Jayhawks shut out at No. 17 Texas, 2-0
AUSTIN, Texas – Two penalty kicks, one made and one missed, proved to be the difference as the Kansas Jayhawks fell to the No. 17-ranked Texas Longhorns, 2-0, Friday night inside Mike A. Myers Stadium. KU saw a PK try in the opening five minute go awry, while the Longhorns were able to convert on their own penalty attempt 20 minutes later.
KU now sits at 10-4-2 on the season and 4-3-0 in the Big 12 with just two games remaining in conference play. The win lifted Texas to 12-2-2 in 2018 with a 4-2-1 mark in the league.
Less than four minutes into the match, a Longhorn handball in her own 18-yard box saw Kansas get awarded a penalty kick, its first of the season. Sophomore Ceri Holland lined up the try but her attempt slammed off the crossbar and out of harm’s way, keeping the match scoreless early.
Texas responded to the Kansas miscue with a penalty kick of its own in the 24th minute. A Jayhawk foul in the KU box gave UT’s Kayra Dollas the PK try, which she slid in just inside the right post to put her team on top just over midway through the half.
For much of the night it was difficult for the Jayhawks to break the UT defense, while Longhorn goalkeeper Nicole Curry collected seven saves for the game. As the Jayhawks pushed numbers forward late in search of an equalizer, UT caught them on a counterattack and sealed the result with another goal, this time off the foot of Haley Berg.
The match came to an end five minutes later and signaled KU’s second-straight loss. The Jayhawks ended the match outshooting the home side 12-9 with a 7-3 edge in shots on goal.
QUOTES
Head coach Mark Francis
On the team’s overall performance:
“We were very flat. One of our four core values is resilience and we were not resilient tonight. The missed penalty kick early really knocked us off our groove. Normally, we deal with that and move on, but we didn’t do that tonight. We had plenty of opportunities to win the game. In the second half, aside from the goal they scored, I don’t think they had a good chance. Credit to them. They scored their penalty kick and the one chance they got in the second half, they finished, which put the game a little bit beyond us as time was winding down.”
On the team’s mentality:
“Disappointed in our group today in terms of – I don’t think that we were all there. We’ve been all in, everybody’s been all in, players both on and off the field. Tonight, for whatever reason, we weren’t. We need to take a good look in the mirror between now and tomorrow’s training and wonder if we really did everything we could tonight and there were some that did and some that didn’t.”
On the upcoming schedule:
“I think we’ve got to get the group back on track because we’re playing well, we just have to figure out how to win. I think that’s the tough part because the three conference games that we’ve lost, we’ve had more chances than the teams and we’ve outshot the teams, but we lost the game. We have to figure that part of it out. We have a tough game Sunday, again. There are no easy games in this conference so we need to regroup show up for Sunday.”
NOTABLES
- KU’s 0-1 deficit at the half marks the third time the Jayhawks have trailed at halftime this season.
- Kansas is now 8-4-4 over the last two seasons when coming off a loss.
- The Jayhawks allowed multiple goals in back-to-back games for the second time this season and just the third time since 2012.
- The shutout was just the third shutout on the season.
- Ceri Holland’s penalty kick in the fourth minute marked the Jayhawks’ first PK attempt of the season. It was the first time a Jayhawk missed a penalty since 2015.
- The defeat marked Kansas’ first in Austin since 2012, a 1-0 loss.
UP NEXT
The Jayhawks will continue on through the Lone Star State to play the No. 13 Baylor Bears on Sunday, Oct. 21. Kickoff from Waco is set for 2 p.m., on ESPNU.
FOLLOW
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