SPARTANBURG, SC—The USC Upstate women's soccer team will take on the Longwood Lancers in their first conference game at County University Soccer Stadium on Sunday afternoon.

"It's been exciting. It's been since October 2019 since we've faced outside competition. It gave us good time for team bonding." Head coach Tyson John said, "Still looking to see what we can do, what we need to fix and how we can grow against outside competition."

USC Upstate (0-0, 0-0 BSC) and Longwood (0-0, 0-0 BSC) are meeting for the fourth time in program history. Last season the Spartans traveled to Farmville, Va., where they were defeated 3-0 being outshot 21-7 in overall shots and 11-2 in shots on goal.

The Spartans are currently trying to get their season off on a positive note with a win against the Lancers. Last year's home opener, the Spartans lost in a tight match against American University 2-1.

The Spartans finished their previous regular season 0-9-1 in conference play. Despite COVID ending most sports' seasons early last year, Upstate completed their full schedule in October of 2019. However, the Big South Conference decided it was best to move the fall sports to spring of 2021 because of the pandemic.

"I'm really excited for this season. In the fall, we had an opportunity that we've never had before, to have the freshmen and transfers acclimated. That was really a first for us. I think having the opportunity to just grow for those few months. We had those months to train," said senior Courtney Cramer. "We're really excited for what this spring season has to offer. My goal as a senior is to win a Big South championship and to revamp this women's soccer program. We have such an opportunity ahead of us to prove ourselves and be the women's soccer that Upstate needs right now."

The Lancers finished last season 4-4-2 in the Big South. They completed the regular season and advanced to the Big South Conference tournament where they were defeated by Radford 2-3.

Similar to Upstate, this will be the first contest of the season for Longwood. The match will kickoff at 1:00 p.m. tomorrow afternoon and live links to stats can be found on www.upstatespartans.com .

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