Kansas Beats Arizona State 2-1 in First Round of the Big 12 Championship

Wednesday, October 30

Kansas City, Mo.

5:15 PM

University of Kansas

10-5-4, 6-4-1

Arizona State

8-8-3, 3-7-1

Arizona St.

Kansas

Kansas Beats Arizona State 2-1 in First Round of the Big 12 Championship

10/30/2024 8:32:00 PM | Women's Soccer

Box Score Box Score (PDF)Postgame Press Conference Highlights Photo Gallery

KANSAS CITY, Mo. – Kansas soccer won its fifth consecutive match and its first postseason tournament game since 2019 as the Jayhawks defeated the Arizona State Sun Devils 2-1 on Wednesday night in the first round of the Big 12 Championship at CPKC Stadium. Lexi Watts and Caroline Castans were the goal scorers for Kansas.

Kansas improved to 10-5-4 this season and has double-digit wins for the first time since the 2019 season. The Jayhawks now advance to the quarterfinals of the Big 12 Championship against No. 3-seeded West Virginia on Saturday night at 5:15 p.m. CT.

"Like most of these games, I'm emotionally exhausted," head coach Nate Lie said. "It feels like you're hanging on. It feels like that clock takes forever to hit zero. Huge credit to Arizona State. I thought we were pretty good in the first half and controlled a lot of the action. They came out incredibly energized in the second half. They changed their tactics a bit and pressed us a lot more and put us on our back foot for the first 10-15 minutes. I thought our team did a really good job of getting our feet underneath us, calming the game down and figuring out the right times to hit space and the right time to keep the ball."

Lie continued, "Carol had an absolute rocket. She's on fire…I thought that might give us a little bit of cushion and a little bit of confidence and then what you don't want to have happen happened with them responding right away. They say 2-0 is the most dangerous kind of lead in soccer. When you give up a goal it can really set the nerves. Huge credit to the team. We talked yesterday about growth and how far we've come from our first day together in the spring and then our journey through the fall. I think had we played this game with these kind of stakes and those kinds of nerves a month ago, I don't think we would have seen it out the same way…I'm really proud of this team. We're getting to that special time of the season. We're on a little bit of a roll and we just want to keep that momentum, use it to fuel ourselves and see how long we can do this."

After the first 15 minutes of the match did not feature much action, Kansas finally broke through in the 17th minute. Lauren Wood served the ball into the box where Jillian Gregorski and Saige Wimes each got a head on the ball. The header from Wimes got through the defense to an open Watts who put it in the back left corner of the net. The goal gave Kansas a 1-0 lead.

"It was a perfect ball by Lauren, perfect header by Saige," Watts said on her goal. "The defender I think deflected it and I was in the perfect position. All I had to was finish it."

Kansas was able to control possession for a large portion of the half and maintain that 1-0 lead to halftime. The Jayhawks held an 11-1 advantage on shots at the break and a 5-0 edge on corner kicks.

The Jayhawks were able to add to their lead in the 58th minute. Kate Langfelder made a pass to Makayla Merlo who sent it over to Castans near the edge of the box. Castans drilled the ball from near the left elbow of the box into the top right corner of the net. That made it a 2-0 Kansas lead.

"I can't take all the credit," Castans said about her goal. "We talked about it at half and throughout the week of switching the ball and opening space on the other side. I just give credit to my team for doing that and Merlo played me a beautiful ball at the top of the box. I got setup beautifully for that and I'm just thankful for my team."

Arizona State would not go away quietly. Less than a minute later, the Sun Devils found a goal to cut the lead in half. Kierra Blundell was the beneficiary of a ball that could not be controlled in the box. Blundell was able to put in a shot from inside the six-yard box to make it a 2-1 game.

Kansas would hold on the remainder of the match for a 2-1 victory. The Jayhawks dominated statistically in the match. Kansas held a 21-4 advantage on shots, including a 7-1 edge for shots on target. KU also had seven corner kicks compared to none for Arizona State. The Sun Devils season came to an end with a record of 8-8-3.

NOTES
• Kansas extended its win streak to five consecutive matches. The last time Kansas won at least five matches in a row was Oct. 31-Nov. 24, 2019, when Kansas won six straight.
• Kansas won its first game in the conference tournament since Nov. 10, 2019 vs. TCU when KU won the championship game of the tournament.
• Kansas earned its 10th win of the season. The last time Kansas had double-digit wins was 2019 (17).
• Kansas improved to 9-14-5 all-time in the Big 12 Championship.
• Kansas is now 3-3-2 as a No. 6 seed in the Big 12 Championship.
• Kansas beat Arizona State by a score of 2-1 for the second time this season. The other match came on Oct. 20 in Tempe, Arizona.
• Watts scored her eighth goal of the season. She is now tied with Gregorski for the most goals on the team. The eight goals are a single-season career high for Watts.
• Castans scored her third goal of the season. She has scored all three goals in the last two matches after not having a goal in the first 17 matches of the season.
• Merlo recorded her team-high seventh assist of the season.
• Wimes now has six assists this season.
• Langfelder collected her fifth assist on the year.
• Gregorski tallied her second assist of the season.

UP NEXT
Kansas advances to the quarterfinals of the Sprouts Farmers Market Big 12 Soccer Championship to play No. 3-seeded West Virginia on Saturday, Nov. 2 at 5:15 p.m. CT. The game will be played at CPKC Stadium in Kansas City and fans can purchase tickets by clicking here.

Gallery: (10-30-2024) Soccer vs. Arizona State