Winning Big 12 tournament matches as a lower seed is nothing new for the Kansas soccer team.
Winning them by four goals, however, is a bit of a new experience.
The seventh-seeded Jayhawks used three goals in an eight-minute span to turn a narrow lead over No. 2 seed West Virginia on Monday night into a resounding result. KU claimed a 4-0 win at Garvey-Rosenthal Soccer Stadium in Fort Worth, Texas, matching its largest margin of victory under head coach Nate Lie.
“The scoreline’s flattering to us,” Lie said in a video posted on social media. “The first half, the first 20 minutes, we were under pressure. West Virginia’s an awesome team. We’ve played them, this is the fourth time and the other three were super close. So this isn’t a representation of anything like that. But once you start scoring goals they become contagious, energy becomes contagious, and I think we did a great job of, when we had momentum, keeping momentum.”
KU will face No. 3 Colorado in a semifinal matchup on Wednesday night as the Jayhawks look to defend their tournament title.
“We knew it was going to be super hard, but we expected to win this game,” Lie said. “And so, like, they’re happy, they enjoyed it, but let’s not overcelebrate it. We didn’t come here to win one game, we came here to see how far we can go.”
It was a night of wide-ranging contributions for KU, which in the final minutes had stalwart forward Lexi Watts surpass her career best with her 10th goal of the season, but also went ahead on Jocelyn Herrema’s first goal since Oct. 23, 2023, and got the first-ever goal from redshirt junior midfielder Mackenzie Hammontree.
“It takes a lot for me to get super excited for a goal,” Lie said, “and when Kenz scored I was running around on the sideline, jumping up and down.”
WVU, which drew with KU 2-2 at Rock Chalk Park on Oct. 16, started the game on the front foot and forced two early saves from Sophie Dawe, who did not need to make any more the rest of the night. Herrema’s opener arrived as a result of a heady run by Watts and some lackluster defending from the Mountaineers. Bailey Herfurth saved Watts’ initial effort on goal after she had zoomed up the left wing, but Herrema was able to sneak behind WVU defender Roxanne Vilain and beat her to the rebound.
“Lexi did a lot in that play, but we tell our players to do the selfless running,” Lie said. “You never know when the ball’s going to bounce. And so Joc got there.”
Herfurth made one save soon afterward and KU entered the break with a 1-0 lead.
“I don’t think we’ve started second halves very well this year,” Lie said, “and so I asked the team, I begged the team, I pleaded with the team, challenged the team to come out focused in the second half.”
The Jayhawks listened. They outshot the Mountaineers, who entered the night No. 12 in the RPI (one spot ahead of KU), 17-2 after the break.
They didn’t reap the rewards until the 77th minute, when freshman Lydia Viets heeded the advice of her coaches to send crosses in “early and on the ground,” as Lie put it. She received a pass from Faith Johnston in a threatening position and picked out midfielder Kate Langfelder at the near post for a one-touch goal.
“It’s really nice when things you talk about in training and video show up on the field,” Lie said.
Hammontree and Watts scored in the span of a minute late in the match. Hammontree’s goal occurred because WVU was sloppy at the back. Nyema Ingleton popped the ball up in the air, Anna Hauer barely grazed it and then Ava Arnold’s attempt at a clearance went directly to Hammontree, who immediately shot and scored.
“I think everyone put in a shift today,” Hammontree said in a press release. “We say shift mentality is so important, and I think every single person that came off the bench made a role and made an impact in the game. It was really exciting.”
Watts got her own goal when Saige Wimes put her head on a long ball sent down the field by Caroline Castans, resulting in a fairly straightforward opportunity for the veteran forward, and sealing the final 4-0 result.
“We had the mentality that we had to play our best from the first minute to the 90th minute and that’s kind of been a little bit of a struggle that we’ve had,” Herrema said in the release. “We’ve had some ups and downs, so I think that in this game we really came in with the mindset that we have to go hard the whole time.”
Finding a path to victory was not quite as straightforward for Colorado later on Monday night. The Buffaloes went down 2-0 to No. 6 seed UCF before scoring three straight in the second half, including a brace from Hope Leyba. That pair of goals moved her into a tie for the national lead with 21 on the year.
She had another goal in CU’s 2-1 victory over KU at Rock Chalk Park last Thursday, but it was Reagan Kotschau who deflated the Jayhawks with her late-game free kick.
Colorado is now the highest-seeded team remaining in the tournament after KU beat WVU and No. 1 TCU, hosting the early rounds, lost to No. 8 BYU in penalty kicks. No. 4 Texas Tech also lost in penalties to No. 5 Baylor.
Kickoff between KU and CU on Wednesday night in Fort Worth is set for 7 p.m.
