CHARLOTTE ATHLETICS

Kameron Lacey's 10 points is tied with Alex Willis for the unbeaten Charlotte 49ers' team lead. Charlotte, which is 5-0 for the first time since 1998, plays Alabama Birmingham Saturday in their American Athletic Conference debut.

The unbeaten Charlotte 49ers make their American Athletic Conference debut Saturday against Alabama Birmingham with multiple streaks on the line.

Charlotte, at 5-0 for the first time since 1998 and ranked 11th nationally, is in the middle of a four-game homestand at Transamerica Field and face a Blazers squad stuck in a three-match losing skid. UAB (2-3), which has lost five straight to Charlotte, opened the season with wins against College of Charleston and Queens.

Kickoff is 7 p.m.

Saturday's match is the 39th all-time meeting between the schools and first as AAC foes. Charlotte men’s soccer joined the AAC a year ahead of schedule due to Conference USA dropping the sport with the defection of Old Dominion and Marshall for the Sun Belt Conference as full-time members and addition of Kentucky, South Carolina and West Virginia as affiliates.

Charlotte, which is riding an eight-match regular season win streak that extends to the 2021 campaign, has won every 2022 match by more than two goals and racked up clean sheets in each of the last four. Their last three matches – against Georgia Southern, Detroit Mercy and Winthrop – were 5-0 wins. The 49ers lead the nation in scoring average at 4.4 goals per game with 22 tallies in five matches and 17 of those in the second half. Conversely, Charlotte has conceded one goal.

UAB, whose three losses were at home to No. 5 Wake Forest, Wisconsin and top-ranked Clemson, are led by Brooks Rice, a graduate student and Birmingham native who has scored a pair of goals and tallied an assist to lead the Blazers with seven points. The Blazers’ other goals have come from grad student Nathaniel St. Louis, who scored in each of the first two matches and Zsombor Kalonokis, who scored the game-winner against Queens.

Charlotte, whose 22 goals through five matches to open the year is the most in program history, has racked up 66 points by 15 different players and goals by 11 different 49ers. Seven Charlotte players have more than one assist and five have scored multiple goals, although none have tallied more than one in a match.

Seven players have at least four points, paced by seniors Alex Willis and Kameron Lacey with 10 apiece. Lacey has scored in four matches and is the only 49er to have a point in each match.

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