JACKSONVILLE – The Jacksonville State soccer team will usher in the 2023-24 athletic calendar and a new era of Gamecock athletics as a first-year member of Conference USA on Thursday night against Alabama A&M.
Kick off is set for 7 p.m. at the Jax State Soccer Complex. Admission is free to all home matches on the Jax State campus. For the second consecutive season, all home matches will be streamed on ESPN+, the online streaming platform of ESPN. Live stats will also be available via JaxStateSports.com.
The Gamecocks will wrap up the opening weekend of the season on Sunday, hosting another set of Bulldogs with South Carolina State making the trip over from the Palmetto State. Match time is set for 1 p.m.
The Sean Fraser Era Begins: The 2023 season al begins a new regime for the soccer program as Sean Fraser came onboard following the2022 season after rebuilding the program at Louisiana Monroe. Fraser has a history of building successful collegiate programs. He opened his head coaching career at Midland (Neb.) University, leading the men's program. Over four seasons, Fraser led the Warriors to a 53-25-6 record, including an 18-2-2 season in 2013 with a Great Plains Athletic Conference regular season and tournament championship. Fraser arrived at Lincoln Memorial (Tenn.) University in 2017 as the head coach of the women's program. Prior to his arrival, LMU had not qualified for the South Atlantic Conference Tournament since 2014. Fraser broke through in his second season in 2018, leading LMU to a 14-5-2 record, a SAC Tournament championship and an appearance in the NCAA Division II tournament, reaching the Sweet 16. In 2019, Fraser and the Railsplitters claimed their second consecutive SAC tournament title and reached the NCAA Division II tournament, advancing to the round of 32. At ULM, he took over a team that also went 3-13-2 prior to his arrival and had 14 wins by season's end of his second season in Monroe, La. That 2021 Warhawks team had a program-best RPI of 128 and won in the postseason twice with Sun Belt Tournament wins over Troy and No. 1 seed Arkansas State after not holding a postseason win since 2004.
New Faces In The Program: Fraser revamped the Gamecocks' roster with 13 new faces, including seven international student-athletes. In total, there are eight different countries represented on the 2023 Jax State roster. Fraser has relied on five returning starters, led by senior
Kylie Wells, who finished with a team-high 39 shots, including three goals. Junior
Laleh Lonteen will look to continue her stride as one of the Gamecocks' top scoring threats after a goal last season and three assists. After a full season in goal, sophomore
Bailey Dean returns to the keeper spot. Dean finished with 73 saves and tallied a shutout in her freshman season. Eight different countries are represented on the Jax State roster - United States, Albania, Austria, Canada, England, France, Germany and Spain.
Debuts: Jax State's Sean Fraser will be looking to become the third Jax State soccer coach to win their Gamecock debut. The program's first-ever coach, Lisa Howe won in her first-ever Jax State match to start the 1995 season, while former head coach Neil Macdonald claimed a win in his Jax State debut in 2013. Fraser will be seeking his second debut win after taking over programs. He won in his debut with Lincoln Memorial in 2027.
Jax State-Alabama A&M Series: Thursday's 2023 season debut for both programs will be the ninth meeting all time between the two in-state programs. The Gamecocks will be looking to avenge last season's 1-0 setback to Alabama A&M in Huntsville. The Bulldogs posted the winning goal in the 84th minute. Prior to AAMU's win in 2022, the Gamecocks had won four straight matches between the two sides.
Gamecocks vs. South Carolina State: The Gamecocks will face another set of Bulldogs on Sunday to wrap up the opening weekend of the season. The match with South Carolina State will be the first-ever meeting between the two schools on the pitch.
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