No. 19 Kansas downed by No. 10 Aggies, 5-1
LAWRENCE, Kan. – No. 19-ranked Kansas could not survive a five goal barrage by No. 10 Texas A&M Sunday as the Jayhawks fell to their former Big 12 foe, 5-1, Sunday afternoon at Rock Chalk Park. Junior Grace Hagan netted the KU’s lone goal of the match in the 48th minute, her third of the season.
The loss gave Kansas (5-2-1) its first since Aug. 18 and broke the Jayhawks’ six-game unbeaten streak, while the Aggies moved to 4-1-1 in 2017.
“We were flat, we lacked energy,” said head coach Mark Francis following the match. “The first 15 minutes we were absolutely atrocious. We were pretty atrocious most of the game, but the first 15 minutes especially. You have to give them (Texas A&M) credit, they outhustled us today. They beat us to everything and that’s why we lost.”
The Aggies came out of the gates in a flurry in the opening 10 minutes, putting KU down with a goal in the eighth minute off the foot of Emily Bates which was included in a bombardment of four TAMU shots over the first 10 minutes of action.
Just under the half-hour mark, Texas A&M’s Haley Pounds got taken down inside the KU penalty area to draw the PK attempt for her team. She converted on the kick moments later to give the Aggies a 2-0 lead.Junior Grace Hagan
Kansas started the second half on a promising note when Hagan cut the Aggie lead in half just less than three minutes into the second frame. Sophomore Elise Reina played a long cross into the heart of the TAMU box, where Hagan met it with a header attempt. The shot found the inside of the far post and breathed new life into the Jayhawks, who trailed 2-1 with more than 40 minutes still to play in the match.
The Hagan strike gave her the 14th goal of her collegiate career and makes her only three goals shy of entering the top-10 of the school’s all-time goal scorers chart.
However, the KU momentum from Hagan’s goal was suddenly snatched away when a bout of bad luck struck the home side. A low cross in front of the Jayhawk net was deflected in by a Jayhawk defender only four minutes after Kansas got on the scoresheet. The goal put the Aggies back on top by two goals.
The visitors struck twice more over the final 35 minutes, the fourth off a corner kick and the fifth on a 20-yard shot from the lop left corner of the KU box.
Texas A&M ended the match having outshot Kansas by a tally of 20-8, the most attempts by a KU opponent in a game this season. The match also handed the Jayhawks their worst nonconference loss at home since a 7-2 decision to No. 8 Florida in 2011.
“We’ll learn from it,” concluded Francis. “Hopefully we’ll regroup and hopefully tomorrow we’ll be more focused. I know the players were embarrassed and they feel bad about their performance, so hopefully that will reflect in better training this week.”
UP NEXT
Kansas will begin a stretch of five-straight road games when the team heads to Utah for a pair of matches. KU will start the weekend with a match against the Utah Utes on Friday, Sept. 15 in Salt Lake City. The match, set to kickoff at 8 p.m. (CT), will be televised on the Pac-12 Network. The Jayhawks will then head to Provo to take on the BYU Cougars on Monday, Sept. 18. The match is slated to begin at 2 p.m. (CT)
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