Jayhawks-Tigers Meet Again In Big 12 Quarterfinals

Nov. 3, 2009

SAN ANTONIO, Texas –

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Kansas soccer will take on Border Showdown rival Missouri for the second time in less than a week in the quarterfinal round of the Big 12 Soccer Championship Wednesday in San Antonio, Texas. The Jayhawks – the No. 8 seed at the conference tournament – faces top-seeded Missouri at 5:30 p.m. at Blossom Soccer Complex.

Live audio and video from the match will be made available through the Big 12’s official web site: here. Current FC Dallas announcer Bobby Rhine will call the action from San Antonio. Fans can also find a link for the broadcast on the soccer schedule page at http://www.kuathletics.com/sports/w-soccer/sched/kan-w-soccer-sched.html.

About the Jayhawks

Kansas qualified for the Big 12 Soccer Championship for the 10th-straight season by eliminating Texas Tech via penalty kicks in the conference’s first-ever play-in match on Monday. The 10 consecutive trips to the conference tournament is the third-longest streak in league history.

KU’s offense is led by sophomore Emily Cressy’s 11 goals and 25 points this season. Senior Monica Dolinsky leads the team with nine assists and has chipped in six goals this season. In net, freshman Kat Liebetrau has posted a 7-2-1 record and has a 1.42 goals agaist average and a .737 save percentage this season.

Last Time Out

Freshman goalkeeper Kat Liebetrau’s save on Texas Tech midfielder Maggie Fete – the Red Raiders’ fifth shooter – advanced the Jayhawks to the quarterfinal round of the Big 12 Soccer Championship Monday at Blossom Soccer Complex. The match officially goes down as a 1-1 tie.

Scouting the Tigers

Missouri enters the Big 12 Soccer Championship as the No. 1 seed for the first time in team history. The Tigers – which had a 10-match unbeaten streak snapped in the regular season finale in Lawrence – finished the regular season with a 12-5-3 overall record, including a 7-1-2 mark in conference play.

Missouri’s offense, which ranks second in the conference in goals and points, has scored 51 times this season, is paced by a trio of forwards. Seniors Kristin Andrighetto (eight goals, five assists) and Michelle Collins (seven goals, six assists) as well as junior Alysha Bonnick (seven goals, four assists) have pressured Big 12 defenses all season. In goal, senior Tasha Dittamore has posted a 1.40 goals against average and a .728 save percentage with four shutouts.

Kansas leads the all-time series with Missouri, 9-7-1, but is 0-1-1 against the Tigers in the Big 12 tournament. The teams met in the semifinals last season, and tied 1-1 with MU advancing on penalty kicks.

Jayhawk-Tiger Connections

  • Kansas juniors Erin Ellefson, Geneva Magness, Rachel Morris and Caitlin Noble as well as Missouri junior Kari Adam and freshman Molly Sylvester all grew up in Overland Park, Kan. However, Adam and Sylvester attended Blue Valley Northwest High School, while the group of Jayhawks are products of St. Thomas Aquinas High School, Olathe East High School and Blue Valley West High School.
  • Kansas goalkeeper Julie Hanley and midfielder Monica Dolinsky and Missouri goalkeeper Tasha Dittamore all played together on the Region III ODP team.
  • Several Jayhawks and Tigers are products of the same club programs, but were never teammates: Sierra Miramontez (KU) and Molly Sylvester (MU) on the KC Comets Select; Katie Williams (KU) and Crystal Wagner (MU) on the Houston Challenge; Estelle Johnson (KU) and Krista Kruse (MU) on the Fort Collins Arsenal; Logan Reed (KU), Alex Winchester (KU) and Kelsey Blincow (MU) on the Dallas-based Sting.

MO-Ving Up In the Record Books

Senior midfielder Monica Dolinsky has scored a pair of goals and added three assists in Kansas’ last four matches of the season to continue to climb in the record books.

Dolinsky, a senior from Carmel, Ind., now has 23 goals, 28 assists, 74 points and seven game-winning goals in her career, which all rank in the top five in each category at Kansas. The senior’s 29 career assists also tie her for the 16th-most in Big 12 history.

Dolinsky has seemed to save her best performances for the Tigers as she has three goals and four assists in five career matches against KU’s Border Showdown rivals, including a two-goal, six-point performance in Columbia her freshman season.

Cressy, Williamson Named Big 12 Performers of the Week

Kansas sophomore forward Emily Cressy and freshman midfielder Shelby Williamson have been named Big 12 Performers of the Week for the week ending Nov. 1.

Cressy, a sophomore forward from Ventura, Calif., scored a pair of goals against then-No. 20 Missouri on Friday, Oct. 30 to lead the Jayhawks to a 3-2 upset on Senior Day.

Williamson, a freshman from Colorado Springs, Colo., scored KU’s second goal against Missouri on Oct. 30, giving the Jayhawks their first lead of the match in the 38th minute. Williamson is second among Big 12 freshmen with seven goals and 16 points this season, trailing only Nebraska’s Morgan Marlborough.

Eight Jayhawks Earn Academic All-Big 12 Honors

Eight Jayhawks, including three repeat performers, were selected to the Academic All-Big 12 teams Tuesday afternoon. Kansas seniors Kim Boyer, Julie Hanley, Estelle Johnson and Shannon McCabe as well as junior Lauren Jackson and sophomore Jordyn Perdue were tabbed academic all-conference first team, while juniors Rachel Morris and Caitlin Noble were named to the second team.

This marks the fifth-straight season that at least six Jayhawks were named to the all-academic first team. McCabe also became the 14th Kansas soccer player to be selected Academic All-Big 12 First Team three different years of her career.

The 7,000 Club

Early in the first half of the Nebraska game on Oct. 23, Estelle Johnson became just the third player in Kansas history to log over 7,000 minutes of field time in her career. Johnson (7,330) joins former teammate Afton Sauer (7,450) and goalkeeper Meghan Miller (7,836) as the only members of the 7,000-minute club.

Johnson will participate in her 85th match in the Crimson and Blue on Monday and will likely start for the 83nd time – which will tie her for the most starts by a Jayhawk field player with Sauer.

Corner Kicks

  • Kansas will face Border Showdown rival Missouri in the quarterfinal round of the Big 12 Soccer Championship Wednesday in San Antonio. This marks the third time that the schools have met in the conference tournament, with Missouri claiming a 1-0 overtime win on Nov. 8, 2001 and a 1-1 tie on Nov. 7, 2008.
  • Since the Big 12 Soccer Championship expanded to an eight-team format in 1999, the No. 8 seed has never advanced past the quarterfinal round. The closest any No. 8 seed has come to moving to the semifinals was in 2007, when top-seeded Texas A&M eliminated eighth-seeded Iowa State on penalty kicks after a 1-1 draw.
  • Kansas freshman Whitney Berry scored her sixth goal of the season Monday night against Texas Tech. Of Berry’s six goals this season, three of them have come against the Red Raiders.
  • After surrendering a career-high four goals in the second half of the Nebraska match on Oct. 23, freshman goalkeeper Kat Liebetrau has been solid between the posts. In KU’s past three matches, Liebetrau is 2-0-1 with an 0.93 goals against average and an .824 save percentage.
  • Senior defender Estelle Johnson’s 84 career matches played are the sixth-most in school history.

Up Next

With a win over Missouri, the Jayhawks would advance to the semifinal round of the Big 12 Soccer Championship Friday. KU would take on the winner of the Texas A&M-Baylor match at 8 p.m., at Blossom Soccer Complex. It would be KU’s second-straight trip to the semifinal round, and the fourth all-time.

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