The Kansas soccer team earned a chance to defend its Big 12 Championship title and got a measure of revenge along the way.
Freshman Lydia Viets scored the first goal of her career in the 74th minute, and it went down as the game-winner as KU took down No. 3 seed (and No. 5 in national RPI rating) Colorado by a score of 2-1 on Wednesday night at Garvey-Rosenthal Stadium in Fort Worth, Texas.
“Adding to our mystique and our folklore here, it’s another player who hasn’t scored all year (who) scores the game winner in the semifinal,” head coach Nate Lie said in a video posted on social media. “We tell the team all the time, ‘Anyone can be the hero. Anyone can change the game.’ And in this case Lydia did.”
The Jayhawks, the No. 7 seed in the tournament, overcame a 1-0 deficit imposed by Faith Leyba’s first-half goal, seized control of the run of play and avenged their previous 2-1 senior-night loss to the Buffaloes.
“I think Colorado is an awesome, awesome team that I think has a long future ahead in the NCAA Tournament,” Lie said. “They are not easy to play in any way, shape or form. I’m glad we don’t have to play them again.”
KU will now face No. 8 seed BYU, which has pulled off a couple upsets of its own, in the tournament final on Saturday night at 7 p.m. in Waco, Texas. The Jayhawks previously beat the Cougars 3-1 in Provo, Utah, on Oct. 23.
CU striker Hope Leyba, who entered the night tied for the national lead with 21 goals on the season, was held to just two shots on the night, though she nearly equalized for the Buffaloes in the final minutes. KU and CU tied with 13 shots apiece on the evening, but the Jayhawks got six on goal to their opponents’ four.
“I think we limited her dangerous chances,” Lie said. “I think we didn’t let her behind easy. But she’s scary every second of the game, and I think Faith scored the goal. We didn’t stop (Hope), we didn’t neutralize her, we paid her the attention she deserved. We defended in numbers and got through the game.”
Saige Wimes had the 55th-minute equalizer that helped turn the tide for KU in the second half. Lexi Watts, who set up Wimes’ goal, led all players with five shots.
Colorado largely kept KU in its own half in a quiet opening stretch that included one shot, an attempt from Ava Priest that was easily corralled by goalkeeper Sophie Dawe.
“We didn’t start off great again, just were, I thought, a little timid, a little hesitant, on our back foot,” Lie said. “Colorado, let’s give them credit for that. They changed shapes. We played them (six) days ago and they changed shapes, so that took a minute to settle into.”
Watts whirled around to strike a ground cross from Livvy Moore, but she couldn’t get strong enough contact to challenge CU goalie Jordan Nytes. Several minutes later, she outmuscled Greer Maguire for a ball and forced a tougher save from Nytes, but KU couldn’t get anything off the ensuing corner kick.
An uneasy series of corners as the half crossed its midway point resulted in a significant setback for KU in the 27th minute. Priest’s service found Emerson Layne at the near post, and she centered the ball before Dawe could snag it. Faith Leyba, the more defensively inclined twin sister of CU’s go-to goal scorer, got her head to the ball for a go-ahead goal.
A substitute-heavy lineup put increased pressure on the Buffaloes’ defense in the lead-up to halftime, but CU resisted the Jayhawks’ assault on the box.
“I was actually thankful we got into halftime down 1-0, because I just felt like the momentum was against us,” Lie said. “I didn’t think that we looked like Kansas soccer that we try to pride ourselves on being.”
KU held a 6-5 advantage on shots at halftime, but CU’s 5-3 lead in corner kicks proved the more telling statistic. Each keeper had at that point faced two shots on target.
The Jayhawks played with more confidence and control to start the second half and didn’t take long to break through. Wimes led KU on a counterattack, set up by Jordan Fjelstad’s key block, that CU’s Caley Swierenga was able to temporarily halt with a tackle, but she deflected the ball right to Watts. From the right wing, Watts outpaced a pair of Buffaloes to center the ball back to Wimes for the equalizer. Nytes and the Buffs appealed for offside to no avail.
“We weren’t knocking on the door,” Lie said. “It kind of came out of nowhere, and it absolutely changed the game.”
CU earned a pair of corner kicks again in short order. The second arrived when Lane bounced a ball into a threatening position right in front of Dawe for Hope Leyba, but KU was able to deflect it out of bounds.
Faith Leyba slid to block Emika Kawagishi’s one-touch shot on an open net in the 73rd minute after Nytes went out of position to attend to a cross by Caroline Castans. But the situation turned sour for Leyba a moment later when Viets shot a rocket that bounced off her leg and past Nytes to give KU the lead a moment later.
With four minutes remaining, Hope Leyba somehow connected with the ball in a cluster of players and popped it up over a sliding Dawe, but it took a deflection off a Jayhawk and went over the bar. CU did not get anything done on the corner kick that followed.
“I think Jordan (Fjelstad) at center center back made a huge adjustment,” Lie said, reviewing the match generally. “She was kind of our quarterback in the second half … I thought Emily Tobin was a monster all game. Against a team that’s as good in the air as anyone we’ve seen, Emily stood up big time against them.”
The Jayhawks improved to 14-4-3 on the year and boosted their chances of a top-eight seed in the NCAA Tournament. If KU could reach the top eight, it would earn the opportunity to host as many as three postseason matches.
First, the Jayhawks must get past the BYU Cougars, who demolished Baylor 4-0 on Wednesday evening.
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