JACKSONVILLE – The final regular season road trip will take the Jacksonville State soccer team to Virginia and Florida this week.

The first leg of the trip will be in Lynchburg, Virginia to face Liberty on Thursday night before heading down to Miami, Florida for a Sunday contest with Florida International. The match with the Flames is set for 5 p.m. CT, while Sunday's contest with the Panthers will a 10 a.m. start time. Both matches will be carried on ESPN+.

The Gamecocks are down to the final three matches of the regular season with their sights set on one of the six spots in the 2023 Conference USA Soccer Championship in November. Jax State enters the week level overall at 6-6-2 and 1-2-2 in CUSA action and stands in tie for fifth place in the league standing heading into the LU and FIU outings. The Gamecocks will conclude the regular season on Sunday, October 22 against Middle Tennessee at the Jax State Soccer Complex before being idle on the final weekend of the regular season.

Jax State and LU, new members of CUSA and former foes in the ASUN, will be meeting for the third time when the ball is kicked off Thursday. The Flames, who had their lengthy unbeaten streak snapped by New Mexico State on September 30, starts the week at 11-1-1 on the season and 2-2-1 in league matches. The Flames have claimed the two previous matches against Jax State in 2021 and 2022.

When the Gamecocks arrive in South Florida on Friday, they will prep for the third meeting all-time with FIU. The two clubs squared off against each other two previous times. The Panthers posted a win on their home pitch in 2005, while the Gamecocks recorded a 3-0 win over FIU in Jacksonville during the 2019 season.

The Gamecocks rank among the best in CUSA in total shots, goals, assists and goals per match. Jax State leads the conference in goals with 32 on the season and has been credited with a league-best 30 assists. It will be a battle of the top-two teams in total shots on Thursday as Liberty has a slight lead over Jax State, 204-184. FIU and Jax State are the two best goal-scoring teams in CUSA with FIU one back of the Gamecocks with 31 goals. FIU enters the week averaging 2.38 goals per match, while the Gamecocks are averaging 2.29 goals per game.

Individually, junior Laleh Lonteen and sophomore Naroa Domenech share the team lead in goals-scored with seven each. The tandem is one goal off CUSA leader, Nikole Sollis of FIU. Lonteen and Sollis will go head-to-head on Sunday for the top spot in total points as both have collected 19 points this season. Domemech starts the week ranked second in CUSA in total shots with 36, which leads Jax State.