No. 13 Bears dominate second half, top Kansas, 3-1
WACO, Texas – A trio of second-half goals proved too much to overcome for Kansas soccer as the No. 13 Baylor Bears topped the Jayhawks, 3-1, Sunday afternoon at Betty Lou Mays Field. Senior Grace Hagan put KU on top in the 33rd minute with her seventh goal of the year, however three unanswered goals by Baylor over the final 40 minutes of play completed the Bear comeback.
With its third-straight loss, KU dropped to 10-5-2 on the season and 4-4-0 in the Big 12 with just one regular-season game remaining. Baylor’s win, its seventh in a row, kept the Bears undefeated at home in 2018, and improved their record to 14-4-0 in 2018 with a 7-1-0 mark in Big 12 play.
Just over 30 minute into the match, Hagan got Kansas on the scoreboard first with her header-turned-goal off of a corner kick from junior defender Elise Reina. The goal was Hagan’s seventh of the season and 25th of her career. The Wichita native ended the day taking five of KU’s eight shots, two of which were on goal.
After taking the 1-0 edge into the halftime locker room, it was a set piece by Baylor that evened the match just five minutes into the second period. A corner kick by sophomore midfielder Ally Henderson found the head of teammate Camryn Wendlandt, in the middle of the box and past KU goalkeeper Sarah Peters for the equalizer, 1-1, with 50:10 on the clock.
The Bears claimed their first lead of the day 22 minutes later, scoring their second goal of the afternoon off another set piece. A loose ball in the KU box found its way into the back of the Jayhawk goal by freshman forward Elena Reyna, her first of the season, to put the Bears up, 2-1, in the 73rd minute.
With the Jayhawks chasing the equalizer in the final 10 minutes of regulation, Baylor junior Raegan Padgett broke away from the KU defense, pulling Peters out from between the posts and sidestepped the KU freshman before sending a swift kick into the back of the net to put her team up, 3-1, putting the match out of reach for the visiting Jayhawks.
The Jayhawks ended the match with its largest shot deficit of the season, with Baylor holding a, 15-8 edge and 8-2 advantage in shots on goal.
QUOTES
Head coach Mark Francis
On the team’s two different halves of play:
“First half, I thought we were brilliant. It was one of our better halves. With Baylor, you have to compete with them physically; headers, challenges, second balls and I thought we outhustled them in the first half. I told the team at half time that right now, they (Baylor) were getting yelled at because they were getting outhustled, which doesn’t usually happen to them. Sure enough, I thought they did a great job of regrouping and the second half, they were a step quicker and stuff like that. I think they outhustled us in the second half.”
On Hagan’s header-turned-goal off a set piece in the first half:
“It was a great header. To score a goal on a set piece against these guys, you’ve got to do a really good job in terms of attacking the ball, because they are phenomenal at (both) attacking and defending set pieces. I thought it was a great goal by Grace, off the service by Elise (Reina), and we’ll take that.”
NOTABLES
- Sophomore midfielder Kathryn Castro earned her first start of season Sunday afternoon in Waco. Isabella Cavalcante also found her name called in KU’s starting lineup, a change in personnel from Friday night’s loss at No. 17 Texas.
- Grace Hagan scored her seventh goal of the 2018 season in the 31st minute of the first half. That equals the number of goals she has scored each of the last two seasons. She now has a total of 25 goals scored in her KU career, and sits in sole possession of fifth place on the all-time KU charts.
- Hagan’s goal was just the second scored at Betty Lou Mays Soccer Field this season by an opposing team.
- Junior defender Madison Meador was issued a yellow card with 69:46 on the clock, her first of the season and the Jayhawks’ sixth card overall in 2018.
- The Jayhawks have allowed multiple goals in three-straight games for the first time since the final three matches of the 2011 season.
- Kansas is now 8-5-4 over the last two seasons when coming off a loss.
- Kansas’ defeat evened the all-time series record at 11-11-2 against Baylor.
UP NEXT
Kansas closes out the 2018 regular season when the Jayhawks journey to Morgantown, West Virginia, to meet the Mountaineers on Thursday, October 25. Kickoff from Dick Dlesk Stadium is set for 6 p.m. (CT).
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