Kansas to Finish Non-Conference Play at No. 20 Santa Clara
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LAWRENCE, Kan. – Kansas soccer will end its 2013 non-conference slate with a bang as it heads to the West Coast to take on the No. 20 Santa Clara Broncos on Friday, Sept. 27 inside Buck Shaw Stadium. The Jayhawks, who tallied back-to-back wins last weekend, will meet their first opponent of the season that is ranked inside the top-25 of the NSCAA poll. Kansas and Santa Clara are slated to kick off at 7 p.m. (9 p.m. CT).
Follow the Jayhawks
Fans can catch Kansas soccer in action online for free from Santa Clara this weekend by logging on to www.santaclarabroncos.com and going to the soccer schedule page. Click on the video link next to the Kansas game and enjoy. Also follow the match via live stats by going to the Santa Clara schedule page and clicking on the live stats link. Don’t forget to follow on Twitter at @KUWSoccer for another great way to stay connected to KU Soccer.
Series History
Friday’s match between the Jayhawks and Broncos will be the first ever between the two programs. The Jayhawks are 8-7-0 all-time against schools from the West Coast Conference, including a 0-2 mark already this season. Kansas has also amassed an all-time record of 12-11-0 against schools whose state of origin is California.
About the Jayhawks
Kansas (5-4-1) is coming off an important weekend sweep after being winless in its four matches prior. The Jayhawks dispatched of South Dakota State Friday by a 2-1 margin before taking down Illinois State in shutout fashion, 2-0, Sunday. Kansas has not lost a game this season when they’ve scored at least one goal. Eight different Jayhawks have tallied at least one score already this season.
The Kansas offense is outshooting its opponents by an average margin of +3.7 per match. After boasting a shot percentage of just 6.8 though its first eight games, KU bumped the number up to 7.7 after a prolific scoring stretch last weekend. Senior forward Caroline Kastor leads the team with three goals and three assists on the year, while junior teammate Jamie Fletcher has tallied a team-leading 34 shots, the second most in the Big 12.
The Jayhawks are in the midst of some strong defensive output, only allowing two goals in three games after allowing six goals in the two matches prior. Junior goalkeeper Kaitlyn Stroud was named the Big 12’s Defensive Player of the Week after her shutout and seven-save performance Sunday versus Illinois State. She is first among Big 12 goalkeepers in saves with 44 on the year. The junior already has tallied three shutouts and is boasting a 1.08 goals against average, over .5 points less than her career average entering this season.
Scouting the Broncos
Santa Clara finds itself ranked No. 20 in the most recent NSCAA Coaches’ Poll and us up to No. 9 in the season’s first RPI rankings released this week. The Broncos have already played five top-25 ranked opponents in their first eight games this season and have gone 1-3-1 in those contests. Santa Clara has made the NCAA Tournament field all but once season out of the last 20, including a run to the second round in 2012.
Santa Clara is outscoring its opponents by a +.37 margin this season, is tallying 16.9 shots per match and allowing only 13.6 opponent shots per match. After scoring just six times in its first five games, the Broncos have foudn the back of the net eight times in its last three games. 2012 first team All-American Julie Johnston leads the squad with five goals and two assists on the year. Mexican national team member Sofia Huerta is tops on the team in shots with 29, 14 of which have been on frame.
The SDSU defense is giving up 1.38 opponent goals per match this season which includes three shutouts in eight games played this year. After giving up six goals in its first two matches of the season, the Broncos are keeping opponents to just .83 goals per game since. Opposing shooters are getting just under 50 percent of their attempts on frame versus Santa Clara. SCU goalkeeper Andi Tostanoski has started all eight of her team’s games this year, boasts a .808 save percentage and a 1.26 goals against average with 42 saves in 2013.
Jerry Smith is in his 27th year as the head coach of the Santa Clara women’s soccer program. Overall, he has tallied a career coaching record of 394-122-50, all coming at Santa Clara, which ranks him 5th all-time in NCAA history.
This Day in KU Soccer History
Sept. 27, 2002 – Freshman Caroline Smith posted her third two-goal outing of the 2002 season when the Jayhawks opened Big 12 play with a 5-1 drubbing of Colorado in Lawrence. KU held just a 1-0 lead at halftime before two goals within the first 20 minutes of the second half padded KU’s lead. The Jayhawks outshot the Buffaloes 11-2 over the final 45 minutes and managed to put over 76 percent of their shots on frame. KU went on to win 11 games that season and earn a spot in the NCAA Tournament for the second time in the program’s history. (KU All-Time Record on Sept. 27: 4-0)
Fast Goal Fun
In Friday’s win over South Dakota State, sophomore Courtney Dickerson scored the Jayhawks’ first goal just 62 seconds into the match. The goal was the fastest by a KU player since current senior Caroline Kastor set a school record with her goal only 18 seconds after kickoff on Oct. 25, 2010 against Colorado. Since the start of the 2005 season, Kansas has put in a goal within the first 10 minutes of a match 31 times and has proved to be almost unbeatable on those occasions. KU is 26-1-4 in matches which it has scored before the 10-minute mark, with the lone loss coming in Kastor’s record-breaking 18-second game against Colorado in 2010.
Ranked Opponents
Friday’s match vs. No. 20 Santa Clara will mark the 10th time in the last three seasons the Jayhawks have met a team ranked in the nation’s top-25 and the first in 2013. In its last five meetings with top-25 squads, Kansas has seen some success with a record of 2-1-2 and has outscored those opponents 7-6 in those matches. All-time the Jayhawks have amassed a record of 18-50-7 against top-25 teams.
Stroud Honored as Big 12’s Defensive Player of the Week
Junior Kaitlyn Stroud was tabbed the Big 12 Conference’s Defensive Player of the Week Tuesday after her heroics helped lift the Jayhawks to an undefeated weekend with wins over South Dakota State and Illinois State. Stroud tallied three saves in KU’s 2-1 victory over the Jackrabbits Friday. She then posted her third shutout of the season against the Redbirds Sunday with the help of seven saves, four of which came in the final 15 minutes of action. The Fayetteville, Ga., native also faced a season-high 23 shots in the win over ISU. Her .909 save percentage against SDSU and ISU was her highest of any weekend in 2013. With her 10 saves in the last two matches, she has now amassed 44 on the year, the most by a Big 12 keeper in 2013. The award made Stroud the fourth KU keeper to claim the weekly honor multiple times after she earned her first-career distinction in October of 2011.
First to Score, Wins Galore
Over its past 30 games dating back to the beginning of the 2012 season, Kansas has developed an interesting trend when it comes to which team tallies the first goal of the match. During that 30-game span, the Jayhawks have been on the losing end only once in the games which they have put in the match’s first score. Kansas has amassed a record of 15-1-2 in those games. On the flip side however, KU hasn’t been quite as fortunate when its opponents have gotten on the board first. Kansas has not won a game in that same 30-game span when finding itself trailing 1-0 at any point in a match. The Jayhawks are 0-12-1 in those games over the last two seasons, including a 0-4-0 mark this year.
Spreading the Wealth
Kansas has proven to be an unselfish team in the first half of this season, with eight different Jayhawks tallying goals, already surpassing last season’s goal scorer total. This type of unselfish play isn’t anything new for Kansas, especially during the Mark Francis era. KU has seen seven or more of its players put in goals in all but one season of Francis’ 15-year stay in Lawrence.
Last year, KU had seven different players enter the score sheet and 10 tally at least one helper. The program high came in 2003 when 14 of the team’s 20 players posted at least one goal.
Odds and Ends
- Over its last 34 games, Kansas is 17-2-4 when scoring at least one goal, including a 5-0-1 mark this season.
- Kansas is .500 or above at the 10-game mark for the 13th time in the 15-year Mark Francis era.
- The Jayhawks were booked for four yellow cards against Illinois State Sunday which ties for the most ever by a KU team in a single match. The one previous four-caution game came on Aug. 31, 2008 against Auburn.
- KU has already amassed six yellows in 10 games this season after earning just one caution in 20 games last year.
- Senior Caroline Kastor needs just four more goals to pass Rachel Gilfillan (2001-04) to sit alone at No. 2 on Kansas’ all-time goal scoring charts.
- In the second half or later this season, Kansas is outshooting its opponents by an average margin of +2.3, whereas in the first half, the margin is only +0.6.
- Junior Haley Yearout’s goal in the 75th minute against South Dakota State marked the second time this season a first time goal-scorer put in the game-winner within the final 15 minutes of a match. (Kelsey Lyden in the 87th minute vs. Missouri State)
- Kansas and Illinois State combined for 43 shots in their match last Sunday, the most by KU and their opponent since KU and Missouri tallied 48 combined shots on Oct. 21, 2011.
Up Next
The Jayhawks will kick off conference play Friday, Oct. 4 when they travel to Ames, Iowa for a match up with the Iowa State Cyclones. KU and ISU are slated to kick off at 7 p.m. and will be broadcast on Cylcone.tv. Kansas will return two days later to play host to the Texas Longhorns on Sunday, Oct. 6. The match, which will be televised on Metro Sports and ESPN3.com, will begin at 1 p.m.
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