FORT WORTH, Texas – Kansas soccer scored three goals in the second half to lift the Jayhawks to a 4-0 victory against No. 19 West Virginia on Monday night in the Big 12 Tournament Quarterfinals at Garvey-Rosenthal Soccer Stadium. Jocelyn Herrema, Kate Langfelder, Mackenzie Hammontree and Lexi Watts all scored in the win.
Kansas improved to 13-4-3 on the season and has now won five consecutive games in the Big 12 Tournament dating back to last season. The four goals by Kansas on Monday night matched the most goals scored in a Big 12 Tournament game in school history. The Jayhawks also set three new Big 12 Tournament program records with 13 points, five assists and 14 shots on goal in the match.
“Last Thursday’s match was tough, and I think we went through what we could do better as a team, what we could do better as a program to win those close games,” Kansas head coach Nate Lie said. “The first 20 minutes, we were under pressure. West Virginia is an awesome team. But once you start scoring goals, they become contagious. Energy becomes contagious and I think we did a great job of when we had momentum, we kept the momentum.”
Lie continued, “It takes a lot for me to get super excited for a goal and when Kenzie (Hammontree) scored I was running around the sideline jumping up and down. It was just a joyous moment. You could see how much it meant to her teammates. She had the moment where she got to put on the sticker on that we’re advancing, it’s great. Jocelyn has been such an important player for us that she does so much selfless work. She does so much to get us out. She does so much defensively and she had not found that goal yet. She worked so hard for it. It’s just so gratifying. I think it can provide confidence. That might be the thing that spurs on more goals in the future.”
The game started off with West Virginia taking a couple shots quickly, but Kansas goalkeeper Sophie Dawe recorded two early saves to keep the match scoreless.
Kansas was held without a shot for the first 26 minutes of the match. Not long later Kansas was able to break through on the scoreboard. Lexi Watts broke free and took a strike towards the goal that was initially saved by the WVU goalkeeper, however Herrema picked up the rebound and tapped the ball into the net to score her first goal of the season. That put the Jayhawks up 1-0 in the 33rd minute.
“We had the mentality that we had to play our best from the first minute to the 90th minute and that’s kind of been a little bit of a struggle that we’ve had,” Herrema said. “We’ve had some ups and downs, so I think that in this game we really came in with the mindset that we have to go hard the whole time.”
Herrema almost scored again with only 10 seconds left before the half, but her shot went just wide of the post to keep the match at 1-0 in favor of Kansas at the half. KU and WVU both had five shots in the first half.
The Jayhawks came out of halftime strong on the offensive side. Kansas took eight shots in the first 15 minutes of the half, but they couldn’t score on any of them.
In the 77th minute, Langfelder advanced the ball on a beautiful pass to Faith Johnston, who then passed the ball to the right side of the 18-yard box to Lydia Viets, who crossed the ball back in front of the goal to Langfelder who redirected the ball into the net to put Kansas up 2-0.
The Jayhawks picked up two more goals in less than a minute to secure the win. In the 84th minute, a WVU defender attempted to clear the ball, but it went right to Hammontree in the box. She put a shot into the top left corner of the net to score her first career goal and increase the lead to 3-0.
Just 49 seconds later, Caroline Castans made a deep pass to Saige Wimes who tapped the ball ahead to a running Watts. She kicked the ball towards the right post and into the net for her 10th goal of the season and to give Kansas a commanding 4-0 win.
“I think everyone put in a shift today,” Hammontree said. “We say shift mentality is so important, and I think every single person that came off the bench made a role and made an impact in the game. It was really exciting.”
NOTES
- Kansas has won five consecutive Big 12 Tournament games dating back to last season.
- Kansas matched its most goals in a Big 12 Tournament game in school history (Nov. 5, 2008 vs. Texas A&M and Nov. 3, 2004 vs. Iowa State).
- Kansas set three new Big 12 Tournament program records with 13 points, five assists and 14 shots on goal.
- Kansas matched its most shots ever in a Big 12 Tournament game with 22 (Oct. 28, 2018 vs. Texas).
- Kansas moved to 13-4-3 on the season and 7-1-1 in games away from Lawrence.
- Kansas improved to 17-4-2 in two seasons under Coach Lie in games played away from Lawrence.
- Kansas outshot West Virginia 22-7 and 14-2 in shots on goal. The 22 shots are the third most this season, and the two shots on goal against is tied for the third fewest this season.
- Hammontree scored the first goal of her career.
- Herrema scored her first goal of the season, and the second of her career.
- Langfelder scored her second goal of the season, and the second of her career.
- Watts scored her team-leading 10th goal of the season and set a new career high for goals in a season. Watts also tallied her third assist of the year.
- Viets recorded her third assist of the season.
- Johnston recorded her second assist of the season.
- Wimes recorded her third assist of the season, and the 12th of her career.
- Dawe recorded her sixth shutout of the season, and the 14th of her career. She surpassed her save total from last season, currently sitting at 52 saves.
- Castans recorded her career-high 11th assist of the season, putting her in sole possession for third all-time in program history for most assists in a single season.
UP NEXT
Kansas advances to the semifinals of the Big 12 Tournament to play No. 3 Colorado. The match will be played on Wednesday, Nov. 5 at 7 p.m. CT at Garvey-Rosenthal Soccer Stadium.
Courtesy of KU Athletics