal in all I do. Going into the season I don’t think anybody was expecting to win too many games, now that we have been so close on so many it’s what could’ve been. That hurts because I want them to be successful, but I told them yesterday that they’ve been successful to me because of how they have reacted. They could have given up a long time ago and let the previous game take away from that. That’s what’s great about this football team.”
Jones also answered a question about how hard it is to get the team to come back after the losses. “It’s hard, but that’s where leadership comes in. We can all do things when everything is going great and the ball bounces our way. The ball hasn’t bounced our way a few times this year, so what do you do? It comes back to leadership and learning that we have to come back and fight. It speaks volumes for our players for what they’ve done because they have done that.”
“You see a lot of teams experience defeat like that early and fall apart, so I think it has a lot to do with the character of our young men.”
The offensive representative was quarterback Ross Metheny. He began by talking about the focus of the team going into it’s final off week prior to the final four games of the season and the goals heading into those games. “The bye week is key for us to be able to regroup and get refreshed. Also, to put the past in the past and move forward. We’ve had some tough losses this season, Saturday’s especially, but we can’t change any of that, so we’ve just got to move forward and press on. I think this bye week will be good for us and comes at a good time. We’ll get ready and focused for Navy.”
Metheny answered a question about if the close losses this season have any affect on the way the team prepares for the final part of the season. “There’s no question that they’ve been tough. To have so many of them and so many in a row is frustrating, but again, I think that we’re the kind of team where there’s no quit in us. We’re going to come in each week, prepare and fight like we always do. You’re a crazy man if you think we aren’t going to put our heart and soul into these last four games and try to win them. We’re going to do as much as we can to prepare and fight and come out with some wins.”
Metheny then spoke about if it’s frustrating knowing that this team is better than last season, but not having the wins to show about it. “We’re still in the building process of where we are as a program. I feel that we can take some satisfaction out of the fact that we’re setting a pretty solid foundation for where we are as a program to build off of in the future. While we would have liked to have had a few more wins, we do feel confident in our ability and feel good about how we’ve been playing.”
Metheny answered a question about how much it takes out of them as players to have so many close losses. “It’s definitely taken an emotional toll. I don’t think that there’s anyone in this program who has experienced so many close losses, but then again, we can either sit here and focus on those or we can focus on how to finish, improve and keep moving on. We’re choosing to do that and put the past behind us and focus on next week.”
Defensive lineman Romelle Jones was the representative from the defense. He addressed a question about the focus of the team going into the final off week prior to the final four games of the season and the goals heading into those games. “Myself and some other guys do have some little injuries, so one of the biggest things that we’ll have during this off week will definitely be for us to get back healthy. Going into an off week is always tough, especially going into one after a loss, but it definitely gives us something to work on all week and it keeps us motivated to continue to practicing as hard as we’ve been practicing all year.”
Jones spoke about how the close losses this season have had any affect on the way the team prepares for the final part of the season. “With the type of guys that we have on this team, it doesn’t matter if we lose by one or win by 21, we’re still going to come out and prepare. That’s the type of leaders that we have on this team. The younger guys are only going to follow behind the things the leaders do on the team.”
Jones then addressed a question asking if it’s frustrating knowing that this team is better than last season, but not having the wins to show for it. “To be honest with you, it’s frustrating to take these kinds of losses. Any kind of loss is frustrating, but it’s even more frustrating when you’re that close and you can just taste it several times to only feel that it’s been pulled from right under your nose. We are tons better, looking at that gives us motivation and makes us want to work that much harder because I know we are only one or two plays from victories every week. If we can just continue to work hard next week, it shouldn’t be an issue.”
Jones then spoke about his return from the injury he suffered against Texas State, an MCL sprain, and if it provided any lift for the defense on Saturday. “I don’t know if it provided a lift for them, but for myself, going into a conference game, no matter how much pain I was in, unless there was some type of structural damage I was going to find myself out there on that field. I had to be there for my guys, even if it was just going to be for support. They definitely did respond well. We played a pretty good defensive game. We had some miscues here and there, but if we can just put it all together and play like that every week, we can definitely get some ‘W’s’ these last few weeks.”
South Alabama has Saturday off before traveling to face Navy on Saturday, November 16.
SBC Volleyball’s Daniel Earns 3rd SBC Freshman Of The Week Honor
Freshman Mechell Daniel was named Sun Belt Freshman of the Week for the third time this season. This is the fifth consecutive week a Jaguar has earned the honor. Photo by Brad Puckett | usajaguars.com
South Alabama’s Mechell Daniel was selected as the Sun Belt Conference’s Freshman of the Week for the third time this season. It also extends the Jaguars streak to five weeks in a row that a Jaguar has earned the Freshman of the Week honor and the seventh overall this year.
Daniel, a native of Chelmsford, England, led the team offensively with 29 kills in her two matches. She hit .329 and averaged 4.14 kills pr game and 4.86 points per set. She led the Jags with 27 digs and 3.86 digs per set while recording a double-double in both matches. Additionally, she had a pair of aces and five total blocks.
Her two double-doubles gives her 10 for the season with nine of them coming against Sun Belt teams.
Prior to this season, the South Alabama volleyball program only had six players chosen to receive a weekly award in the program’s history.
Daniel currently ranks third in the conference in kills (3.69) and points (4.25) and tied for fourth place in service aces (0.28).
The lady Jaguars will face conference rival Troy on Wednesday beginning at 7pm in Troy.
USA Men’s Basketball Open Season In Exhibition Against Mobile Tonight
The University of South Alabama Men’s Basketball team will take on the University of Mobile in an exhibition game this evening.
This will be head coach Matthew Graves first time on the sideline as the Jaguars head coach during a game.
This will be the beginning of the final seasons for seniors Augustine Rubit and Antoine Allen. Rubit was just named the Sun Belt Conference Preseason Player of the Year. He has a chance to become the University’s first four-time All-Sun Belt Conference honoree.
Tip-off is scheduled for 7:05pm at the Mitchell Center.
South Alabama Soccer Earns #2 Seed For SBC Championships
The University of South Alabama women’s soccer team earned a #2 seed for the 2013 Sun Belt Conference Women’s Soccer Championship that begin on November 6 in San Marcos, Texas.
The Jags finished the season 12-5-2 overall and 5-2-1 in Sun Belt play. Regular season champ Western Kentucky finished the season with an 8-5-5 record overall and 6-2-0 record in Sun Belt play. WKU won the regular season with 18 points with the Jags finishing second with 16 points in a tie with third place UL-Lafayette but by virtue of winning their head-to-heat matchup, USA won the tiebreaker.
Additionally the Tournament Schedule was released and can be seen below. The Jags will open Tournament play against 7th seeded Georgia State (6-9-1, 4-4-0 SBC) at 10am on Wednesday, November 6. The Championship game will be held on 1pm on Sunday, November 10 and will be broadcast live on the Sun Belt Network.
2013 Sun Belt Conference Soccer Tournament Seeds
1. WKU (8-5-5, 6-2-0 SBC [18 pts])
2. South Alabama (12-5-2, 5-2-1 SBC [16 pts])
3. UL-Lafayette (8-6-3, 5-2-1 SBC [16 pts])
4. Texas State (7-8-2, 4-3-1 SBC [13 pts])
5. Troy (8-9-1, 4-3-1 SBC [13 pts])
6. Arkansas State (9-7-2, 4-4-0 SBC [12 pts])
7. Georgia State (6-9-1, 4-4-0 SBC [12 pts])
8. UALR (4-13-0, 1-7-0 SBC [3 pts])
2013 Sun Belt Conference Soccer Tournament Schedule of Events
Wednesday, November 6
MATCH 1 – 10 a.m. CT – No. 7 Georgia State vs. No. 2 South Alabama
MATCH 2 – 1 p.m. CT – No. 6 Arkansas State vs. No. 3 UL-Lafayette
MATCH 3 – 4 p.m. CT – No. 8 UALR vs. No. 1 WKU
MATCH 4 – 7 p.m. CT – No. 5 Troy vs. No. 4 Texas State
Friday, November 8
MATCH 5 – 4 p.m. CT – Game 1 Winner vs. Game 2 Winner
MATCH 6 – 7 p.m. CT – Game 3 Winner vs. Game 4 Winner
Championship Sunday, November 10
MATCH 7 – 1 p.m. CT – Game 5 Winner vs. Game 6 Winner (Broadcast Live on Sun Belt Network)
All times central
Jags Lose Woodson For Season
South Alabama’s season just got a bit tougher. One of the Jags big play receivers, Danny Woodson Jr, will miss the remainder of the season with a ruptured Achilles suffered in the Jags 17-16 loss on Saturday.
Woodson transferred to South Alabama from the University of Alabama in May and applied for a waiver to play immediately, which was granted.
On the second to last series for the Jaguars, he was playing away from the ball and had to come to the sideline in apparent pain.
His big play ability will be missed by the Jaguars offense. Against Texas State he scored on touchdown receptions of 42 and 43 yards as the Jags came back to take the lead, but were eventually defeated by a field goal with four seconds remaining.
Woodson is the Jaguars fourth-leading receiver with 26 receptions for 409 yards and four touchdowns. He is the third leading scorer with 24 points. However his threat as a downfield receiver cannot be measured. When Texas State attempted to cover him in man-to-man, Woodson made them pay with five receptions for 118 yards and two touchdowns. But when he does pull double-coverage it has opened Shavarez Smith and other receivers to draw one-on-one coverage for some big play opportunities.
The coaches will have two weeks to work on their offensive plan without Woodson as they get ready for the home stretch of their season. With four games remaining, the Jags will host the top two teams in the Sun Belt in Louisiana-Lafayette and Louisiana-Monroe with a trip to Atlanta to play the last place team in the conference, Georgia State, sandwiched in between. But before those final three conference games, the Jags will travel to Annapolis to face the Naval Academy who lost to Notre Dame 38-34 on Saturday.
University of Alabama quarterback A.J. McCarron tweeted his support to his hometown team.
S/O to South Alabama Fball team for a awesome year so far. I know there has been tough losses but stay to the grind & they will turn to W’s
— AJ McCarron (@10AJMcCarron) November 4, 2013
Achilles heel injuries typically requires about six months to heal. Former Jaguar linebacker Jake Johnson also suffered a ruptured Achilles on the same field back in January during his first practice session for the Senior Bowl.