Kansas University senior soccer player Maggie Mason doesn’t want to remember her team’s last road trip.

“We’re not even thinking about that anymore,” Mason said of the Jayhawks’ 3-2 defeat to a one-win Texas Tech team Sept. 28.

“That was a game that everyone knows that we should have won,” said Mason, a defender for the Jayhawks (9-3-1 overall, 1-2-1 Big 12 Conference), who hit the road for two conference games this weekend. “It was the second game of the Big 12 season. We had a lapse, and now we’re looking ahead.

“We can’t dwell on it, otherwise it will ruin the rest of the season.”

The Jayhawks didn’t either, as they came back strong at home last weekend, losing a tough 1-0 match Friday against Texas but then tying No. 3-ranked Texas A&M, 1-1, Sunday at SuperTarget Field.

“We bounced back,” KU coach Mark Francis said. “Tech was a bad day, but we had a good practice week last week, and played as well as we have all year in both games.”

Kansas won’t have the benefit of playing at home today when it takes on its first non-Texas Big 12 opponent in Iowa State at 7 tonight in Ames, Iowa. The Jayhawks’ then clash Sunday against Missouri at 1 p.m. in Columbia, Mo.

Francis said while both games were winnable — the Cyclones have a 3-5-3 record, while the Tigers are 6-6-0, with their last five opponents having been ranked in the Top 25 — his team would have to play like it did last weekend.

“Every game is going to be tough in the Big 12,” Francis said. “So far the conference scores have shown that anybody is really capable of beating anybody, on any given day.

“But I think we’re right there, and are starting to play to our potential. We’re starting to click.”

Despite the fact Sunday’s Border War game with Missouri will be the third consecutive time Kansas has played in Columbia, schedule-makers changed this year’s date in the annual contest — choosing not to make it the season finale between the two.

“It’s nice for us that it’s not the last game of the season,” Francis said. “That’s always been their Senior Day, which gives them a big boost.”

Mason insisted whenever the two schools squared off it was a big game.

But that could be said about every Big 12 contest, considering the toughness of the conference and how everyone needs a decent record in it to be considered for the NCAA Tournament.

“We need to win pretty much from now on,” Mason said. “We can’t afford to lose and put us in another situation like after the Tech game.

“Winning eight games in the nonconference doesn’t matter if we only split our games in the Big 12,” she said. “We need to win all our games and prove that we are a respected team in the Big 12, and worthy of an NCAA invitation.”