Junior forward Shannon McCabe paused to think of an answer after a reporter posed the question: When was the last time you scored three goals in one game?

“I’ve never scored three goals in a game,” McCabe said. “Well, maybe when I was 11.”

If McCabe’s three-goal performance against Francis Marion on Sunday truly was the first time she’s accomplished the feat, it couldn’t have come at a better time. With the Jayhawks needing victories down the stretch to secure a postseason birth, and with the offense needing another threat, McCabe produced.

The junior forward has scored four goals in her last two games, giving her six for the season. And McCabe’s performance hasn’t gone unnoticed: she was named the Big 12 Offensive Player of the Week.

“I think the balls are just bouncing my direction,” McCabe said. “Throughout the games I’ve taken shots that haven’t gone in or crosses that nobody gets on, but everything has just fit into place.”

None of McCabe’s goals, though, were as big as the one she scored against Texas A&M on Friday. Not only did it give Kansas a 1-0 win against the sixth-ranked Aggies — the highest-ranked team the Jayhawks have ever beaten — but it also kept Kansas’ postseason hopes intact.

Entering the final five games of the season, coach Mark Francis and his players stressed the importance of winning out. Those games, the Jayhawks insisted, represented a new season.

“By approaching it that way, our destiny is really in our own hands,” Francis said. “We don’t have to rely on anybody. We just looked at it as a separate season because it’s a different entity.”

Though McCabe’s goal against Texas A&M came in a low-scoring contest, her three against Francis Marion were just a small portion of the Jayhawks’ seven-goal barrage.

The Jayhawks’ defeat of Francis Marion wasn’t surprising, but that they did it with such prolific goal scoring was.

Kansas’ seven goals are a school record for a single game and it surpassed their six-goal total from the previous five games.

“After Friday’s game it was nice to have a game like this,” McCabe said. “Just work the ball around and get our rhythm back.”

McCabe scored the game’s first two goals before teammates unloaded in the second half. Freshman Emily Cressy and junior Monica Dolinsky each tacked on a goal, increasing their team’s lead to seven for the season.

McCabe’s final goal came after senior Jessica Bush laced a shot that rebounded off Francis Marion goalie Emily Brandenburg.

McCabe topped off her day with an assist to freshman Kortney Clifton.

“All season, she’s done well,” Bush said, “but the last few games she’s really stepped it up. She’s been executing for us, and that’s what we’ve needed.”