Only one team has defeated Kansas University’s high-flying soccer team at home this season.

Nebraska edged KU, 1-0, in late September at Jayhawk Soccer Complex, and now the Jayhawks have an opportunity to return the favor with much more at stake.

Advancement in the NCAA Tournament will be on the line when KU and NU collide at 1 p.m. today at JSC.

“Nebraska is always tough,” Kansas coach Mark Francis said, “but I think we’re better than the last time we played Nebraska. We’ve come a long way since then.”

Kansas went on to tie Texas A&M for the regular-season Big 12 Conference championship, the first league soccer title for the Jayhawks since the program was born in 1995.

Nebraska isn’t the same team, either. The Huskers don’t have Brittany Timko, who led the league in points and assists and was named Big 12 Player of the Year. She also scored the lone goal in NU’s win Sept. 24 at Kansas.

Timko, a native of British Columbia, is playing club soccer in Canada and won’t participate for her college team today. Neither will two of her Canadian-born teammates — Sari Raber and Tanya Dennis.

Kansas advanced to today’s contest with a 3-1 triumph Friday over Creighton, and Bluejays coach Bruce Erickson, asked to compare KU and NU, gave the edge to KU.

“I would rather play the team Nebraska has now than the one with Timko and the others,” Erickson said. “Nebraska is good, but they don’t have the depth Kansas has.”

Erickson, whose team lost to both KU and NU this season, thinks Kansas will advance to the Round of 16.

“I would rate them better,” he said. “I think they’re better on the attack.”

Still, the Jayhawks’ all-time record against the Huskers is 1-9-1. The lone victory was a 1-0 decision last season in Lincoln. In other words, KU never has defeated Nebraska in Lawrence.

So, even though the Huskers won’t have the league’s best player today, Kansas has something to prove.

“I don’t think the pressure is ever off,” said goalkeeper Meghan Miller, one of seven KU senior starters. “We need to realize that today could be our last day.”

If Kansas wins today, the Jayhawks, based on their No. 8 seed, would play host to a Round of 16 playoff next weekend.