Kansas draws with GVSU in spring exhibition opener
LAWRENCE, Kan. – Kansas soccer opened up 2019 spring exhibition play with a 1-1 draw against the NCAA Division II 2018 national runner-up Grand Valley State.
The Jayhawks and Lakers both remained scoreless through nearly the first 20 minutes of play until junior Olivia Tramblay found the back of the net to put GVSU on the scoreboard first. Despite five first half shots, KU couldn’t match the Lakers in the first half and trailed 0-1 after the first 45 minutes of play.
After owning possession for the majority of the second half, Kansas finally was able to connect on a shot in the 77th minute. With five KU shots in the second half, senior Eva Elíasdóttir was the Jayhawk to even the score at 1-1.
Neither team was able to surge ahead despite several opportunities presented in the final 13 minutes as Kansas and Grand Valley State finished in the 1-1 draw.
QUOTES
Head Coach Mark Francis
“Grand Valley is a very good team. They lost in the national final last year in Division II. I was impressed. I thought they were very good. The game was really in two halves for me. I thought in the first half, we weren’t very composed on the ball, we weren’t stepping up early enough in certain spaces, especially out wide and we were sitting too deep. I think we gave them a little bit too much time and space. I thought the second half our pressure on the ball defensively was a lot better and we didn’t really give them much time and space to play. I thought when we had the ball we were a lot more patient, we switched it well, we got into wide spaces and attacked them out wide pretty well, which I thought created quite a few chances.
We’ve got to be a little bit more clinical in the attacking third and there were also some opportunities that we passed up to shoot when we could have because we didn’t recognize that opportunity early enough. So that’s something that we need to get better at. But I thought, overall, that we had a lot of good performances today. Some people were playing new positions and I thought they made the adjustments very well.”
UP NEXT
Kansas continues spring exhibition play next Saturday, March 30 against Missouri State. The Jayhawks and the Bears are slated to kick off at 5 p.m., inside Rock Chalk Park.
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