SPORTS
KANSAN.COM/SPORTS | THURSDAY, OCT. 8 2015
Kansas soccer program is strengthened through a move to Rock Chalk Park for first full season
SKYLAR ROLSTAD
@SkyRolSports
Freshman forward Bailey Bravard fights for possesion during a game on Sept. 4.
Mark Francis wraps up a phone call with a new recruit. On a rainy Monday afternoon, his Kansas Jayhawks are practicing in preparation for Baylor — the team's third Big 12 matchup, happening on Friday.
"You'll love the facilities here," Francis said.
This particular recruit has told Francis, the team's manager of 15 years, that she will be committing to Kansas.
It's the first thing he mentions about the program in the call, although the recruit has surely seen them before. For the first full season, Francis's team is playing at Rock Chalk Park, a 2,500 capacity stadium the Jayhawks call home.
The grass that the Jayhawks practice on at the Jayhawk Soccer Complex on the south end of campus, which is about 6.5 miles from Rock Chalk Park, is impeccable. The team has played home games on it since the program began in 1995, and it's been up-kept since. The scoreboard still stands on the northwest corner of the field, but with the bleachers removed, the Jayhawk Soccer Complex no longer has the looks of anything more than a cutting-edge training ground.
"It's [a] completely different experience," said associate head coach Kelly Miller. "Just the mentality of us training here [at the Jayhawk Soccer Complex] and going to a different park for games is a different mentality."
The best thing to players is playing under the stadium lights. Miller said the professional environment afforded by Rock Chalk Park changes the mentality completely compared to the team's previous digs.
MISSY MINEAR/KANSAN
In the building process of the stadium, Frank Masterson, director of Rock Chalk Park, said a locker room close to the field was at the top of the team's wish list for the new park's features. Now, only feet from the locker room's door is the walkway to the pitch. Miller said this attention to detail is what makes Rock Chalk Park feel like a professional environment.
Initially, artificial turf was discussed for the stadium's playing surface, but that discussion was short.
"When we were building the new facility, [grass] was something that we talked a lot about to the architects," Miller said. "There's nothing like playing on grass."
Senior forward Ashley Williams played at the Jayhawk Soccer Complex for her freshman and sophomore year as well as half of her junior year. The complex and Rock Chalk Park aren't comparable for her.
"It's night and day from this field to that [Jayhawk Soccer Complex]," Williams said after practice at Kansas' home-field-turned-practice-field.
Masterson's preparation for each game is a weeklong process that has been developed and refined over the last year.
The field is mowed each day, and fertilizer is applied after two days. The day before the match, Masterson and his staff paint logos. The lines are then added to the field the day of.
In Kansas' Big 12 opener against Texas, a 2-1 loss, the full atmosphere is present for the first time at Rock Chalk Park; attendance was 1,074.
"I was not too nervous until I stepped on the field before the first Big 12 game," said freshman midfielder Parker Roberts. "After just stepping on the field you look around and you get some butterflies in your stomach. You definitely don't have that anywhere else."
immediate and direct fruitions of the park's luxury and atmosphere the facility creates.
Roberts was one of the most
Roberts was recruited after Rock Chalk Park was built. She was one of the latest recruits of the 2015 freshman class, Miller said. Roberts's club team played on the field in a match against the Jamaican national team, which helped her choose Kansas for her collegiate career. Roberts was recruited by almost every Big 12 school, including West Virginia, which is currently ranked fourth in the nation.
Francis and Miller hope to use Rock Chalk Park to build the program, but the full benefit of the change hasn't been
realized vet.
"A lot of the freshmen have contributed and done really well, but the other thing is that the recruits we've brought in on visits during the home games [are] just totally impressed," Francis said. "Not just with the facility but with the atmosphere of the game."
Recruiting in soccer begins very early. Most players will have decided where they are headed after their sophomore year. Most of Kansas' current freshmen were recruited with the promise that they would play at Rock Chalk Park but not the guarantee it would have the gameday atmosphere it has proven to have.
Freshmen like Roberts were shown renderings and drawings of the park before signing with Kansas but didn't really get a feel for the finished product until they stepped on the pitch. This season is the first time the coaching staff can bring recruits into games at Rock Chalk Park.
"The 17 and the '18 class will be the first kids that actually got to see a game there live," Francis said. "And that's probably the first class that is really going to be influenced by actually seeing it."
Edited by Abby Stuke
JAMES HOYT/KANSAN
Junior middle blocker Tayler Soucie hits the ball over two UMKC blockers on Sept. 5.
Victory over Texas Tech extends win streak to 16
AMIE JUST AND CHRISTIAN HARDY
@KANSanSports
Kansas volleyball continues to extend its win streak. The lucky number for the Jayhawks? Sweet 16.
On Wednesday evening,
No. 10 Kansas (16-0, 4-0 Big
12) easily defeated the Texas
Tech Red Raiders (12-6, 1-3
Big 12) in Lubbock, Texas,
to continue to rewrite the pro-
gram's record books. The Jayhawks topped the Red Raiders in straight sets (25-21,
25-14, 25-21), the 12th time the team has swept its opponent this season.
Kansas' program record win streak was 15 straight, a record dating back to 1991. That was broken after 24 years on Wednesday night as coach Ray Bechard's team
"I'm proud of this team, but we know it is early October and there are a lot of matches to play still," Bechard said in a news release. "This team has high expectations and high goals for this season, and we know that there will be many upcoming opportunities to take our game to another level."
got to its 16th straight win versus Texas Tc-ch. The team also continued its best start to a season, previously 10-0 in 2001.
"What impressed me the most about tonight was that we showed confidence in what we are trying to do when things weren't working
Texas Tech got out to leads in both the first set — 7-3 — and the third set — 5-1, but Kansas held steady, and especially strong in its defense.
Sophomore right side hitter Kelsie Payne dominated the floor with 17 kills throughout the match and hit a career-high .483 percent. Sophomore outside hitter Madison Ridgon and sophomore middle blocker Janae Hall both added eight kills, respectively. Sophomore setter Ainise Havilli paced the offense with 41 assists.
out as planned - as it did in the start of the first and third sets." Bechard said.
In the back row, every Kansas athlete recorded at least one dig. Junior libero Cassie Wait led the defense with 16 digs.
Next up in the quest for 17 straight is Iowa State. The Cyclones come to Lawrence on Saturday, Oct. 10
Baylor matchup will test quarterback's confidence
CHRISTIAN HARDY
@ByHardy
When Ryan Willis played a full series in a Kansas uniform for the first time in his career last Saturday, he walked off the field with a smile.
The Jayhawks didn't score points and were punting after moving the ball just 15 yards downfield, and he had just been hurried out of the pocket and hit by Iowa State defensive back Jarnor Jones.
Willis popped to his feet, walked off the field, and told coach David Beaty something that made him laugh.
"He just knocked the dog out of me," Beaty remembers Willis saying. "I'm ready to go." It seems that Willis hasn't come down from that moment of being on the field. He got more of it in the fourth quarter, too, as junior Monell Cozart left the game with a shoulder sprain — the same injury that will keep him out of this week's game against Baylor, forcing Willis to step into the starting spot.
"We've seen him with a smile on his face walking around here," Beaty said. "Man, he's excited. I think that's the thing that I'm more encouraged about with him ... He has no shortage of confidence. That's something you can't just give them. Either they have it or they don't."
Willis, in essence, is the team's fourth quarterback. Expected starter Michael Cummings went down with a season-ending knee injury during the spring game; Cozart, the week 1 and regular starter, is dealing with a shoulder sprain; and transfer junior Deondre Ford will require surgery on his thumb and will miss the season.
That leaves the freshman — a confident freshman albeit — in his place. But confidence has its limits. That limit probably lies somewhere before the level of football Baylor, which Vegas has as 44-point favorites, will bring to Lawrence in what is expected to be a seriously lopsided game.
Willis will likely have a more limited playbook than Cozart or Ford did, but it also going to feature something that Beaty has reiterated the freshman does better than any other quarterback: throwing the ball.
"I really think I've said quite a few times from fall camp is how talented this guy is with his arm. I think that's pretty evident. Most of us can see that," Beaty said. "The big thing is just getting him familiar with structure and understanding what he's seeing and how to move the parts around so he's not just looking for an open guy."
Essentially, Willis has the system; he understands everything about Kansas itself, and what offensive coordinator Rob Likens draws up for him. He just has to execute it. And in execution is where questions arise, especially when it's a freshman quarterback under-center.
"That's what this whole week of practice is going to be about," Likens said. "If I call the play, he knows what the play is, he knows this and that. Muscle memory, how quick can he see it, how quick can he get it out of his hand, how quick can he hand it off, how quick can he make the check — all of that stuff, that's what we've got to find out."
That said, Likens knows he has to limit expectations in a game like this - against an offense of this caliber that can put points on the board in a
heartbeat. The Bears are averaging 13 points more per game than any other team in the nation; they average 368.5 yards a game (8th in the nation), and another 376.8 (2nd) on the ground.
Beaty put the Baylor offense in a simple perspective: "If it you miss a tackle, they're gone." That speed is what has allowed them to be so explosive on the offensive end.
"As you're a coordinator, you're thinking, 'Oh man, they're averaging [64] points a game. So you're thinking, 'Oh wow we have to at least score this',' Likens said. "Really, where we're at, you can't get into that game, because it's not going to bring good thought process.
"You just have to think about, okay, what can our guys do? How can I help [Willis] in his first star be as successful as he can be and as the team can be? That's got to be enough."
But maybe, with a shellacking expected by oddsmakers, it's the perfect environment for Willis to improve his craft.
Willis came in last week and took shots downfield — he completed three passes past the 10-yard mark during his short time in the game. Maybe, if he fires his "rocket" arm — which Likens often calls it
well enough, Kansas can do enough to finish the game with a respectable score and valuable game experience to inch him closer to the future of the starting quarterback position at Kansas.
"He's not afraid. He's not afraid to see and throw it. He's pretty decisive," Likens said. "I hate to use the word be patient, I know fans are sick of hearing about all of that stuff, but, really, it's just a process."
— Edited by Maddie Farben