The Kansas soccer team claimed a 2-0 win over the Arizona State Sun Devils in its Big 12 home opener on Thursday evening.
Senior forward Jocelyn Herrema and senior defender Caroline Castans accounted for the Jayhawks’ goals in the match.
The game was Kansas’ first of five home matches on its 2026 conference slate and the Jayhawks’ first game in Lawrence in three weeks. The win also marked Lie’s first victory in a Big 12 home opener — he was previously 0-2 in those games.
While not a goalscorer on Thursday night, fifth-year senior Livvy Moore added two assists, bringing her season total to eight. Moore ranks near the top of the NCAA in total assists, with Wisconsin freshman midfielder Izy Traub having led the nation with eight heading into Thursday night’s slate of games.
“It takes two to score a goal,” Moore said. “I saw Caroline put her hands up on the backside of the box, and I was in the service zone, and we talk about that a lot and work on it a lot at practice, so I just did what I was told to do in the moment and Caroline finished the ball. Beautiful execution.”
“We told Livvy before the season that between her and Caroline, we think we should have the best pair of wing backs in the conference and I think we should have some of the best pair of wing backs in the country,” Lie added. “This is a newer position to her, we moved her there middle of last year – I don’t think it’s something she played beforehand – and so she’s really grown into it.”
The Jayhawks struck first in the 33rd minute. After ASU senior defender Natalie Drotzmann was handed a yellow card for taking junior midfielder Sydni Fink to the ground, the Jayhawks received a free kick and put the pressure on the Sun Devils.
A shot deflected by ASU gave Kansas a corner, and Moore served a pass right to Herrema in front of the Sun Devils’ net. Herrema cashed in, deflecting the ball with her back turned to the net and giving the Jayhawks the lead with her second goal of the season.
The rest of the half was relatively uneventful, with ASU unable to generate any offense with its aggressive play before halftime sent both teams to the locker room.
Out of the half, the Jayhawks continued to dominate possession. After the Jayhawks’ corner kick in the first minute of the second half yielded no offense, Moore collected her second assist of the evening. She launched a ball from deep outside the penalty area near the far touchline and found Castans behind the goalkeeper, and the wing back tapped in the Jayhawks’ second goal with a header.
Following Castans’ goal, the Jayhawks appeared to ease off the pressure, allowing ASU to control the ball for much of the second half of action. Even with the drop in offensive energy, Kansas still stood strong on the defensive side of the ball.
The Sun Devils’ best chance at scoring during the match came in the 80th minute, but Kansas senior goalkeeper Sophie Dawe stood strong, saving a shot on goal and fighting off a flurry of action right in front of her net during the final 10 minutes of play.
The game was the Jayhawks’ annual Beak the Stigma night, as Kansas looked to raise awareness for mental health.
“I think athletes nowadays are in the news for a lot of the benefits they get – NIL’s new, revenue share, and people are focusing on that – I think what they forget is the majority of these student athletes do it because they love it, and do it because that’s a big dream of theirs,” Lie said. “They put in a crazy amount of hours, they work all year to be fit.
“We’re pretty demanding coaches, so there’s just a lot of demands on their time, their energy, and they’re such high achievers — and some of these people are something resembling perfectionists — that it’s important that everyone knows that’s a lot of pressure, that you need healthy outlets for that pressure and it’s OK to feel stressed, it’s OK to struggle and it’s important to know what your resources are.”
Kansas now turns its attention to the Arizona Wildcats, who will visit Rock Chalk Park on Sunday afternoon. That game is scheduled for 1 p.m. Central.
