No. 22 Texas Tech Trips Up No. 9 Kansas, 1-0
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LAWRENCE, Kan. – A goal in the waning seconds of the first half and some stout second-half defense helped the No. 22 Texas Tech Red Raiders upset the No. 9 Kansas Jayhawks, 1-0, in front of a stadium record of 1,453 fans at Rock Chalk Park Friday night. The loss snapped KU’s program best 11-game home winning streak and handed the Jayhawks their first conference loss of the season.
“It’s been key for us all year to stick to what we’re good at and I think we got away from that at times tonight,” said head coach Mark Francis. “It’s important for us that we bounce back from this on Sunday and regroup because West Virginia is another really good team.”
Kansas dropped to 14-2-0 on the year and saw its six-game winning streak come to a halt. The Jayhawks also picked up their first blemish in conference play, falling to 4-1-0. The win moved Texas Tech to 11-3-1 in its 2014 campaign and gave the Red Raiders their first Big 12 victory as they went to 1-3-1.
For just the second time this season, the Jayhawks conceded the first goal of the match, a goal which came after a dominating stretch by Kansas in the first half. After tallying six shots in a 20 minute span, the Jayhawks were looking to close out the first half with some momentum as the clock ticketed down to the final minute of the period. However, TTU had other plans when freshman Alex Marmureanu took advantage of a KU miscue.
With 52 seconds to play before the half, the Red Raiders played a lazy ball into the KU box. The Jayhawk defenders misplayed the clearance, which led to the ball landing at the feat of the wide open 5-foot-9 Texas Tech forward. Marmureanu fired a right-footed shot from the top of the Jayhawk penalty box and shot in her first-career goal past the diving Kansas goalkeeper, Kaitlyn Stroud.
The goal was the eighth Kansas has conceded in 16 games this season and just the third the Jayhawks have allowed in the first half.
The Red Raiders didn’t let up on either end of the field after the intermission. TTU came out of the gates, getting off six shots within the first 20 minutes of the half. On the other end, Kansas was unable to get its own offense going as the Jayhawks were unable to tally a second-half shot until the 81st minute.
Some late-game urgency yielded a handful of chances for KU, none better than off a corner kick in the 88th minute. After Liana Salazar player the corner into the box, the ball bounced to several Jayhawks before it landed at the feet of Tayler Estrada. The sophomore put a good strike on the ball but a Red Raider defender was there to deflect it and thwart the KU chance.
The final whistle sounded less than two minutes later with KU dropping its first home match in 11 outings and its first at Rock Chalk Park.
The Red Raiders outshot the Jayhawks 15-10 in the match, which included a 7-2 clip in the second half. Senior Jamie Fletcher led the Jayhawks with three shots on the night. The KU defense held the Big 12’s leading goal scorer, Janine Beckie, relatively quiet after she managed to get five shots off but with only one being on frame.
Stroud picked up a pair of saves on the night and saw a ball get past her for just the seventh time in 2014.
Kansas will now welcome the No. 16-ranked West Virginia Mountaineers in the highly-anticipated league matchup at Rock Chalk Park. WVU will journey to Lawrence on Sunday, Oct. 19 for a 1 p.m., start to be televised on Time Warner Cable SportsChannel and ESPN3.
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