Six games into her Kansas University soccer career, freshman Caroline Smith is making an assault on the Jayhawks’ record books.

Smith, a forward from Edina, Minn., has scored six goals, the fifth-highest season total by a Jayhawk and 11th-best on the KU career list.

“I had no idea,” Smith said of her quick start. “I just had a really good weekend last weekend. I didn’t have a good weekend the weekend before, so I had to start playing better and scoring more goals.”

Smith scored two goals and an assist in Kansas’s 3-2 victory against Arkansas last Friday  including the game-winner with 2:20 remaining  and scored two more against Tulsa on Sunday. She was named Big 12 Conference soccer newcomer of the week.

Awards are nothing new for Smith, a McDonald’s All-American and the National Soccer Coaches Association of America’s player of the year in Minnesota last season. She was also named Miss Soccer of Minnesota after scoring a school-record 33 goals and 11 assists in 2001.

Kansas coach Mark Francis expected Smith to be a goal scorer.

“That’s why we recruited her,” he said. “She’s a goal-scorer. I knew she’d score goals. She made the adjustment very quickly, but I figured she would. It’s not really a surprise. I’m pleased that she’s done so well, so early, but I’m not really surprised.”

Smith, who leads the Big 12 with 13 points, credits two years of play with her Minnesota club team with making her ready for Division I soccer.

“From high school to college it’s a lot different,” she said. “But with my club team I played a lot of college teams and I trained with really good players so it wasn’t that much of a change for me.”

All four KU freshmen  Smith, Kim Karfonta, Holly Ryder and Jessica Smith  have played important roles this season. Add the continued improvement of last year’s newcomers, and last year’s 13-7 season could be the first in a long line of winning records.

The Jayhawks finish their non-conference schedule tonight and Saturday in the Evansville (Ind.) Tournament. The Jayhawks (4-1-1) play host Evansville (1-3-1) at 7 p.m. tonight and Oakland (2-4) at noon Saturday.

“They’re both going to be tough games,” Francis said, “and they’re our fifth and sixth games on the road, but I think the kids are used to that by now. We haven’t really had any gimmie games, but that’s good for us because once we get into conference next weekend there aren’t any games like that either. They might as well get used to it now.”