MATCH PREVIEW: vs. Kansas State

QUICK KICKS

• Kansas is coming off a 0-0 draw with No. 14 Texas in Lubbock on Oct. 13. It capped an unbeaten weekend on the road for the Jayhawks, who also tallied a 1-0 overtime win at Oklahoma on Oct 10.
• Kansas was slotted at No. 14 in the season’s fourth Rating Percentage Index (RPI) released by the NCAA this week. It marked the first time since 2014 that the Jayhawks were slotted in the top-20 of the RPI in four-straight weeks.
• KU’s 28 goals scored this season rank 45th in the NCAA and third in the conference. The figure has already surpassed the goals scored by the 2015, 2016 and 2017 squads and matches the total from the entire 2018 campaign.
• Kansas is currently navigating through the eighth-toughest schedule in the NCAA. The Jayhawks have played or will play 11 teams that are ranked 80th or better in this week’s RPI.
• Sophomore goalkeeper Sarah Peters was named the Big 12 Co-Defensive Player of the Week Tuesday falling her two shutouts and 10 saves against Oklahoma last week. She is the third Jayhawk to a claim league weekly award this season.
• Following KU’s overtime win at Oklahoma Thursday and its draw at Texas Tech Sunday, the Jayhawks are 10-3-12 in their last 25 matches that have gone to extra time. This stretch dates back to the 2015 season.
• Junior Mandi Duggan has scored four goals in her last three outings. This after the Aurora, Colorado product netted three goals in her previous 37 matches as a Jayhawk.
• Since 2014, the Jayhawks are 49-2-1 in matches in which they score two or more goals. This includes a 15-1-0 mark since the start of the 2018 season, with the lone blemish coming in the 5-2 loss to OSU two weeks ago in Stillwater.
• Ten different Jayhawks have scored a goal this season. McClure leads the team with nine goals, which ranks her 31st in the NCAA.

STORYLINES

• SUNFLOWER SHOWDOWN REVIEW
  This weekend the Jayhawks will take part in the third soccer edition in the storied history of the Sunflower Showdown in-state rivalry between Kansas and Kansas State. The rivalry began in 1902 with the first meeting between the KU and KSU football teams, a 16-0 Jayhawk victory. In the 117 years since, the Jayhawks and Wildcats have done battle in hundreds of match-ups across several fields of competition. In head-to-head competitions for the sports that both schools still currently sponsor (baseball, men’s basketball, women’s basketball, football, women’s tennis, women’s rowing and women’s volleyball), Kansas leads that all-time Sunflower Showdown series at 605-477-6.
• NO GAMES OFF
  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 in 2019. The 2019 Jayhawks’ slate, which currently sits as the eighth-toughest in all of NCAA DI, features nine teams that competed in the NCAA Tournament a year ago as well as three reigning conference champions. The Jayhawks, sitting at 10-4-1 after their first 15 games of the season, have played or will play five teams that are ranked or receiving votes in the most recent United Soccer Coaches’ top-25 poll. That number includes two squads inside the top-10. The Jayhawks have already played four top-25 teams over the first two months of the season – No. 20 Memphis (W, 2-1), No. 7 BYU (L, 0-2), No. 25 Oklahoma State (L, 2-5) and No. 14 Texas Tech (T, 0-0).
• PETERS GARNERS WEEKLY HONORS
  Kansas goalkeeper Sarah Peters was named the Big 12’s Co-Defensive Player of the Week by the league office Tuesday. The sophomore, who tallied a pair of shutouts between the posts last week, earned her second conference weekly award and became the third Jayhawk to claim the honor this season after Katie McClure was named the Offensive Player of the Week on Aug. 27 and Addisyn Merrick earned Defensive Player of the Week honors on Sept. 17. Peters, who hails from Lee’s Summit, Missouri, recorded two shutouts as the Jayhawks defeated Oklahoma 1-0 in overtime and tied Texas Tech 0-0, both on the road. The sophomore goalkeeper led the league with 10 saves in week eight and kept KU’s opponents scoreless in over 208 minutes of play. Peters’ six shutouts on the year are tied for the league lead and her 0.81 goals-against average is second among keepers who have played 800 or more minutes.