Kansas University’s soccer players weren’t sluggish Thursday night.

Two days after pulling out a 2-1 victory over Southwest Missouri State in which KU coach Mark Francis said his team “didn’t play very well,” the Jayhawks have rejuvenated at the right time.

KU’s practice Thursday, in preparation for tonight’s 5 p.m. Crimson and Blue Invitational matchup with Florida State (3-3), had its share of lighthearted moments.

Sophomores Kim Karfonta and Jessica Smith tried to drill each other in the back with a mud-caked ball, juniors Monica Brothers and Gabby Quiggle played makeshift baseball with tennis balls and a racket used for goalie drills … you get the picture.

But the Jayhawks insisted the joviality didn’t reflect their attitude toward this weekend. After FSU, Kansas will play host Sunday to Central Florida (3-1).

KU (4-1) played two games last weekend in Wisconsin, then returned to Lawrence for the matchup Tuesday against the Bears.

“We’re all pretty tired,” senior Maggie Mason said. “I feel really good today, though. This weekend is huge for us; we talked about it as a team and we’re ready to go.”

Sophomore Caroline Smith, who became KU’s all-time leading scorer in the Wisconsin loss, has scored eight goals in five games.

Two freshmen, Jessica Kilpatrick and Nikki Alvarez, each scored in KU’s 3-0 win against Wisconsin-Milwaukee last weekend, and juniors Amy Geha and Rachel Gilfillan scored and assisted each other’s goals Tuesday.

“Caroline is an awesome player, an awesome scorer,” Gilfillan said. “But we don’t want to totally depend on her. It was really nice to have different offensive threats, just so our team can have a variety of different scorers.”

Senior Carmel Kaplinger hopes to bombard FSU and Central Florida.

“Our goal at the beginning of the season was not to drop a game in nonconference play,” Kaplinger said. “We’ve already lost one, but we could make up for that with some big wins this weekend.”