The Kansas soccer team claimed its first road victory of the season in dominant fashion on Sunday afternoon, as the Jayhawks routed Yale 4-0 at Reese Stadium in New Haven, Connecticut.
“This was a good professional performance by our team,” KU coach Nate Lie said in a press release. “I thought the first road game of the year (a tie at Utah State on Aug. 24), we didn’t show up particularly well. This was a tough opponent, we kept the ball away from them, and we kept the game on our terms.”
No. 22 KU (5-0-2) outshot Yale 19-3, with 10 attempts on goal to the Bulldogs’ two. Sophomore Jillian Gregorski led the way with five shots, three of which were on target, in just 55 minutes of action, but the four goals went to four different Jayhawks: Livvy Moore, Jordan Rowan, Lexi Watts and Saige Wimes.
Moore opened the scoring in the seventh minute when she controlled a ball that bounced off a Yale defender, played it over to her left foot and rocketed a shot past goalkeeper Kyla Holmes.
Holmes saved a second shot by Moore soon afterward and dove to her left to deny Gregorski’s free kick in the 27th minute, but had no answer for Rowan in the 38th. Jocelyn Herrema whirled around on the left wing to hit the wide-open freshman streaking toward the goal, and Holmes didn’t have the positioning required to stop Rowan’s dead-center shot, which found the back of the net.
KU goalkeeper Sophie Dawe made her first save of the match on Anita Thorvaldsdottir shortly before halftime and the Jayhawks took a 2-0 lead into the interval.
Moore earned her second assist of the year when she fed Watts, who sent home a low shot from the left side in front of a sliding Bulldog defender.
The Jayhawks concluded their scoring in the 82nd minute when Caroline Castans picked out Wimes at the back post, and the redshirt junior forward headed the ball back across the goal for her first goal of the season (she scored five in 2024). Freshman Molly Shepherd, from Oklahoma City, was also credited for her first career assist on the play.
Redshirt freshman goalkeeper Addison Tauscher cameoed in place of Dawe in the final 12 minutes of the game, making her second career appearance after she played 27 in KU’s season-opening 5-2 victory over Missouri State.
The Jayhawks had a week in between matches ahead of their trip to Yale, and they will have another week before they travel to face Liberty on Sunday at 11 a.m. Central Time. That will be KU’s final nonconference match of the season.
Sarah Buchanan/Special to the Journal-World
