Women’s soccer to play first game Sunday

Friday, August 21, 2009

The KU women’s soccer team won’t be the only Jayhawks on the field when they play Drake on Sunday in Des Moines.

Drake head coach Lindsey Horner played under Kansas head coach Mark Francis for two years and is in her second year at the helm of the Bulldogs.

Photo by Weston White

Emily Cressy, sophomore midfielder, kicks around a soccer ball on the field. The KU women’s soccer team will begin its fall season on Sunday when the Jayhawks play the Drake University Bulldogs in Des Moines. Lindsey Horner, Drake’s head coach, played for Kansas head coach Mark Francis for two years.

But you wouldn’t know it if you talked to Francis. The game holds no real significance outside of it being the first test of the season.

“We had played (Drake) before she was there,” Francis said. “They’re close by, they are a good program. It’s an easy trip.”

Last year, Kansas defeated Drake 2-0 in a preseason exhibition in Lawrence. But the Bulldogs do return two stellar senior scorers, Crystal Townley and Elizabeth Woerle. Both made All Second Team Missouri Valley Conference in 2008.

Senior defender Estelle Johnson isn’t worried about their presence in the attacking half.

“I think that we’ll just play our own game,” Johnson said. “We have a really solid backline so I think that if each one of us pulls our own weight, we’ll be fine.”

Francis thinks the key to keeping them out of the net will be organization.

“We have to make sure that we don’t allow too many spaces,” Francis said.

Francis also said that he thought one of the two scorers was particularly “good in the air”, referring to an ability to score off crosses in set pieces. Thus, he thinks his defenders need to stay matched up in the box so they don’t give up easy goals.

Senior midfielder Monica Dolinsky thinks they won’t have too much trouble containing Drake’s goal scorers, but the midfielders need to communicate with the defenders and distribute to the forwards.

Another key to the game might be how freshman midfielder Shelby Williamson plays in the defensive midfield. Francis said she has the abilities that the coaching staff looks for in a defensive midfielder but that she is still learning the “nuances of that position.”

Francis also said that the team will stick with the 4-4-2 formation they worked on this week in practice. However, they will re-evaluate their position after Sunday’s game.

Dolinsky is confident in the team’s chances.

“I think we are pretty well prepared,” Dolinsky said. “There’s a few things we need to make sure are in check, but I think we’re ready to play.”

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