CHARLESTON, S.C. – The 21^st-ranked Citadel rifle team will take on a couple of familiar foes on Saturday, Feb. 17 as the Bulldogs face off against 22^nd-ranked Georgia Southern and Wofford inside the Inouye Marksmanship Center in an NCAA qualifier.

"We have had some very good scores in practice the last two weeks so I hope that will carry over at possibly one of the most important times of the year," said head coach William Smith. "We need to just treat it like any other match, go out there and put up our best scores. The rest will work itself out."

The Bulldogs have gone head-to-head with Georgia Southern five times already this season, posting a 4-1 record against the Eagles. The Bulldogs have faced the Terriers three times so far this year and are a perfect 3-0 against Wofford.

Saturday's match will not be a normal head-to-head contest as individuals from all three teams will be competing for the chance to advance to nationals, which will be held at McAlister Field House on Friday, March 9 and Saturday, March 10.

Georgia Southern has been led this season by Rosemary Kramer, Courtney Weekley and Lily Wade. Kramer boasts two of the Eagles' three best aggregate scores on the year while Weekley has posted five of Georgia Southern's 10 best aggregate scores.

Wofford has seen five different shooters lead the way this season with Katherine Gorlo posting the best aggregate score, an 1107, back on December 2. Marcus Stallings shot an 1106 while Scott Condo put together an 1104, both on October 28.

Most recently, the No. 21 Bulldogs earned a clean sweep over No. 22 Georgia Southern, No. 24 UAB and Wofford in Spartanburg on Saturday, Feb. 3.

Freshman Max Brabston claimed top overall honors in the match with an aggregate score of 1151. Brabston was third in smallbore with a 565 and he followed that up by posting the top air rifle score on the day with a 586.

Junior Allison Auten, who was named the SoCon Air Rifle Shooter of the Month for January, was third in the match with an 1146, including a smallbore score of 563, placing her fifth in the discipline. She wrapped up the day with a third-place finish in air rifle with a score of 583.

Senior Colton Poole posted his best aggregate score of the season Saturday, notching a fourth-best 1146. Poole finished second in smallbore with a 569 and fifth in air rifle with a 577.

Alexander McAlear and Morgan Long wrapped up the Bulldogs' top five Saturday by finishing in the top 10 of Saturday's match. McAlear posted an 1114 aggregate score, finishing eighth, while Long posted a 10^th-best 1109. McAlear finished eighth in smallbore with a 551 and 12^th in air rifle with a 563 while Long posted a 535 in smallbore and a score of 574 in air rifle, the seventh-best air rifle score of the day.

Leah Wallace finished the day with an 1101 aggregate score for the co-ed team, including a smallbore score of 542 and an air rifle score of 559.

UP NEXT
The Citadel will host the 2018 SoCon Rifle Championships March 3-4, 2018 inside the Inouye Marksmanship Center as well as the 2018 NCAA Rifle Championships March 8-10, 2018 inside McAlister Field House. The NCAA rifle championships will mark the third national championship competition hosted at The Citadel and first since Johnson Hagood Stadium was the site of the 1983 and 1984 Division I-AA football national championship games.

For more information on The Citadel rifle team, follow @CitadelOlympic on Twitter or visit CitadelSports.com.