After two weeks on the road, the West Virginia Mountaineers soccer team plays in Morgantown again on Saturday, hosting the South Carolina Gamecocks at Dick Dlesk Soccer Stadium.

The Mountaineers are in extremely poor form, with a 4-1 home win against the American University Eagles on Sept. 6. their lone win since starting 1-0.

Following one win in their last eight matches, the Mountaineers have fallen to 2-6-1 (0-1-1 Sun Belt) and have long been unranked after starting the season at No. 6.

The Gamecocks (5-3-1, 1-0 Sun Belt) joined the Sun Belt conference for soccer along with the Mountaineers in 2022 as the conference brought back soccer, but have fared better than West Virginia in their new conference, defeating Georgia Southern in Columbia, South Carolina in their first match in the conference.

With five wins so far this season, the Gamecocks have matched head coach Tony Annan’s win total in his 5-9-2 debut season in 2021.

South Carolina led by junior forward Adam Luckhurst, the team’s leader in both goals and assists. Luckhurst has scored three goals and assisted on three more in nine matches so far this season.

The Gamecocks were picked to finish fourth in the Sun Belt in the Preseason Coaches Poll, behind the Mountaineers who were picked to finish first.

The Gamecocks did not have any players that received First Team All-Sun Belt honors in the same poll, but the overall quality of their team was enough for them to be projected to finish in the top half of the conference according to other coaches in the Sun Belt.

South Carolina has faced the No. 1 team in NCAA men’s soccer, hosting the Clemson Tigers on Sept. 2 in Columbia, falling by only one goal in the 61st minute, 1-0, in front of over five-thousand fans.

Kickoff between South Carolina and WVU is set for 4 p.m, with streaming available on ESPN+ and U92 providing the radio call on 91.7 FM and u92themoose.com.