STATESBORO, Ga. - The Georgia Southern Swimming & Diving team begins its conference championship chase tomorrow as the 2018 Coastal Collegiate Sports Association (CCSA) meet takes place at the Gabrielson Natatorium, on the campus of the University of Georgia in Athens, Ga.

The four-day event begins with relay swims and diving action on Wednesday, then continues through Saturday. The Eagles will be competing against eight other schools that sponsor women's swimming and diving and head coach Laura Thomas is confident that her team can improve on last season's fourth-place finish.

"I'm feeling pretty confident about it," Coach Thomas said. "I have a really good feeling about how we are swimming. I think we are going to swim really fast, and our divers look great too."

Last year, the Eagles earned 818.5 points at the CCSA Championships, finishing behind three-time defending team champion Florida Gulf Coast, Liberty and Gardner-Webb. Campbell, UNC Asheville, North Florida, Incarnate Word and Howard round out the field of teams competing this week.

"I think we're pretty balanced," Coach Thomas said. "We have a lot more sprint power than we had last year, and hopefully all our relays will be in the top three - that's our goal. We will have more finalists in the sprint events, that will be fun."

Another reason the Eagles are confident heading into the meet is the strong performance this season from the diving squad. Georgia Southern will take five divers to Athens, compared to three last season, meaning the opportunity for more points is there for the taking.

"The last three weeks of practice, including the West Florida meet, I feel like my divers have looked more confidence in practice and on the boards," Diving Coach David Giambra said. "Their diving is becoming more consistent, and they just look ready. I expect when they get there, they are going to do great things."

Overall, there will be 20 events over the four days. You can see a complete schedule of the events here. There are 13 individual swim events, five team relay swim events and two diving events that make up the meet. 

The Big South Conference will be providing live video of the entire week's events. There will also be live results from the CCSA as well as dive-by-dive results from Divemeets.