Jayhawk Soccer Falls Short Against Baylor
LAWRENCE, Kan. – Despite a goal by junior Whitney Berry in the 71st minute, Kansas soccer was unable to produce more scores as it fell to Baylor 3-1 on a windy Friday evening.
The wind created a challenge in the attacking third of the field as both teams had just five shots on goal. For the game, Baylor held a 14-12 shot advantage as it improved to 10-2-2 overall, including 2-1-1 in Big 12 play.
KU fell to 8-6 with the loss and 1-3 in the league.
Trailing 3-0, Berry put the Jayhawks on the scoreboard with a penalty kick during the 71st minute after a Baylor foul in the box. The midfielder put her fifth score of the season into the lower left corner, under BU’s diving goalkeeper. Berry’s goal brought her career point total up to 51 as she moved into a tie for fifth all-time at KU.
Berry accounted for half of the Kansas offense, collecting six attempts, half of which were on frame. Sophomore Amy Grow and freshman Jamie Fletcher each had two shots.
Baylor converted a free kick into a goal in the first half for the only score in the first 45 minutes. During the 35th minute, Hannah Dismuke took the kick from about 40 yards out. With the wind behind her, the kick sailed into the box where Lisa Sliwinski was able to head it into the goal. Sliwinski would later score again in the 71st minute. After carrying the ball up the field for about 10 yards, she took a shot near the top of the box to score the Bears’ final goal.
Dana Larsen recorded BU’s second goal. She got on the other end of a Dismuke corner kick and scored on a headball.
The Jayhawks will next travel to Creighton on Sunday, Oct. 9, for a non-conference match. The contest begins at 1 p.m. Live stats will be available on the KU Athletics website at www.KUAthletics.com, while Creighton will have a video feed of the contest at www.GoCreighton.com.
Postgame Quotes
Baylor 3, Kansas 1
Friday, October 7, 2011
Kansas head coach Mark Francis
On his team’s struggles in the second half:
“We lost the game today not because we lost to a better team, but because we lost to a team that competed harder than we did and wanted more than we did in the second half. I thought the first half we played okay but the second half we just did not compete the way we needed to.”
On KU’s defensive play against Baylor:
“We have struggled all year giving up goals off set pieces. We have given up a lot of goals that way and its not that difficult because you have a mark and you stay with them. But sometimes our focus in those situations has not been what it needs to be.”
On what his team can improve on offensively:
“We gave them (Baylor) the ball a lot, which normally is a strength for us, but today our connecting was poor. The way Baylor plays makes it difficult to do that but still we have to be better than that because some of the decision making we made with the ball was not what it should have been.”
Senior midfielder Jordyn Perdue
On her team’s performance in the second half:
“We got down early and we started to panic a little bit, which I don’t think we necessarily needed to do because we had enough time and we had a good game plan. We also tried to play the style that (Baylor) plays and that does not work for us.”
On what KU needs to do to improve for its next slate of games:
“There are just some simple things that we need to do and they are things that we know how to do, its just a matter of competing, being physical and possessing the ball. One of the things we do is play one or two touch quick soccer and teams can’t stay with us when we do that so we need to just do those simple things. We know how to do it, we just need to do it early on in the game and we will be successful.”
Freshman forward Jamie Fletcher
On what adjustments her team tried to make at halftime:
“Mostly at halftime we talked about the wind because it was a big factor today. The second half we had the wind and we wanted to try to use that to the best of our advantage but we did not do that very well.”
On how her team can get back on track:
“We really need a win Sunday (at Creighton), so right now its all about resting our legs because a lot of us played 90 minutes. “
