Kansas women's soccer hosted a Domestic Violence Awareness Night that ended with a 3-1 victory against Oklahoma on Thursday.
At this game, Kansas recognized and honored alumna Regan Gibbs. Gibbs was a goalkeeper for the team in 2015-18 and lost her life to domestic violence at the age of 25.
“Why we did this obviously is to bring attention to it,” head coach Mark Francis said. “It’s an issue that goes on all over the place. Obviously it’s very close to me and our program because of what happened to Regan."
Groups like the Willow Domestic Violence Center were at the game to spread awareness and support those who are experiencing domestic violence or know someone that is.
“There are places you can go to get help if you’re in that situation or you think you might be in that situation,” said Francis.
On a penalty kick, Oklahoma forward Emma Hawkins scored the first goal for the Sooners to make the score 1-0. It didn’t take long for Kansas to respond and score a goal of their own.
Junior forward Shira Elinav drove in close to the goal and took a shot. The ball hit the crossbar and bounced out but freshman forward Lexi Watts followed up and scored the goal and tied the game up at 1-1.
The Jayhawks kept up the intensity and scored their second goal of the game just two minutes later. Kansas super-senior midfielder Rylan Childers passed the ball to the corner of the penalty box where freshman defender Malin Janser kicked the ball into the top corner of the net for her first career goal.
Childers helped Kansas start off strong with a goal off of a free kick that sneaked into the left side of the goal in the 53 minute mark of the game, making the score 3-1 Kansas.
Oklahoma freshman forward Chelsea Wagner shot the ball toward the goal and redshirt senior Bri Amos bumped it in, though Oklahoma received an offsides penalty and the goal did not count, keeping the score 3-1 Kansas.
Kansas redshirt freshman goalkeeper Hayven Harrison had a strong career start and continued to protect the goal throughout the game, making nine saves in total.
“Hayven was unbelievable today,” said Francis. “You would never know that was that kid’s first college game.”
Next up, Kansas hosts Texas Tech on Oct. 16. First kick will be at 1 p.m. at Rock Chalk Park.
