Kansas cruises in 7-0 win over Sporting Blue Valley
LAWRENCE, Kan. – Another strong outing from the Kansas offense highlighted a 7-0 Jayhawk victory over the Sporting Blue Valley U14/15 Boys team Monday night in spring exhibition play. KU freshman Samantha Barnett put in a pair of goals, while junior Eva Eliasdottir scored her sixth goal in four spring matches.
Similar to the contest against Sporting Blue Valley five nights earlier, which the Jayhawks also won 7-0, KU managed to get on the scoreboard early and often in the first frame. Eliasdottir tallied her sixth goal of the spring in the fifth minute when Katie McClure found the junior with a service from the left wing. Eliasdottir met the ball at the near post and redirected it into the back of the net to give her team an early 1-0 advantage.
Eliasdottir was on the assisting end on the Jayhawks second goal, which came in the 12th minute. She played a ball into the right side of the SBV box that was met by Barnett, who then kicked in her first of two first half goals after evading a pair of defenders and the Sporting keeper.
McClure added her second goal of the spring in the 19th minute before Barnett struck again less than six minutes later. Junior Mandi Duggan then tallied the Jayhawks’ fifth goal of the opening half, poking in a loose ball off a KU corner kick, to send Kansas to the locker room with a 5-0 advantage.
KU struck again off a corner kick less than four minutes into the second half. Elise Reina played the corner service to Sophie Maierhofer at the top of the box before the junior midfielder fired the ball into the center of the SBV box. That’s where Ceri Holland met the pass and redirected the ball into the back of the net to give the Jayhawks a 6-0 edge.
Sophomore Avery Hall closed out the night with a highlight goal from 25 yards out. Her strike came eight minutes before the final buzzer and completed the 7-0 KU win and the Jayhawks’ 16th-straight unbeaten result in spring exhibition play.
QUOTES
Head coach Mark Francis
On the team’s performance in the attacking third:
“We scored some good goals tonight. We’ve worked a lot on finishing and it’s definitely paying off. This group (Sporting Blue Valley) was a lot more athletic. They had some bigger kids in there that made it a little more difficult but I thought the girls did a really good job keeping it simple. We moved the ball really well today, created some good chances and obviously finished some of them really well.”
On the areas of emphasis heading into the final week of the spring season:
“Because we returned so many defenders, we’ve really focused a lot on the offensive part of the game this spring. That was obviously something in the fall that was a little challenging for us at times. So we’ve spent a lot of time on it and I think it’s starting to pay off. Over these last 10 days of the spring and in the last game against UMKC, we need to continue to create opportunities and making the most of them when we get in those different scenarios offensively.”
UP NEXT
The Jayhawks will close out the spring campaign when they welcome the UMKC Kangaroos to Rock Chalk Park on Wednesday, April 24. Kickoff is slated for 8 p.m.
