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Hannah Edelman/KANSAN
Senior middle blocker Tayler Soucie and junior setter Ainise Havilli go up to block a spike from Arkansas' Danielle Harbin. The Jayhawks went on to beat the Razorbacks three sets to two on Saturday.
Kansas bounces back,beats Southeastern Louisiana 3-0
▶ TIFFANY LITTLER
@nii33
This weekend brought the first loss of the season to the Kansas volleyball team (11-1) at the Stacey Clark Classic. After defeating Xavier (6-6) in five sets early on Friday (25-15, 20-25, 23-25, 25-23, 15-5). The No. 4 Jayhawks took on No. 14 Purdue later that evening.
Kansas' regular-season non-conference winning streak came to an end for the first time since 2014 at 25 matches. The Jayhawks took their first loss of the season as they fell to Purdue (9-1) in four sets (25-21, 24-26, 25-19, 25-14).
"We played a good team tonight. They were prepared and ready," said coach Ray Bechard in a press release. "We weren't."
Bottom line is, we have to learn from what we saw tonight."
Kansas seemed to follow that advice as they went on to face Southeasten Louisiana (1-11) for the teams' first-ever meeting on Saturday. This match proved easier for the Jayhawks as they won in just three sets (25-15, 25-17, 25-12).
It was a successful day for a pair of freshmen. Outside hitter Jada Burse saw her first career start and led the team with nine kills. Burse recorded five kills in just the first set. Defensive specialist Allie Nelson recorded her first career ace in the third set, followed by two more.
Bechard was pleased with the performance of some players who don't see much playing time such as Nelson and junior
defensive specialists Addison Barry and Tori Miller.
They work their butt off and are extremely diligent about what they do."
Ray Bechard Kansas coach
"They make it work in practice. They work their butt off and are extremely diligent about what they do," said Bechard. "Allie potentially could be our libero at some point in her career at Kansas. That's how good we feel about her...I was happy that Allie could get in there. I thought that's probably how she would play when
she got the opportunity."
The Jayhawks almost had as many service aces (seven) as they did service errors (eight). The Kansas defense held the Lions to a .011 hitting percentage. Whereas the Kansas offense had a .245 hitting percentage with 41 kills out of 106 attempts.
"I thought we performed pretty well. The hitting efficiency was a little bit to be desired and certainly that's something we're going to have to clean up prior to next week," Bechard said.
KANSAN.COM/SPORTS |MONDAY, SEPT. 19, 2016
Kansas will return home to host Oklahoma on Wednesday to kick off conference conference play. Game time is set for 6 p.m. at Horejsi Family Athletics Center.
Andrew Rosenthal/KANSAN
Andrew Rosenthal/KANSAN
Senior defender Aurélie Gagnet prepares to kick the ball on August 21 against Marquette. Kansas won 1-0.
Kansas soccer loses draws in California
SKYLAR ROLSTAD
@SkyRolSports
In the most difficult weekend of the season for Kansas soccer, the team came away with a loss to 12th-ranked USC and a draw against No. 25 Pepperdine.
Southern California punished Kansas for defensive mistakes in a 2-0 loss. On Sunday against Pepperdine, the Jayhawks notched a 1-1 draw after double overtime expired. Grace Hagan scored the only goal on the weekend for the Jayhawks.
Though the Jayhawks suffered a shutout loss to USC, the team turned in a positive performance, one Kansas coach Mark Francis was proud of.
"I felt like we had a good game plan and the kids executed it exactly the way we wanted," Francis said. "We really made it tough on them for a good part of the game but, unfortunately, good teams like that take advantage of mistakes and they did that on two of our mistakes."
The Jayhawks made it through the first half scoreless. The Trojans jumped into the lead early, just under two minutes into the first half. Kansas held USC to seven shots in the first half to its six shots.
Things went downhill in the second half as the Jayhawks conceded more possessions to the Trojans. The Trojans took 14 shots in the second half, scoring both of their goals, and held Kansas to 5 shots.
Against the Pepperdine Waves on Sunday, Kansas
continued a scoring trend in recent games, save for Friday's loss, with Hagan scoring to take the lead in the first half. Besides the loss to USC, the only other time the Jayhawks have been shut out this season was Sept. 2, in a 1-0 double overtime loss to Nebraska.
Despite only two goals on the day, the match was packed with offense, but not much accuracy. Kansas and Pepperdine combined for 41 shots. Kansas, however, was only forced to make five saves and Pepperdine made six.
Fatigue after travel and tough matches for both teams on Friday must have played their part on Sunday. The Jayhawks took the lead in the 16th minute thanks to Hagan. Also in the first half, the Waves grabbed their goal in the 36th minute.
In both games this weekend, Kansas made a change in goalkeepers. Regan Gibbs started both games in goal for the Jayhawks, replacing regular starter Maddie Dobyns. Gibbs also played the second half of Kansas's 3-0 win over UMKC last Sunday.
After surviving a couple tough tests against ranked teams, the Jayhawks gear up for the start of the conference season.
Kansas takes on Texas Tech next Friday, Sept. 23, at Rock Chalk Park. That match kicks off at 7 p.m.
- Edited by Chandler Boese
Turnovers punish KU in blowout loss to Memphis
BRIAN MINI
@brianminimum
Chances of a comeback last week against Ohio were stopped by sloppy turnovers. On the road against Memphis, it was much worse in a 43-7 loss Saturday afternoon.
Redshirt junior quarterback Montell Cozart looks to throw the ball to a receiver against Rhode Island on Sept. 3.
Kansas won its home opener 55-6.
The first half was filled with turnovers, three coming from redshirt junior quarterback Montell Cozart and the fourth from sophomore Ryan Willis. It was only slightly better in the second half with Cozart's interception and sophomore Steven Sims' fumble.
Thirteen of Memphis' 33 first half points came from these turnovers, which included a Cozart interception returned for a touchdown at the end of the half.
The lone offensive bright
Missy Minear/KANSAN
spot came on a 66-yard touchdown run by freshman running back Khalil Herbert.
Aside from that, the offense struggled and suffered from false starts and unsuccessful passes that started from the backfield. Kansas finished with a total of five penalties in the first half and finished the game with eight.
Despite the lopsided score, the biggest problem for the defense was an injury suffered by starting junior linebacker Joe Dineen, who left in the first quarter of the game.
To make matters worse, Kansas actually led in time of possession by over a minute.
After Cozart's struggles in the first half, head coach David Beaty sent Willis into
the game for the second half. The sophomore's limited playing time in the first half culminated in a fumble.
Beaty's early season tradition of alternating quarterbacks continued in the second half as well. Cozart finished with a 59 percent completion percentage for 87 yards and Willis finished with 69 percent passing for 80 yards.
At first it looked as if Cozart had fixed his turnover problems in the second half but that changed during a promising drive when Cozart threw his second pick of the game with Kansas at the 23-yard line of Memphis.
Despite the final score, Kansas' defense wasn't as bad as the loss would make it seem. The defense finished with five sacks and 10
tackles for loss.
Sophomore defensive end Dorance Armstrong Jr. had his best game of the season and finished with three tackles for a loss and
two sacks.
Cornerback Mike Lee
Aside from Herbert, who finished with 74 yards on 6 carries, there were two more standout freshmen.
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finished third on the team with four tackles, while wide receiver Keegan Brewer caught three passes for 36 yards.
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