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Troy Athletics

With the season just over two weeks away, the Troy Trojans women’s soccer program and head coach Ged O’Connor announced the Trojans 2020 schedule Thursday afternoon.

The Trojans, who look to build on an extremely successful 2019 campaign that saw 12 overall victories and a program-record 23 Sun Belt Conference points, welcome 13 newcomers this season. Four Trojans earned all-conference postseason honors a season ago, as Troy tied its best Sun Belt finish (second) in school history.

For the first time in conference history, the 11 members of the conference will split into two divisions (East, West) this season, with the top four programs in each division advancing to the 2020 Sun Belt Championships (Nov. 2-8) in Foley, Alabama.

“The Sun Belt Conference did a phenomenal job of finding a way for us to have a season,” O’Connor said. “It’s going to be an exciting but different season now that the conference has been split into the two different divisions. We now get the opportunity to play conference opponents multiple times in a short period of time. The creation of the divisions will help create new rivalries inside the conference. With it being just a 10-game season, every single game is going to count. We’re just excited to be out there and to see how our young squad can adapt to the challenges they will face.”

The Trojans, who will be paired with Appalachian State, Coastal Carolina, Georgia State, Georgia Southern and South Alabama in the Sun Belt East Division, will play each of the aforementioned schools twice this season. The Sun Belt West will consist of Arkansas State, Little Rock, Louisiana, Texas State and ULM.

Troy opens the 2020 campaign with three straight road games beginning on Sept. 20 at South Alabama. Following the 1 p.m. matchup with the Jaguars, Troy will head to the Carolina’s for a match at App State (1 p.m.) on Sept. 25 and a matchup with Coastal Carolina (Noon) on Sept. 27.

The Trojans play their lone Friday night matchup on Oct. 2, when Georgia State visits the Troy Soccer Complex for a 7 p.m. matchup. The five-match homestand continues on Oct. 4 with a 1 p.m. contest against Georgia Southern.

After the Trojan’s second mini-bye of the season, the schedule continues with a Sunday afternoon (1 p.m.) contest against South Alabama on Oct. 11.

The 2020 home schedule continues on Oct. 16 with a 4 p.m. matchup against App State, before the final home match of the season against Coastal Carolina (1 p.m.) on Oct. 18.

Troy will finish the regular season at Georgia State on Oct. 23 (6 p.m.) and at Georgia Southern on Oct. 25 (Noon), before the Sun Belt Conference Tournament begins on Nov. 4.

In last month’s Sun Belt Conference preseason poll, Troy was predicted to finish second in the Sun Belt this season, as junior Kate Eubanks earned preseason all-conference honors.

“The opportunity to see the incoming freshman play is always exciting for any coaching staff,” O’Connor said. “With such a large freshman class it’s been a very exciting time. The players have come in and given maximum effort each and every day, and as a result, I have no issue with starting five or six freshmen in a given match. We’re seeing some great effort in training and I’m sure our younger players are going to be challenged with the demands that college soccer brings. But I think our depth within our team is really strong, and we can see 18 or 19 players receive significant minutes every game.”