Thursday, November 5, 2009
San Antonio, Texas — Kansas fell to the No. 1 seed Missouri 3-2 in overtime in the Big 12 Quarterfinals Wednesday night, ending the Jayhawks’ conference tournament run and most likely their season.
The Big 12 regular season champions earned revenge for a 3-2 loss to the Jayhawks last Friday in Lawrence which ended their unbeaten conference season.
Senior defender Kim Boyer clears the ball off of a goal kick by Missouri. Kansas lost to Missouri in overtime.
Missouri (13-5-3) put Kansas (12-8-2), the tournament’s eighth seed, under pressure early on, but it was sophomore forward Emily Cressy who scored the game’s first goal to give the Jayhawks a 1-0 advantage in the 29th minute. The goal gave Cressy 12 on the season, which ties her for second-most in a season by a Jayhawk.
In the second half, Missouri equalized right away in the 47th minute with a volley into the upper part of the net by Jessie Crabtree.
But Kansas took the lead right back a minute later when senior forward Kim Boyer headed senior Monica Dolinsky’s corner kick into the bottom corner of the net.
The Kansas defense withstood constant pressure from Missouri in the second half until the 57th minute. Missouri forward Kristin Andrighetto drilled a near-perfect volley from the 18-yard line into the upper right-hand corner of the net.
For the rest of the half, it was all Kansas could do to fend off Missouri’s unrelenting offense. Boyer headed a ball away from her own goal line and freshman goalkeeper Kat Liebetrau blocked a shot into the post to keep Kansas alive.
“The first half was pretty even, but the second half, we just ran out of gas,” Francis said. “We couldn’t keep the ball because couldn’t move off the ball as much as we wanted to.”
But Kansas managed to hold on for the rest of regulation to send the game into overtime tied at 2-2.
Six minutes into overtime, however, Andrighetto ended the game with another well-placed shot from the top of the box. She created space in front of Kansas’ defense and hit the ball into the upper corner once again.
The Tigers dominated nearly every aspect of the game, outshooting the Jayhawks 30-10, including 11 on goal, and receiving 16 corner kicks to the Jayhawks’ three. Francis expressed pride at the way his players held on despite their fatigue.
“We battled as hard as we could today, especially after a play-in game on Monday,” he said. “That showed a lot of character.”
Missouri will move on to face the No. 5 seed Oklahoma State on Friday, while Kansas returns home to await the announcement of the NCAA Tournament field on Nov. 9, though Francis said he holds little hope of making the cut.
— Edited by Alicia Banister
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