“This year’s preseason schedule is more competitively balanced,” Keshock said.  “Each tournament we play in will be very competitive and will mimic our conference schedule.  With this schedule you have to come prepared to play each time you step on the court.”

South Alabama will be tested right out of the gates when it travels to Hattiesburg, Miss., to compete at the Southern Miss Invitational Aug. 27-28.  USA will open up the tournament against the host Golden Eagles – which finished with a 27-4 record a season ago and captured the Conference USA regular season crown.  The Jags will close out the tournament with matches against Kennesaw State and Nicholls State the following day. 

After the USM tournament, USA will come home to host the Jaguar Classic (Sept. 2-4).  The Jaguars will open up the tournament with a single match against regional rival Southeastern Louisiana (Sept.2).  On day two of the tourney, USA will take on a pair of Southwestern Athletic Conference members - Alabama A&M and Alabama State – before closing out the home tournament against Big South member UNC-Asheville.  Last season, Alabama A&M recorded a perfect 8-0 mark in the SWAC en route to capturing the Eastern Division crown.

Following the Jaguar Classic, South Alabama will head back out on the road and begin a three week road swing at the Nicholls Tournament (Sept. 10-11).  At the Colonel tourney, USA will take on NSU, Southern and Arkansas-Pine Bluff.  The Jags will then step out of tournament-play three days later when they travel to Hammond, La., for a midweek match against Southeastern Louisiana on Sept. 14. 

From there, South Alabama will continue its road trip and head to the Springhill Suites Invitational hosted by Georgia Southern (Sept. 16-18) to compete in its final tournament of the fall.   The field at the Eagle tournament should definitely help the Jags prepare to step into Sun Belt Conference action as three of the four teams that USA is slated to face had at least 17 wins or more during the 2009 campaign.  South Alabama will open up competition versus GSU – a 21-match winner a season ago – on Sept. 16, before taking on Big South member Winthrop and Atlantic Sun foe East Tennessee State the following day.  USA will close out the tourney Sept. 18 against another team from the Big South, Charleston Southern.

South Alabama will begin the 2010 Sun Belt portion of its schedule the following weekend with road contests at Louisiana-Monroe (Sept. 24) and at Louisiana-Lafayette (Sept. 26).  ULM will be under the direction of first-year head coach Ernest Vasquez.

The Jags finally come off the long road swing at the beginning of October when they host UALR (Oct. 1) and SBC West Division champ Arkansas State (Oct. 3).  During the month, USA will play six of its nine matches at Jag Gym as the Jags will host Western Kentucky (Oct. 8), Middle Tennessee (Oct. 10), Florida International (Oct. 29) and Florida Atlantic (Oct. 31).  The three road matches during the month will come at Troy on Oct. 15, at Denver on Oct. 22 and at North Texas on Oct. 24.   Like the Warhawks, UNT will also be under the direction of a new head coach as Ken Murzcek takes over the reins in Denton.

USA will open November with its final home contest of the season on Nov. 2 when it host Troy.  Following the match versus the Trojans, the Jags will close out the regular season with a difficult four-match road swing, beginning with Middle Tennessee on Nov. 5.  The Blue Raiders have captured three of the past four Sun Belt tournament championships, including picking up a 3-1 victory over FIU last season in the title match.  MTSU will also host this year’s tournament scheduled for Nov. 18-20.  USA’s other three road matches during November will be at WKU (Nov. 6), at FAU (Nov. 12) and at FIU (Nov. 13).  The Golden Panthers have won the past two East Division titles and finished with a 32-4 mark and a perfect 17-0 record in the league in 2009.

For more information about South Alabama athletics, check back with www.usajaguars.com.  Season tickets for all Jaguar athletic events can be purchased by calling (251) 461-1USA (1872).

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