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FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 9, 2011
PAGE 14
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
SOCCER
Team focused on starting strong in weekend series
RYAN MCCARTHY
rmccarthy@kansan.com
On the verge of eclipsing last year's win total of six, the soccer team will travel to West Lafayette, Ind., this weekend to play in the Boilermaker Challenge today and Sunday.
Their first matchup of the weekend will be against the Dayton Flyers who recently dropped out of the Top 25 polls.
Although the Flyers are an unfamiliar opponent, the Jayhawks (5-1) are more focused on interior development.
"I think the main focus is us and how we play as a group," junior midfielder Amy Grow said. "I think
we just need to put confidence in our abilities and let it play out from there."
The coaching staff highlighted the team's physical and focus against last week's opponents
Fortunately for the Jayhawks, they roster players such as Madi Hillis who compete with a mean streak.
Hills' aggressiveness helped her team defeat South Dakota State last Sunday.
That intensity can work against her as well, as she received a yellow card during the 64th minute of the match.
"It just takes one person making a good tackle and our momentum can start going that way," said Hillis.
As for the rest of the team, they realize that performing physically is something to focus on during practice.
"I think we just need to put confidence in our abilities and let it play out from there."
"I think a lot of that comes from working hard during the game," Grow said. "It's just a mentality that we need to improve and that's being addressed this week in practice because we definitely hit a slump."
last weekend."
AMY GROW Junior
after the team fell behind by a goal. "It would be nice if we could eliminate giving up that goal because we
Another quality Kansas continues to benefit from is the ability to come from behind in games.
haven't given up that many goals, but we haven't had a shutout either," coach Mark Francis said.
Four out of the five wins this season came
Solidifying that first clean sheet starts with shoring up the back line. While the newcomers on the front line have quickly adapted to the college level, Francis knows it's not a seamless transition for the defenders.
"Offensively some of the goals we've been scoring is a good individual play by one kid, but in the back that's not the way it works," Francis said. "They need to all be in unison and all be together, so that part takes longer to get together usually."
Still Kansas is not worried about the other components of its game coming together. The Jayhawks know the team's supplementary abilities will help them continue to push forward.
The first game of the weekend is against Dayton at 4 p.m. on Friday night. The tournament finishes up on Sunday at 10 a.m. as Kansas plays the winner of Friday's game between Purdue and Cal State Northridge.
Edited by Josh Kantor
NICK SMITH/KANSAN
Madi Hillis, a sophomore defender from Edmond, Oka., is fighting for position during Sunday's soccer match between DSDU at the KU Soccer Complex in Lawrence.
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Humanitarian Bowl. Last week in their opener, they put up 49 points against Army, a touchdown more than Kansas scored against FCS opponent McNeese State. Its top two running backs each averaged 9.9 and 7.3 yards per carry, and their quarterback, senior Chandler Harnish, threw for five touchdowns. So yeah. Northern Illinois is good. Good enough for Vegas oddsmakers to make them nearly a touchdown favorite in Memorial Stadium on Saturday.
Kansas football is still a year or two away from doing any kind of damage in whatever conference it will be in, but a 2-0 start that includes an early upset could do wonders for a young team looking to firmly remove that rearview mirror from its perch.
Edited by Lindsey Deiter
sophomore quarterback Jordan Webb averaged more than 20 yards a completion, including three touchdown passes that were all more than 25 yards.
"I think the other thing that's going to be important for us is making sure that we have a 2-to-1 ratio when it comes to big plays," Gill said. "I'm talking about 20 yards or more that we need to be 2-to-1 ratio as far as our big plays in our favor versus them with the plus 20 yards."
Coach Turner Gill and his staff would like to see a similar effort from their team this Saturday against Northern Illinois.
Kansas ran the same amount of plays as McNeese State on Saturday, had the ball for nearly ten minutes less, and scored 18 more points than its opponent.
JORDAN WEBB
Sophomore quarterback
Offensive coordinator Chuck Long said the big plays that were present Saturday were missing from the offense last season.
"Big plays are huge in college football," Long said. "It's very
opened the second possession with a 30-yard run. The freshmen running backs added play-
making capabilities as well.
Darrian Miller averaged 4.8
yards a carry and Tony Pierson
averaged 14.6 yards a carry.
ASHLEIGH LEE/KANSAN
Even though the run-game is full of playmakers, the receivers are without one of their top players. Senior Daymond
"We feel like we have a running game that is built for explosive plays," Webb said. "We can get the 70 and 60 yarders out of the running game just as easy as the passing game."
Freshman receiver JaCorey Shepherd, who caught three passes for 107 yards and two touchdowns in his Kansas debut, will replace Patterson with his 4.5 speed.
The newfound, ground-heavy attack is far away from the spread offense Mark Mangino ran, but that doesn't mean that a more balanced style won't provide just as many opposing defense-killing, scoring opportunities.
"When you look at steady offenses like that in the past, they are traditionally run-play action pass teams and a lot of times they get open," receivers coach David Beaty said. "They don't have a whole lot of passes in the game, but a lot of times they count for big points. That's the direction our offense is headed in."
Sophomore quarterback Jordan Webb hands the ball to freshman running back Darrian Miller. "We did exactly what we wanted to do. We ran the ball and as quartbacks and receivers we made the plays that we needed to and that's the team we need to be," Webb said.
- Edited by Jennifer DiDonato
MEN'S BASKETBALL
Falkenstein to announce Legends of the Phog game
A
Legends of the Phlog game
That familiar Max Fakkenstein drawl will return before college basketball season even begins.
Falkenstein and his iconic voice will join Dave Armstrong in broadcasting the Legends of the Phog alumni game at 4 p.m. on Sept. 24 at Allen Fieldhouse.
game is now officially sold out, according to Kansas Athletics.
Brian Hanni and Bud Stallworth will announce for the Jayhawk Radio Network, which will broadcast the game to the state — KCSP (610 Sports) in Kansas City, WIBW (580 AM) in Topeka and KLWN (1320 AM) in Lawrence.
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Max Rothman