Jayhawks welcome Baylor to Rock Chalk Park Sunday

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Senior forward Lois Heuchan 

 Game 16: vs. Baylor
  Oct. 15
  1 p.m.
  Rock Chalk Park (2,500)
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  Game Notes

 

 Stats KU BU
 Record 7-6-2 9-3-2
 Goals/GM 1.40 1.43
 Shots/GM 14.4 19.1
 Shot % .097 .075
 Shot on Goal % .472 .377
 Goals Allowed/GM 1.33 0.43
 Saves/GM 3.7 3.1
 Save % .757 .878
 Fouls/GM 9.1 14.1
 Yellows/Reds 12/2 17/0

 

LAWRENCE, Kan. – Coming of its second win over a top-10 team this season, Kansas soccer looks to continue to build momentum when the Baylor Bears come to Lawrence on Sunday, Oct. 15. KU, which defeated previously unbeaten and ninth-ranked Texas on Friday night, will take on a Baylor team that has allowed just one goal over its last 484 minutes of action. KU and BU will kick off at 1 p.m., on Spectrum Sports KC and ESPN3 at Rock Chalk Park.
 
ABOUT THE JAYHAWKS
The Jayhawks enter the match with the Bears coming of their season victory over a top-10 team this year after defeating No. 9 Texas Friday night in Lawrence. KU is in the midst of a stretch of playing three teams currently ranked in the top-25 over its final five regular-season matches, which includes a pair of contests against teams inside the top-10.
 
Kansas’ offense has been up and down in its 15 outings of 2017, having scored multiple goals in eight of its contests, but also being shutout three times, two of those occasions coming in the Jayhawks’ last five outings. KU has tallied 21 goals and is averaging 14.4 shots per outing. Junior Grace Hagan, a member of the MAC Hermann Trophy Watch List, leads the squad with five goals, while both Hagan and senior Lois Heuchan are tops on the team in assists with four each. Twelve other Jayhawks have tallied at least one goal or an assist, with six of those having already amassed 15 or more shots.
 
The KU defense was stellar over its first seven outings of the season, conceding only five goals and posting an opponent scoreless streak of over 450 minutes in that time. However, over its next seven outings, the Jayhawks allowed an average of nearly two goals per match. Overall, KU opponents are posting nearly 13 shots per game with just over 39 percent of those ending up on target. Senior Maddie Dobyns has been Kansas’ starting keeper in each match. She has collected 53 saves and amassed a save percentage of .757. The senior has also tallied four shutouts and has amassed a goals-against average of 1.12.
 
ABOUT THE BEARS
Located in Waco, Texas with an enrollment of 16,959, Baylor enters Sunday’s match in fifth place on the Big 12 table. The Bears picked up a win over Kansas State in Manhattan on Friday night and is unbeaten in four of its last five outings.
 
The Bear offense has been up and down this year, scoring two or more goals in four games but has also been shutout on three occasions. BU is averaging over 19.1 shots per match and is putting 37 percent of those shots on frame. Senior midfielder Aline De Lima and junior forward Jackie Crowther lead their team with three goals apiece and are joined by nine Bears to have tallied at least one goal in 2017.
 
The BU defense has been stout this season, boasting nine shutouts and allowing one opponent goal on four other occasions. On the season, BU opponents are averaging just seven shots per match but are putting 46 percent of those attempts on frame. Freshman goalkeeper Jennifer Wandt has started in goal in 11 of BU’s 14 matches. Wandt has turned in a goals-against average of 0.44, a save percentage of .872 and has tallied seven solo shutouts.
 
Paul Jobson is in his third season as the head coach of the Baylor women’s soccer program, amassing a record of 30-16-7.
 
TOP-10 TEAMS BEWARE
The Jayhawks took the pitch on Friday against its third top-10 opponent this season when No. 9 Texas came to Lawrence and for the second time, KU came out on top. This match marked the 13th time Kansas hosted a top-10 opponent on its home turf. Following its wins over No. 7 USC and No. 9 Texas this season, KU has now picked up four wins over top-10 squads in Lawrence since 2008. The Jayhawks topped No. 7 Oklahoma State, 2-1, in 2012 and also claimed a 1-0 victory over No. 6 Texas A&M during the 2008 season. That victory over the Aggies still stands as the highest-ranked opponent ever defeated by the Jayhawks.
 
LAST TIME OUT
Jayhawk senior Kayla Morrison shot in the go-ahead goal with six minutes remaining in regulation to complete the KU comeback and lift her team to a 2-1 win over No. 9 Texas Friday night at Rock Chalk Park. The Kansas victory marked its second over a top-10 this year and ended the Longhorns’ unbeaten season as UT suffered its first loss of 2017.
 
The KU comeback was sparked in the form of a forward-to-forward connection from Grace Hagan to Lois Heuchan just 12 minutes into the second frame. The Wichita native, Hagan sent a low cross to the center of the Texas penalty box where Heuchan redirected into the back of the net. The goal, Heuchan’s second of the year pulled the score level at 1-1, still with more than 30 minutes to play.
 
With just over six minutes remaining in regulation, sophomore Katie McClure curled in a corner kick that was brought down in the mouth of the Longhorn frame. After several failed attempts to clear the ball, Morrison managed to get a foot on and poke it through for her second goal of the year.
 
MESSIN’ WITH TEXAS
This weekend the KU soccer team will try to continue a recent trend of solid performances against schools from the state of Texas. Lone Star State foe Baylor will journey to Rock Chalk Park on Sunday. The Jayhawks have been pests to Texas schools over the last three-plus regular seasons. In its 20 games against schools from the state of Texas, KU has amassed a record of 13-5-2, a goal differential of +9 and a goals-against average of 0.93.
 
The record includes some positive results against this Sunday’s opponent. The Bears have had a tough time against KU in recent years. Kansas has come out on top over Baylor in each of the last five meetings, which included a 1-0 double overtime win for the Jayhawks in BU’s last trip to Lawrence in 2015.
 
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 the 2014 season and forward. 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. Since the start of 2014 though, the Jayhawks turned that trend on its head, going 8-2-1 inside the Lone Star State. KU’s loss to Texas Tech in Lubbock in 2015 and its loss to TCU two weeks ago are its only two blemishes in Texas over the last three years.
 
RPI REVIEW
With the release of the season’s Ratings Percentage Index (RPI) report by the NCAA this week, Kansas extended an impressive streak that it has continued to build on over the last two seasons. For 31-straight weeks, dating back to 2014, the Jayhawks have been ranked inside the top-100 on the list that takes numerous factors into account, including strength of schedule, record against top-50 teams and home versus road records.
 
This week’s report also shows that the Big 12 is among the nation’s toughest conferences. The league boasts seven of its 10 teams inside the top-100. The conference’s high ranking also means the Jayhawks will get plenty of chances to up their national standing as three of their next five contests will be against teams currently ranked inside the top-50 of the RPI.
 
A TALE OF TWO SEASONS
After a quick start to the 2017 campaign, the Jayhawks have hit a bit of a rough patch over the last month, and nothing demonstrates this fact better than comparing the team’s first seven matches with its seven most recent. The team began the year with only one loss in its first seven outings, but the team that took the field the next seven times had only one win. The difference in squads over those two periods of the 2017 season is apparent by much more than just looking at wins and losses.
 
In its first seven matches, the Kansas defense was almost unbreakable, conceding only five goals and amassing an opponent scoreless streak of over 450 minutes. KU was allowing only 10 opponent shots per match and only 43 percent of those are ending on goal. In the following seven outings, Kansas’ defense struggled. In games 8-14, the Jayhawks allowed 15 goals, which included three matches with multiple shots finding the back of the net. KU opponents also averaged 15.7 shots per game over those seven contests, a nearly six-shot increase compared to the first half of the season.
 
The recent struggles may largely be attributed to a brutal stretch that the Jayhawks were forced to endure over the month of September. KU spent 14 of the month’s 29 days on the road. The Jayhawks’ opponents in September have been anything but a breeze either, with seven of KU’s nine September foes boasting a combined record of 52-21-9.
 
NAVIGATING A TOP-TIER SCHEDULE
Before Kansas soccer even hit the pitch for its first match of the season, the Jayhawks knew they would be in for a gauntlet of a schedule. The 2017 schedule featured 10 teams that competed in the NCAA Tournament a year ago, which included both squads that played in the national final. In the preseason, many pundits dubbed Kansas’ slate as one of the toughest in the nation, and that forecast has no doubt come true.
 
The Jayhawks, sitting at 7-6-2 after 15 games of the season, have played or will play six teams that are ranked or receiving votes in the most recent United Soccer Coaches’ top-25 poll. That number includes three squads inside the top-nine.
 
The Jayhawks have already played five top-25 teams, which included a match against the defending NCAA Champion, No. 7 USC, as well as No. 9 Texas, both resulted in Kansas victories. It appears as though KU will face several more battles with top-25 teams this season with the bulk of Big 12 Conference play still to come. The conference currently features three teams that are ranked or receiving votes in the Coaches’ poll and that includes No. 7 West Virginia, No. 9 Texas and No. 25 Oklahoma State. The Big 12’s winning percentage, 60.4 percent, after the first eight weeks of the season ranks fifth out of the 31 DI conferences.
 
AMAZING GRACE
Junior forward Grace Hagan has already put the early touches on an impressive 2017 campaign. The MAC Hermann Trophy Watch List member leads the Jayhawks with five goals, four assists and 14 points, figures that also rank the Wichita product among the top-10 in the Big 12 in their respective categories.
 
Hagan is creeping closer to inserting her name among the top offensive players in Jayhawk history. Her 16 career goals currently rank her 11th on Kansas’ all-time goal scorer chart and have her only one shy from inserting her name among the school’s top-10. Hagan’s 11 career assists also have her at No. 16 on KU’s all-time assists list.
 
IRON JAYHAWK
Senior Kayla Morrison has continued an impressive streak into her final year in Lawrence as she has started all 78 of the Jayhawks’ matches since her freshman year in 2014. Morrison’s mark is already among the longest in program history as it’s fifth on the all-time list among field players. If the Corona, California product is in the starting lineup in each of Kansas’ final four regular-season games, she would move to a tie for third on that list with 82-straight starts. In fact, Morrison hasn’t even been subbed out of a game in 2,871 minutes. Her last stint on the bench came in a 13-minute rest at the end of the first half of KU’s 2-1 win over Valparaiso on Sept. 4, 2016. She has played every one of KU’s minutes since.
 
Two field players hold the ultimate title of “Iron Jayhawk” as they started each of KU’s matches over a four-year span. Estelle Johnson (2006-09) and Afton Sauer (2004-07) were in the starting 11 in all 83 games of their careers.
 
FIRST TO SCORE, WINS GALORE
Over its past 118 games, dating back to the beginning of the 2012 season, Kansas developed an interesting trend when it comes to which team tallies the first goal of the match. During that 118-game span, the Jayhawks were on the losing end only twice in contests which they put in the match’s first goal. Kansas has amassed a record of 55-2-6 in those games, which included a 10-0-2 mark last season and a 5-1-1 mark this year. The Jayhawks’ loss at BYU on Sept. 18 was their first in 51 matches when they scored first.
 
On the flip side, KU wasn’t quite as fortunate when its opponents have gotten on the board first. Kansas’ win over Texas on Oct. 14 marked just the fifth victory for the Jayhawks in that same 118-game span when finding itself trailing 1-0 at any point in a match. Kansas is now 5-43-4 in those games over the last four seasons, which included all six of the Jayhawks’ losses and two of their draws in 2016 as well as five of their losses and a tie this season.
 
FRANCIS CLAIMS WIN NO. 200 AT KANSAS
With Kansas’ 3-0 win over Central Michigan on Aug. 20, Mark Francis claimed his 200th victory as the head coach of Kansas. He has now amassed a record of 201-148-28 over his 19-year stint in Lawrence. The veteran coach has averaged just over 11 wins per season during that span. He is currently second among the active Big 12 coaches in victories behind West Virginia’s Nikki Izzo-Brown.
 
BIG CLEATS TO FILL
The 2017 Jayhawks are trying to fill the void left by a large group of players lost to graduation following last season. KU will have to navigate through the departure of seven players who were a part of 53 KU victories since 2012. They helped their team to a pair of top-three Big 12 finishes, its fifth-straight Big 12 tournament berth and two NCAA Tournament appearances. Combined, these seven accumulated 355 starts and played over 33,000 minutes in the Crimson and Blue. This senior class also combined for 11 goals, 23 assists and 311 shots. From 2013-16, this Jayhawk senior class amassed a record of 43-32-8. This makes it the seventh class in program history to have achieved 43 or more wins in a four-year period.
 
UP NEXT
The Jayhawks will hit the road for their final away stretch of the regular season when Kansas faces the Oklahoma Sooners on Friday, Oct. 20. KU and OU are slated to kickoff at 7p.m. from Norman. Two days later KU will hit the pitch in Stillwater for a Sunday afternoon match against the Oklahoma State Cowgirls. The contest is scheduled to begin at 1 p.m.
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