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JACKSONVILLE – The Jacksonville State soccer team will usher in the 2015-16 athletic year this weekend, hosting Ball State on Friday and taking on Gardner-Webb on Sunday.

The Gamecocks and Cardinals will kick off at 7 p.m. on Friday, while Sunday's contest with the Runnin' Bulldogs of GWU is set for 1 p.m. Both contests will be at the JSU Soccer Field and admission is free to all JSU Soccer matches.  Friday's match with BSU will be available on the OVC Digital Network.

Jax State, who opens its 20^th season of soccer, played a pair of exhibition matches last weekend against two in-state foes in UAB and South Alabama.  The Gamecocks dropped both matches, but third-year head coach Neil Macdonald saw many positives out of both matches as his club looks to build on last season's 11-10-1 overall mark and a run to the Ohio Valley Conference Championship match.

Macdonald has the top-two scorers from 2014 with seniors Kelsey Bright and Courtney Hurt.  The combo combined for 23 of the 54 goals the Gamecocks turned in last season.  Bright, from Kingwood, Texas, paced Jax State with 13 goals.  Hurt finished the season with 10 goals and a team-best eight assists.  Senior Brianna Boutziouvis returns for her final season as an offensive threat along with junior Mackenzie Bellows.

Defensively, JSU's defensive backline will be bolstered by seniors Olivia Drapes and Katt Dowd.  Drapes and Dowd played key roles in the Gamecocks' five shutouts.  JSU has all three goalkeepers returning from last season, led by sophomore Caroline Robinson, who came on late last season in goal.  Robinson led the squad with 71 saves and earned a spot on the 2014 OVC All-Tournament Team.

BSU went 11-7-2 last season, finished second in the Mid-American Conference West Division and reached the semifinals of the MAC Tournament. The Cardinals defeated IUPUI, 3-0, last week in their lone exhibition game.

JSU and BSU met last season in Muncie, Indiana with the Cardinals claiming a 3-1 result. 

GWU will open the season at Troy on Friday evening before making the trip to Northeast Alabama.  The Runnin' Bulldogs finished the 2014 campaign with an 8-10-2 overall mark.  Last season, JSU blanked GWU 1-0 in Boiling Springs, North Carolina. 

Following the opening weekend of the season, the Gamecocks hit the road to Tennessee to face Middle Tennessee State and Lipscomb to close out the month of August.