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THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 16,2011
PAGE 9
SOCCER
Jayhawks have little time to rest between seasons
Kansas players sit on the field during halftime reflecting on the first half of a game earlier in the season. Kansas lost to Georgia last Sunday and ended its season 11-9-1
TRAVIS YOUNG/KANSAN FILE PHOTO
RYAN MCCARTHY
rmccarthy@kansan.com
A year's work boils down to 21 games between August and early November for the Kansas soccer team.
"Now that the season is over, we need to just look at the positive aspects of it," said sophomore defender Madi Hillis. "From this year to last year, we've made so many steps."
As the season ended last Sunday with a loss to Georgia, there's a sense of disappointment, but also an excitement for the future.
The jayhawks made major strides from 2010 as the team progressed by five victories over last season's mark and made the program's first NCAA appearance since 2008.
Kansas soccer coach Mark Francis said that he saw massive improvements from all of the players. Some of the key contributors to the team included Hillis who moved from the midfield to defender this year.
Junior midfielder Whitney Berry also helped point the team in the right direction. After being a quiet leader for her first two seasons, Berry stepped into a vocal role this year.
"We all just came together and decided that enough was enough and it was time to get down to work." Berry said.
The Jayhawks had an impressive start to the year as they won five of their first six games. However, once conference season rolled around, their record leveled out. Kansas finished the regular season with a 3-5 conference mark.
One aspect of the game that the Jayhawks hope to work on this offseason is defensive
consistency. Kansas finished last in the Big 12 with 46 goals allowed over its 21 games, Francis said that both the midfielders and defenders will work on their one-on-one defending in the winter months. Even with the challenges
defensively, the Jayhawks put together a potent offensive attack.
Freshman forward Ingrid Vidal was the best of the bunch as she earned All-Big 12 First Team honors. The assertive manner of the offense was one of the reasons
why the offense clicked so well this season. With 20 of 23 players returning, there are high hopes for another NCAA bid next fall.
"The way my team competed this year and the way we worked so hard for everything we accomplished is probably the biggest highlight of the year", Berry said.
Kansas will now take the rest of this week off before doing some fitness testing before Thanksgiving break.
the team will focus on strength and conditioning with assistant strength coach Patricia Dietz instead of soccer workouts.
Over the next couple of weeks,
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Second-half run fuels Bavlor to 10-point victory
WACO, Texas — Q-squared proved to be quite a winning formula for 11th-ranked Baylor. That's Quincy old and Quincy new.
Senior Quincy Acy and freshman Quincy Miller sparked a second-half run that finally put the Bears in control in a 77-67 victory over San Diego State on Tuesday.
Miller's inside basket broke a tie and started an 18-5 run that put Baylor (3-0) ahead to stay. It was Acy's reverse, one-handed slam dunk around San Diego State's tallest player in the middle of that spurt that really changed the momentum while Baylor also turned up the defensive pressure.
"Quincy Acy's dunk got everybody fired up, and then we were hot," guard Bray Hestip said. "We were drunk, and they just seemed like in shock by it."
Miller, a 6-foot-9 forward, had 20 points and has led the Bears in scoring in all three games this season. He had seven points in that 5-minute spurt early in the second half, while Acy scored nine of his 13 points during that stretch.
"Acy is the backbone of this team in my opinion. He's a four-year veteran. He only cares about winning. Miller is terrifically talented." San Diego state coach Steve Fisher said, "They've got a nice blend of youth and age and experience and that's why they'a a good team."
Associated Press
MEN'S BASKETBALL
Two from Class of 2012 sign their Letter of Intent
KORY CARPENTER
kcarpenter@kansan.com
Zach Peters and Landen Lucas have signed national Letters of Intent to play basketball at Kansas next season, KU Athletics announced Tuesday.
Peters, a 6-foot-9, 240-pound forward from Prestonwood Academy in Plano, Texas, averaged 15.3 points and 9 rebounds as a junior last season. He is a three-star recruit according to Rivals.com and had scholarship offers from Texas, North Carolina and Kentucky, among others.
"Zach's big. He's a legit 6-9, 240-pound high school senior that can really shoot the basketball," coach Bill Self said in a statement Monday. "He's big and rugged. We can play him to where he's big enough to defend the five or skilled enough to play in at the four."
Lucas is considered the top
prospect in the state of Oregon heading into his senior season. The 6-foot-10, 230-pound forward returned home to Portland, Ore., after spending his junior season at Findlay Prep in Henderson, Nev., last season. Rivals.com gave Lucas three stars, and he chose Kansas over Tennessee, Washington and Arizona, among others.
"We've seen him play a lot and he came to camp this past summer," Self said in a statement. "We're fortunate he fell in love with this place when he came out here in the summer and we were able to convince him on his official visit this past weekend."
Both players will join fellow Kansas commit Perry Ellis, who signed a Letter of Intent last Wednesday.
Edited by Jonathan Shorman
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