Jayhawks and Beavers Hit the Pitch for Sunday Night Battle

Sophomore Kayla Morrison and the KU defense will look for another clean sheet against the Beavers Sunday.

Game 6: Oregon State at Kansas
Time 7 p.m.
Location Lawrence, Kan.
Stadium Rock Chalk Park (2,500)
Tickets KUAthletics.com
Series First Meeting
Radio

Jayhawk Radio Network
Online: KUAthletics.com

Watch

Time Warner Cable Sports
ESPN3

Live Stats Sidearm Stats
NOTES Kansas
Oregon State
Stats at a Glance KU OSU
Record 2-2-1 3-0-1
Goals/GM 0.80 1.75
Shots/GM 15.2 10.2
Shot % .053 .171
Shot on Goal % .434 .512
Goals Allowed/GM 1.20 0.50
Saves/GM 4.0 5.3
Save % .750 .913
Fouls/GM 9.6 13.0
Yellows/Reds 4/0 7/0

TICKETS // NOTES // WATCH

LAWRENCE, Kan. – The Kansas Jayhawks will look to get back to their winning ways when they welcome the unbeaten Oregon State Beavers to Lawrence for a Sunday night bout at Rock Chalk Park. The match, which will be the first between the two squads, will be broadcast on Time Warner Cable SportsChannel and ESPN3.
 
GAMEDAY PROMOTIONS
Salute to Service Day

  • $5 admission to active & veteran military personnel, police, fire, medical and first responders
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  • Salute to Service Flag Giveaway
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  • Family 4 Pack – 2 youth, 2 adult for $20

ABOUT THE JAYHAWKS
The Jayhawks are coming off a tough double overtime loss at the hands of the Santa Clara Broncos Friday night in Lawrence. Kansas has been shutout in three of its first five matches, but has allowed just three goals in its last 455 minutes of game action. KU has also outshot each of its first five opponents.
 
The KU offense finally awoke last weekend after being shutout in its first two matches of the year. The Jayhawks knocked in four goals and outshot their two Texas foes by a total of 35-21. Kansas is averaging over 15 shots per match and has also put over 43 percent of those shots on target.  Kansas has seen a different goal scorer for each of its four goals, which includes Liana Salazar, who leads the squad with 15 shots on the year.  As an offense, Kansas returns 11 of the 14 players who contributed at least one goal or an assist in 2014.
 
The KU defense is already coming off an impressive streak as it went nearly 300 minutes of action without allowing a goal in the run of play. Though that streak came to an end in the 49th minute against North Texas the KU defense has still been stingy, as Jayhawk opponents have notched only 10.4 shots per game with a total of 26 on target for an average of 5.2 per match. Sophomore Maddie Dobyns has started all five matches in goal for the Jayhawks. She is boasting a save percentage of .750 and has a goals-against average of 1.12 with 18 saves in her first five outings of 2015. On Aug. 23, Dobyns tallied her first career shutout in the Jayhawks’ 0-0 draw at Minnesota.
 
ABOUT THE BEAVERS
Oregon State invades Lawrence still unbeaten in their 2015 campaign at 3-0-1. Last season, the Beavers failed to win a single match, ending their year with a 0-16-3 record. However, OSU returns an experienced group this year, with 17 letterwinners returning and all but one starters back this season.
 
The OSU offense has been efficient in its first four outings of the year, scoring seven goals and boasting seven different players with three or more shots. The Beavers are averaging just over 10 shots per game but have gotten over 17 percent of those tries into the back of the net. Six different players have notched either a goal or an assist for Oregon State this season. Freshman forward Mariah Roggow, freshman defender Allison Pantuso and sophomore forward Emma Jones have combined for nearly half of OSU’s total shots this season.
 
The Bronco defense allowed an average of 16.0 opponent shots in its first four games, which included 22 attempts from Missouri on Sept. 4. Sophomore Bella Geist has played all 409 minutes for her team in goal this season, allowing two goals in that span and a pair of shutouts. Geist has made 21 saves for a .913 save percentage and is boasting a 0.44 goals-against average.
 
Linus Rhode is in his eighth year as the head coach of the Oregon State women’s soccer program. Rhode won 66 matches in his first seven seasons at the helm, including a school-record 16 wins in his third year. He guided Oregon State to its first NCAA Tournament appearance since 1994 in his second season when the Beavers advanced to the Sweet 16.
 
HOME SWEET HOME
The Kansas-Santa Clara match Friday marked the Jayhawks’ first home game of the 2015 regular season after KU played its first four matches on the road. Rock Chalk Park will be a welcome site as KU is coming off a successful 2014 campaign playing on its home turf. The Jayhawks were 10-2-0 in matches played at home during the regular season last year. From 2013-14, Kansas also enjoyed an 11-match home winning streak, the longest in program history.
 
History is also on the Jayhawks’ side in regards to success in their regular-season home openers. In Mark Francis’ first 16 years as the KU head coach, his teams are 11-4-1 in their first home games of the regular season, which includes just one loss in those matches since the 2008 season.
 
YOUTH MOVEMENT
After the first four matches of the 2015 season, several Jayhawk freshmen have shown that they can make a difference for this team despite their lack of collegiate experience. Two KU freshmen, Parker Roberts and Grace Hagan, have started each match to begin the year, while two others, Anna Courtney and Bailey Bravard has come off the bench and seen minutes in all four of the Jayhawks’ outings.
 
KU’s offense has also, in large part, been sparked by the Jayhawk newbies. Hagan tallied the team’s first goal of the season on Aug. 28 against SMU, on an assist from fellow freshman, Roberts. Roberts then netted one herself later in that same match, which wound up being the game-winner. Against North Texas two days later, a freshman came through with the game-winning goal for the second-straight match after Courtney sent in her first-career goal in the 76th minute.
 
On the stat sheet, the KU newcomers have also made their mark. Nearly 40 percent of the Jayhawks’ total shots this season have come off the feet of freshmen, with 46 percent of KU’s shots-on-goal also belonging to first-year players.
 
Kansas’ youth movement is evident in looking at how the KU coaches have allocated the total minutes during the first two weekends of play. Seven Jayhawk underclassmen have seen field time this year and are averaging over 46 minutes per game.
 
ROBERTS CLAIMS BIG 12 FRESHMAN OF THE WEEK HONORS
Kansas freshman midfielder Parker Roberts was honored by the Big 12 Conference after she was named the Freshman Player of the Week, the league office announced Sept. 1. It is the first Big 12 weekly honor earned by a Jayhawk this season and the first of Roberts’ career.
 
Roberts, who hails from Leawood, Kansas, played a role in both goals in the Jayhawks’ 2-1 victory at SMU. She assisted on the first KU score before converting the eventual game-winner in the 68th minute. The freshman added a game-high five shots in the 2-1 Kansas victory at North Texas and now ranks second in the Big 12 with 12 shots, including a league-best eight shots on goal. The honor makes Roberts the first Jayhawk to be named as the Big 12’s Freshman of the Week since current senior Ashley Williams received the honor in her first season at Kansas, on Sept. 9, 2012.
 
LAST TIME OUT
After 102 minutes of hard-fought action, Santa Clara sophomore Mariana Galvan put a swift end to the match with a golden goal in the second overtime period to lift her team to a 1-0 win over the Kansas Jayhawks Friday evening inside Rock Chalk Park. Kansas saw several painfully close chances throughout the match but were unable to get the ball to the back of the net has the Jayhawks dropped just their second home-opener in the last five seasons.
 
In the final moments of the first half, the Jayhawks saw perhaps their best opportunity to net the game’s first goal. Junior forward Ashley Pankey won possession and saw only the Santa Clara goalkeeper standing between her and the first goal of her career. Pankey played in a shot but her try went wide right and Kansas was forced to settle with another missed chance. A shot from sophomore midfielder Lois Heuchan in the 88th minute took a deflection that forced Santa Clara goalkeeper Andi Tostanoski to adjust and get her hands on the ball but she failed to hang onto it. Multiple Jayhawks crashed the goal but Tostanoski recovered to gather the ball, which kept the teams level at 0-0 and eventually forced overtime.
 
The Broncos saw one more opportunity in overtime and this time, they took advantage. Just a minute after the Weatherholt shot, a loose ball bounced around the box before sophomore striker Mariana Galvan gathered and fired a volley that found the upper-right corner of the net to spoil the Jayhawks’ first home game of the 2015 campaign.
 
The Jayhawks ended the game with 15 shots to Santa Clara’s 14. Kansas has now outshot each of its first five opponents this season. Salazar led the squad with four shots while three other Jayhawks tallied a pair of shots each.
 
JAYHAWKS MESSIN’ WITH TEXAS
In its first 20 years as a program, the state of Texas proved to be a tough place to play for a host of Jayhawk squads, that is until last season. Prior to 2014, Kansas amassed an overall record of 11-30-8 in matches played inside the Lone Star State, resulting in a win percentage of just .306. Last year though, the Jayhawks turned that trend on its head, going a perfect 3-0-0, the most wins ever by a KU squad in Texas. The Jayhawks have continued that trend after a successful last weekend when they took down another pair of schools in SMU and North Texas. KU’s victories over the Mustangs and Mean Green marked the longest “Lone Star State” winning streak in program history.
 
Kansas will have one more chance this season to pick up a win in Texas following its two matches last weekend. KU will take on the Texas Tech Red Raiders in Lubbock on Oct. 23. TTU has won two of the last three matches against the Jayhawks on its home turf.
 
FOR STARTERS
Kansas returns seven players from last year’s team that started at least 15 games, which finished the season at 15-6-0. Included in the nine returning starters are three of the team’s top-four scorers from a year ago.
 
Seniors Liana Salazar (13 goals, four assists) and Ashley Williams (seven goals, three assists) lead the way, while sophomore Lois Heuchan (three goals) is also back. Kansas also returns an experienced midfield and back line with the return of juniors Tayler Estrada, Hanna Kallmaier, Jackie Georgoulis, Kaley Smith, Morgan Williams and sophomore Kayla Morrison.
 
Jayhawks Picked Fourth in Big 12 Preseason Poll
Kansas soccer was predicted to finish fourth in the 2015 league standings according to the Big 12 preseason coaches’ poll which was released Aug. 12. The ranking marks the fourth time in the 16-year history of the preseason vote that KU has been picked to finish among the top-four teams in the conference.
 
Three-time defending league champion West Virginia was the coaches’ choice to win the conference, receiving eight seven-place votes and 63 points overall. The Mountaineers were followed by Texas Tech (55), Oklahoma State (46), Kansas (45), Oklahoma (38), Texas (28), TCU (22), Baylor (18) and Iowa State (9).
 
SALAZAR ALREADY MAKING HEADLINES
Senior midfielder Liana Salazar is already getting national recognition as a player who is expected to have a big year in 2015. She was one of 28 women in Division I NCAA soccer to be selected to the Watch List for the Missouri Athletic Club’s (MAC) Hermann Trophy, considered the most prestigious award in collegiate soccer and was also named to the TopDrawerSoccer.com “Best XI” First Team.
 
Salazar, who hails from Bogotá, Colombia, entered this season coming off a stellar junior campaign in 2014. An honoree on the NSCAA All-American Third Team, Salazar scored a team-high 13 goals and added four assists to combine for 30 total points on the year, the second-most in the Big 12 Conference. She was picked unanimously by the league’s coaches to the All-Big 12 First Team and was also added to the NSCAA’s All-Central Region First Team. Salazar added four game-winning goals on the year and helped the Jayhawks to their best record in a decade, finishing 15-6-0 and helping Kansas make the program’s sixth NCAA Tournament appearance.
 
Salazar is just five goals shy from moving to No. 2 on Kansas’ all-time goal scorers list with 21. She also is ranked among the top-10 Jayhawks all-time in points, game-winning goals, shots and shots on goal.
 
FIRST TO SCORE, WINS GALORE
Over its past 65 games, dating back to the beginning of the 2012 season, Kansas has developed an interesting trend when it comes to which team tallies the first goal of the match. During that 65-game span, the Jayhawks have been on the losing end only once in the games which they have put in the match’s first goal. Kansas has amassed a record of 34-1-2 in those games, which already includes a 2-0-0 mark this year. The Jayhawks’ win against North Texas on Aug. 30 marked their 24th-consectutive victory in games which KU has scored first.
 
On the flip side, KU hasn’t been quite as fortunate when its opponents have gotten on the board first. Kansas has not won a game in that same 65-game span when finding itself trailing 1-0 at any point in a match. The Jayhawks are 0-26-1 in those games over the last two years, including an 0-6-0 mark in 2014 and an 0-2-0 mark this season.
 
RECORD BOOK WATCH
It’s never too early to glance at the Kansas soccer record book to see where current Jayhawks stand. Senior midfielder Liana Salazar finds herself among the Jayhawk elite when comparing her career numbers. She currently sits seventh on the all-time goal-scoring chart with 22, but needs just four more to tie Caroline Kastor and Rachel Gilfillan for No. 2 on the list. Caroline Smith is the school’s all-time leading goal scorer with 51. Salazar is also sixth on the all-time points chart as she has amassed 52 points in 64 appearances for the Jayhawks. That mark is 26 points behind Whitney Berry, who is second on the list and 76 points behind the record-holder, Caroline Smith, who tallied an impressive 126 points during her days in Lawrence.
 
Senior Ashley Williams is also ripe to move up some impressive charts during her last season in the Crimson and Blue. Williams is ninth on KU’s goal-scoring list with 17 career goals and is at No. 5 with seven game-winning goals. If she can match or exceed her total of four from last season, that will put her at No. 2 on KU’s list. 
 
Just One will Do It
The 2015 Jayhawks have already carried on an impressive trend that has developed over the last three seasons when it comes to scoring. Since the start of the 2012 season the Kansas soccer team has scored at least one goal in 42 matches. The Jayhawks’ record in those matches: 34-5-3. Kansas was won or drawn all but five matches in which it has scored, including a 15-2-0 record in those instances last season and a 2-0-0 record already this year.
 
The one goal trend has obviously proven fruitful for Kansas last season as, until KU’s Oct. 19 loss to West Virginia, the Jayhawks held their opponents to one goal or less in each of their first 16 matches of the year. That 16-match streak was the second-longest in program history and is only topped by the 2003 and 2004 squads, which combined to hold 29-straight opponents to one goal or fewer from Oct. 19, 2003- Nov. 3, 2004.
 
TURNING THINGS AROUND
The 2015 Jayhawks will look to bring the same mentality from the 2014 Jayhawk squad, which achieved one of the best turnarounds in program history. In 2013, Kansas won seven games and tied twice, while the 2014 team picked up eight more victories. This mark is the program’s best turnaround which formerly belonged to the 2003 squad that also won seven more games than the year prior.
 
Head coach Mark Francis is no stranger to monumental turnarounds. After a 2-17 season during first season at South Alabama, Francis led the Jaguars to an 18-3-1 mark during the 1997 season. The 16-win turnaround is still the biggest in NCAA Division I soccer history.
 
LET’S GET DEFENSIVE
While the Jayhawk offense was as potent as the program has seen in some time last year, the defense was just as impressive. With eight shutouts on the year, Kansas boasted a goals-against average of 0.80, the lowest in the Big 12 and the 19th-best mark in the nation. The Jayhawks allowed just 17 goals on the year and no more than one opponent goal in all but three matches. KU went 298 minutes without conceding a goal from Sept. 5-19, the 11th-longest streak in school history, and also wrapped up a 360-minute long streak, which ranks fifth in school history.
 
Kansas opponents’ lack of goal scoring may be attributed to the Jayhawks’ ability to keep the opposing team’s shot percentage low. Of the 241 shots KU allowed last season, opponents put just over 41 percent of those on target and only got 17 percent of those shots on frame past goalkeeper, Kaitlyn Stroud, and into the back of the net.
 
UP NEXT
The Jayhawks will once again hit the road for a pair of away contests next weekend. On Friday, Sept. 11 Kansas will take on the Wyoming Cowgirls Laramie, Wyo. Kickoff is slated for 5:30 p.m. (CT). Two days later, Kansas will go up against the Colorado College Tigers in Colorado Springs in a 12 p.m. match.
 
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