Soccer team stomps Panthers 9-0
- Aug. 15, 2012
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TRAVIS YOUNG/KANSAN
Junior forward Caroline Kastor shoots against Eastern Illinois senior forward Ashley Streid during the first half of the game. Kastor scored a point during the match and had four assists.
A warm, breezy Sunday welcomed the Kansas women’s soccer team as they took the field and completely dominated in their first look of the season, winning an exhibition game against Eastern Illinois University 9-0.
With six different girls scoring and the defense holding strong, rarely allowing the Panthers into the box, the Jayhawks relentlessly controlled the game.
“It was a great start for us,” senior defensive back Shelby Williamson said.
Ten minutes into the game, Kansas began to gain momentum, hounding the box. Junior forward Caroline Kastor was the first to fluster the keeper enough to score, tapping the ball into the net in the 14th minute after senior forward Whitney Berry played it up to her. But she wouldn’t be the last. Berry, a consistent striker, had a strong presence as she completed a hat trick, scored her first goal during the 38th minute, assisted by sophomore Kelsey Lyden. That put the Jayhawks up 2-0 at the half.
“I think the thing I was happiest about today was really our mentality,” Kansas coach Mark Francis said. “I think, we’re up two nothing at the half and then we came out at the second half and scored right away. Sometimes when that happens the tendency is to put it on cruise mode, and I thought the girls, mentality wise, were really good at not doing that.”
Freshman forward Ashley Williams didn’t allow the Panthers any breathing room during her debut, scoring right off the bat in the 46th minute. Kastor was a consistent play maker for the Jayhawks, getting her first of four assists on Williams’s goal. Despite the Panthers search for a stop, making many substitutions, the offensive line for Kansas was unyielding. They scored again in the 50th and 53rd minutes with goals by Berry and Williams, both assisted by Kastor.
On the other end of the field, both senior Kat Liebetrau and freshman Kaitlyn Stroud each had one save, stopping both shots on goal out of the five the Panthers attempted in the game, earning Kansas a clean sheet.
Kansas would utilize junior midfielder Amy Grow to score again in the 66th minute, with Kastor providing her final assist of the game to allow Grow to slam the ball into the back of the net. The team would score twice in the 70th minute. The first goal was chipped in by freshman midfielder Monica Castro after an impressive give-and-go between her and freshman midfielder Hanna Kallmaier. Lyden would also score herself only thirty seconds later.
Never relenting, Berry would complete her hat trick by scoring her third, and the team’s final, goal in the 83rd minute. She received a pass from senior forward Nicole Chrisopulous, who nutmegged the Panther defender that attempted to stand in her way.
The team hopes to use such an impressive display to help propel them as the beginning of the season goes underway.
Kansas will host UC Santa Barbara this Friday at 5 p.m. at the Jayhawk Soccer Complex, officially starting off the regular season.
—Edited by Ethan Padway
