Jayhawks fall in spring finale
LAWRENCE, Kan. – The Kansas women’s soccer team concluded its spring exhibition season Wednesday night, falling to the KU men’s club team, 4-0, at Rock Chalk Park. The Jayhawks finished the spring 3-1-1, with Wednesdays loss the first in spring competition the first for the KU women since 2017.
After the two squads played an evenly-matched opening 20 minutes, the KU men, finally managed to break through in the 26th minute. It marked the first goal allowed be the Jayhawks in over 270 minutes of spring play. Kansas would keep the deficit to one goal over the remaining minutes of the opening half, to trail 1-0 as they headed into the intermission.
But the men were able to put the game out of reach over the first 10 minutes following the restart, scoring goals in the 51st and 53rd minute.
The KU men added a fourth in the 70th minute, before the women were able to keep them scoreless over the final 20 minutes of play.
QUOTES
Head coach Mark Francis
On the team’s performance Wednesday:
“We’ve played the guys (club team) several times over the years and I would say this is the best we’ve fared against them in terms of actually having some possession and creating some opportunities. There have been times when we’ve played them and defended for 90 minutes. I thought the girls did a great job tonight. It was obviously a very challenging game for us, playing against a group that athletic, but I still think it was a great way to finish the spring.”
On the improvements his team made over the spring season:
“We focused pretty exclusively this spring on the attacking end of the field. We worked on getting the marking backs more involved in the attack and I thought they did well with that. We got shut out tonight but I thought we scored some good goals in the other games and created some good opportunities. We’ll obviously pick back up on that in the preseason but it was a good emphasis in the spring to establish those element to our game.”
UP NEXT
With the spring exhibition season now complete, the Jayhawks will turn their focus to the 2019 season. Fall practice is scheduled to begin on August 6.
