THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
MONDAY, OCTOBER 5. 2009
SPORTS
5B
SOCCER
Trouble in Texas: Jayhawks fall twice in one weekend
BY JOEL PETTERSON jpetterson@kansan.com
It was a long weekend in Texas for the Kansas soccer team as it fell to 0-3 in Big 12 play with two narrow losses to Texas A&M and Texas.
WEEKEND BIG 12 SOCCER RESULTS
Friday, October 2 Sunday, October 4
Nebraska — 3,
Wisconsin-Green Bay — 1 Texas Tech — 3,
Oklahoma — 1
Colorado — 5,
Oklahoma — 1 Nebraska — 2,
Oklahoma State — 0
Texas Tech — 1,
Baylor — 0 Iowa State — 1,
Northern Iowa — 0
Texas — 1,
Missouri -- 1 (20T) Baylor — 2,
Colorado — 1
Iowa State — 2,
Oklahoma State — 1 Texas A&M — 4
Missouri — 4
No. 19 Kansas (8-4-1) first faced No. 15 Texas A&M (7-4-0) Friday in a battle of the Big 12's two nationally ranked teams. It was an intense back-and-forth match played in front of an equally intense crowd of 2,606, the largest that Kansas has seen all year. Junior Cattlin Noble said the team fed off the hostile crowd's energy.
The Aggies broke the game open with two goals in the first 27 minutes. Katie Hamilton scored off her own rebound in the 16th minute. Then Texas A&M was awarded a penalty kick 11 minutes later, which Texas A&M junior Rachel Shipley easily converted.
"Of course the fans are yelling things that are obscene and whatnot at you, but you just use that as motivation to prove them wrong and play any better," Noble said. "You can't get a better atmosphere to play a soccer game in."
Senior Estelle Johnson put Kansas on the board in the 42nd minute when she collected a rebound off a corner kick and put a high shot past the goalkeeper, making the score 2-1 in favor of Texas A&M to end the first half.
The gap widened just minutes into the second half, however, as Texas A&M's Bri Young elevated above Kansas's defense on a corner kick and headed the ball into the top of the net.
But once again the Jayhawks responded to cut the lead to one. Freshman Shelby Williamson scored her fifth goal of the season in the 53rd minute by finishing a cross from sophomore Emily Cressy deep in the penalty area.
However, the Aggies were able to pull away again 11 minutes later with another header goal, this time from Shleyp, who was able to beat the Jayhawk defense and head the ball from a free kick deep within
the jayhawk's half of the field. The goal put Kansas down two with 26 minutes remaining.
Noble was able to bring the layhawks within one again with a goal in the 88th minute, but it wouldn't be enough to avoid a 4-3 defeat.
Coach Mark Francis said his team handled the atmosphere well but was disappointed with the errors that cost his players the game.
"We gave up two goals on set pieces, which we shouldn't do," he said. "We made some mistakes and got punished for them."
Kansas still had one more game to play last weekend, and the team faced Texas (5-5-2) on Sunday in
Freshman forward Whitney Berry fights to maintain possession of the ball during the second half of the match against South Dakota. Berry had two assists in the 4-0 victory against South Dakota.
1
Jerry Wang/KANSAN FILE PHOTO
Austin, Texas.
The Jayhawks were eager for a different result than Friday's and came out firing with five shots in the first 12 minutes. But the next 35 minutes produced listless play from both sides, and the first half ended at 0-0.
But the lajhwakes were unable to keep the lead very long, as Texas equalized with a long ball that appeared to be a cross, but instead
Kansas regained its intensity about 10 minutes into the second half and managed a few quality shots on goal. The pressure paid off in the 59th minute, when Noble edged in front of a defender and deflected freshman Whitney Berry's cross into the goal with a soft, floating header.
Follow Kansan
soccer writer Joel
Petterson at twitter.com/j_petter.
slipped just underneath the crossbar. Senior goalkeeper Julie Hanley got a hand on the ball but couldn't stop it.
Kansas once again turned up the pressure and produced a couple of quality shots, but in the 77th minute a costly tackle in its own box resulted in a penalty kick for Texas. Longhorn sophomore Kylie Doniak calmly buried the shot in the bottom left corner to give Texas the 2-1 lead.
It was Kansas' fourth penalty kick given up on the year.
"We're making stupid tackles in the box when we don't need to." Francis said. "Again, it's just mistakes."
Despite last-ditch efforts from Williamson and Noble, the game ended at 2-1, giving Kansas its fourth loss of the year, including three against Big 12 opponents.
Now that the team's four-game road streak is over, Francis is trying to refocus his team on winning in Lawrence.
“There’s just no question: We have to win at home” he said.
The team will get its first chance to do exactly that when it plays Texas Tech this Friday at 4 p.m. at the Jayhawk Soccer Complex.
NASCAR
Stewart holds on to champion title in Sprint Cup Series
- Edited by Abbey Strusz
ASSOCIATED PRESS
KANSAS CITY, Kan. — Tony Stewart found himself in danger of letting a title slip away after just two rounds in the Chase for the Sprint Cup championship.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
The two-time champion wasn't exactly in a must-win situation Sunday at Kansas Speedway, but a rocky start to the Chase put him in search of some very big finishes before leaders Mark Martin and Jimmie Johnson put the title out of reach.
With a gutsy call on the final pit stop, Stewart ended his slide and sliced into Martin's lead in the standings. His fourth win of the season — but first in eight races — moved him up one spot in the standings to fourth, and his deficit was cut from 106 points to 67 behind Martin.
"That's almost half," Stewart said in Victory Lane.
champion Johnson, who finished ninth after a series of bad pit calls took him out of contention.
Martin, the pole-sitter, finished seventh and maintained his lead in the standings. He's up 18 points over three-time defending series
But Martin wasn't in a celebratory mood after. There were only three drivers within 106 points of him at the start of the race. As he left Kansas, the field had been doubled to six.
"Look at it however you want," Martin said. "What is there, seven more to go? I don't think we should be getting all hyped up about the tally right now, you know? We've got a lot of racing to go."
Greg Biffle went to pit road as the leader, while Stewart was second. Biffle and his crew still didn't seem sure of what to do as he pulled into his spot, but Stewart crew chief Darian Grubb was confident two tires was the answer.
The leaders went to pit road debating with their crew chiefs whether to take two or four tires on what was likely going to be the final chance to gain track position.
The final outcome came down to strategy, and it started to shape as a race that would be decided on fuel mileage. Then Dale Earnhardt Jr., who led 41 laps early before bad breaks ruined his day, brought out the final caution of the race when an engine problem spilled oil on the track.
"He's like that. He's a little gutsy, That's a good thing," Stewart said. "You don't question him, you just know it's the right thing to do."
Stewart raced off pit road into the lead, with Kasey Kahne and Johnson in pursuit. Both also took two tires.
Biffle, the first driver to take
four tires, restarted in fourth and admitted to overruling crew chief Tony Stewart celebrates after winning the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series' Price Chopper 400 auto race at Kansas Speedway on Sunday in Kansas City. Greg Erwin, who only wanted to
"I feel bad. Probably the wrong thing to do," said Bittle.
Stewart took off on the restart with 26 laps to go, and all the drivers on four tires quickly sliced through the field. But it was Jeff Gordon who made up the most ground. He was closing in on Stewart but simply ran out laps to
catch him and settled for second.
Gordon, who battled a poorly handling car at the start of the race, was thrilled with the final outcome — until a NASCAR official informed him held only gained one spot in the standings to seventh.
"That's it? Can't you read it
different? Just tell me I'm fifth" he said.
Only two Chase drivers finished outside the top 11: Ryan Newman, was penalized for speeding off pit road midway through the race, was 22nd and Brian Vickers finished 37th after blowing his motor.
VOLLEYBALL Team swept by Texas A&M, winless on road in Big 12
The Kansas volleyball team is still without a Big 12 road victory after it was swept by Texas A&M on Saturday (17-25, 22-25, 23-25). Kansas fell to 9-5 (2-3 Big 12) on the season while Texas A&M improved to 10-3 (3-2 Big 12).
Injured junior outside hitter Karina Garlington posted a season-low five kills and had five errors, but sophomore outside hitter Alison Mayfield continued her good season. Mayfield racked up 18 kills, just one short of her career high. Junior defensive specialist Melissa Manda had a match-high 18 digs and recorded her 11th straight game with double-11d killicks.
Kansas committed nine errors in the first set and a strong Texas A&M offense won 25-17. Texas A&M recorded an impressive 21 kills in the second set on its way to winning 25-22.
Kansas did not give up despite being down 0-2 and stayed close during the third set. But after the score was tied 23-23, Texas A&M finished Kansas off. 25-23.
This Wednesday Kansas will attempt to earn its first Big 12 road victory at No. 10 Nebraska. Coach Ray Bechard will attempt to pick up his 900th collegiate victory.
HOMECOMING CELEBRATION AT THE KU BOOKSTORES
— Zach Getz
FREE face paint when you wear your homecoming t-shirt into the KU Bookstores at the Kansas Union
t-shirt available for only $10 at the KU Bookstores
Oct.10
FREE KU t-shirt for the first 1000 people to stop by the KU Bookstores at the Kansas Union after the homecoming football game
FREE KU hat snack bowl with any purchase
$5 OFF any hat by The Game
more than per customer. White supplies last.
STUDY ABROAD @ KU:
EXTENDED DEADLINES
Deadlines for most 2010 Spring, Spring Break and Winter Break Programs
WHERE ARE YOU GOING? KU OFFICE OF STUDYABROAD
Office of Study Abroad, 100 Lippincott Hall // 705.064.3742 // www.studyabroad.ku.edu // osakku.edu