RCW: Sport Spotlight 4.10 (Soccer)

Thank you, Seniors!#KUsoccer pic.twitter.com/nCkVHJjsP0

— Kansas Soccer (@KUWSoccer) October 28, 2017

Senior Night at Rock Chalk Park! #KUsoccer #KUvsWVU

A post shared by Kansas Women’s Soccer (@kansassoccer) on Oct 27, 2017 at 1:41pm PDT

For the fifth-straight year, Kansas will head to Kansas City’s Swope Soccer Village to take part in the Big 12 Soccer Championship, which is set to kick off on November 1. The Jayhawks have mixed memories from recent years at the league tournament since it moved 30 minutes down the road. KU has been eliminated in the first round in four of those seasons, with two of the quarterfinal losses coming as a top-three seed. However, Kansas has also gone all the way to the Championship final, advancing to the tournament finale in 2015 as a six seed.
 
This year, KU enters the Big 12 Championship once again as a six seed, which bodes well for the Jayhawks given the recent history of the league tournament. In three of the last four years, the No. 6 seed has advanced to the final, with the No. 7 seed advancing to the championship match last year. The sixth-seeded team or lower has advanced to the final each of the last five years.
 
Kansas will meet TCU in the quarterfinal at 8 p.m., Wednesday, a rematch from last year’s Big 12 tourney opener when the No. 7-seeded Horned Frogs upset the No. 2-seeded Jayhawks, 1-0. TCU also got the better of the Jayhawks during the regular season this year, claiming a 1-0 double-overtime win in Fort Worth. With a victory, KU would move to the semifinal round for the third time in program history and the second time in three seasons. KU is 2-3-0 all-time as the No. 6 seed.
 
This year’s tournament is primed to be an entertaining one with three of the competing teams ranked inside the top-16 of the latest United Soccer Coaches poll. Seven of the eight teams set to take the pitch this week also find themselves among the top-85 of the most recent RPI rankings, with five of the teams among the top-55.