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Soccer team’s weekend brings mixed results

By Joel Petterson

Monday, October 19, 2009

An unpredictable Big 12 soccer season continued this weekend for the Jayhawks. On its last regular season road trip, Kansas defeated Oklahoma 2-1, but couldn’t overcome Baylor in a long, disappointing match that took two overtime periods to settle.

Friday’s game against Oklahoma began well for Kansas, as it tallied the first four shots of the game and outshot the Sooners 8-4 in the first half.

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Photo by Ryan Waggoner

Senior midfielder Monica Dolinsky fights past a Colorado defender during the first half. Dolinsky played 80 minutes of the game, which the Jayhawks lost 1-0.

Big 12 weekend results



Friday, October 16

Missouri – 5 at Baylor – 0

Oklahoma State – 2 at Texas Tech – 1

Nebraska – 1 at Texas - 2

Texas A&M – 1 at Iowa State – 0



Sunday, October 18

Texas – 0 at Iowa State – 1

Texas A&M – 1 at Nebraska – 2

Missouri – 1 at Oklahoma – 0



- Source: big12sports.com

But Oklahoma still managed to score first when senior Whitney Palmer capitalized on a mishandled ball from the Kansas defense and scored on a 17-yard blast in the 37th minute. The goal was Palmer’s 15th of the season, the second-most in the Big 12.

The lead was short-lived, however, as Kansas answered two minutes later when two Kansas freshmen leveled the game at 1-1. Whitney Berry scored left-footed off Shelby Williamson’s cross to tally her fifth goal of the season.

Kansas dominated the second half as well with 10 shots on goal, and it paid off in the 73rd minute, when sophomore Emily Cressy collected a well-placed pass from Williamson and scored on the near side of the goal. Cressy’s goal put her at seven on the season, which leads the team. The goal also proved to be the game-winner, as Kansas held off Oklahoma for the rest of the match.

It was Kansas’ first conference victory on the road, and it gave the team a huge boost, coach Mark Francis said.

“Of all the games we’ve played this year, this was probably our biggest,” he said.

The Jayhawks’ success hit a wall Sunday against Baylor. Kansas dug itself a hole early with an own goal then managed to tie it up in the second half and force overtime. But Baylor freshman Lisa Swilinski gave Baylor the overtime goal and the victory with a 20-yard free kick that struck the crossbar and went in.

The Bears applied plenty of pressure on the Jayhawks in the first half with seven shots to the Jayhawks’ five. It paid off in the 19th minute when a ball in the Kansas penalty area deflected off of a Kansas defender and into its own net to give Baylor a 1-0 lead.

“The first 20 minutes we came out a little bit slow,” Francis said. “They’re a very aggressive team with a lot of hustle and we didn’t really match that.”

The momentum swung in favor of Kansas in the second half when senior Lauren Jackson crossed a ball in to Cressy, who placed a shot between the Baylor goalkeeper’s legs for her eighth goal of the season.

The Jayhawks continued to create quality opportunities in the second half, with two headers barely stopped by the Baylor goalkeeper and one shot off the crossbar.

“I felt like in the second half, it was just a matter of time before we scored,” Francis said.

But the Jayhawks couldn’t capitalize on any of their chances, so the game continued to overtime, where Baylor stunned the Jayhawks with a game-ending goal two minutes into the second overtime period.

“Today was disappointing because of the way we lost,” Francis said. “I felt we deserved a little more out of it, but we’re playing well.”

It was the first time Kansas had lost to Baylor since 2002, and put Kansas at ninth place in the Big 12 with three games left to play. But the remaining games against Nebraska, Iowa State and Missouri are all at home, and Francis said he was still confident in the team’s odds for a postseason berth. Kansas sits just three points back from eighth-placed Texas Tech but will need all the victories it can get in a tight Big 12 race with six teams within four points of each other.

— Edited by Abbey Strusz

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