Title IX changed the face of women’s intercollegiate athletics, so in that numerical spirit here are my top nine Kansas University women’s sports stories of 2006:

1. Big 12 Conference taps Serena Settlemier softball player of the year. A senior from Kelso, Wash., Settlemier rewrote KU’s slugging records with 22 home runs and 61 RBIs. On the mound, she posted a 17-7 record with a 1.44 earned-run average. Until Settlemier, no KU female athlete had ever been tapped a Big 12 player of the year.

2. Kansas wins Big 12 Conference softball tournament. KU was the tourney’s No. 6 seed, but the Jayhawks won four games in three days – three against higher seeds – for the school’s first conference softball crown. Settlemier went 3-for-3 with a double in the 4-2 win over Oklahoma in the title game and was named tourney MVP four days after being tapped league player of the year.

3. The Kansas women’s basketball team spills No. 23 Texas for its school-record 12th straight victory. On Jan. 3 in Allen Fieldhouse, seniors Kaylee Brown, Crystal Kemp and Erica Hallman combined for 50 points in the 70-61 triumph over the Longhorns.

4. Kansas makes its first postseason basketball tournament appearance in seven years. Crystal Kemp scored 18 points and retrieved 11 missed shots as the Jayhawks toppled Northern Iowa, 59-49, in the first round of the WNIT.

5. Amanda Costner becomes the first KU golfer in 13 years to earn first-team All-Big 12 honors. A junior from Claremore, Okla., Costner led the Jayhawks with a 75.78 stroke average while recording four top-20 tourney finishes.

6. March micro-burst strikes soccer, softball facilities. Arrocha Ballpark and Jayhawk Soccer Complex were the most heaviliy damaged KU sports venues from the freak wind. Arrocha’s backstop is toppled and bleachers tossed onto the field. At JSC, the stands are wrenched, twisted and totaled.

7. Senior Charisse Bacchus earns All-America honors at the NCAA outdoor track championships. After soaring a career-best 21-61â4 in the prelims of the long jump, Bacchus leaps 20-8 in the finals to finish in seventh place, good enough for an A-A certificate.

8. Jessica Moppin’s monster mash. Moppin, a senior second baseman, rocketed a tape-measure home run into the football practice field high above Arrocha Ballpark’s left-field fence in a 5-0 win over Iowa State. Moppin becomes the first KU player to plunk one onto the practice field since Arrocha opened in 2004.

9. Erica Hallman lifts KU to thrilling OT win over Missouri. Hallman, a senior guard, scored a career-high 29 points as KU edged the Tigers, 81-71, in Allen Fieldhouse. Crystal Kemp added 25 points and 13 rebounds.

Failing to make the top nine were:

¢ Kassie Humphreys’ strange no-no. Humphreys, a junior right-hander, allowed no hits to Nebraska, but lost. The Cornhuskers fanned 10 times and never hit the ball out of the infield, but scrounged a pair of unearned runs for a 2-0 win.

¢ Natalie Uhart’s bad luck. A transfer from Long Beach State, Lansing native Uhart is voted the Big 12 Conference preseason volleyball newcomer of the year, then wrecks a knee in the preseason alumni game and misses the entire season.