KU locked and loaded

Schedule presents early challenges

The Kansas University soccer squad is going to have its No. 26 ranking in the Soccer Buzz top-30 preseason poll put to the test early and often this season.

Three of the Jayhawks’ opponents on their nonconference schedule are ranked in the Soccer Buzz Preseason Poll – No. 4 Portland, No. 17 Illinois and No. 23 BYU.

Cal, ranked 18th in the NSACAA/Adidas preseason poll, is another KU opponent on tap in the early part of the season.

“As I told the team, there’s no breathing room in our schedule this year,” KU coach Mark Francis said during KU’s Fall olympic sports media day. “We jump right into it, and we have to show up every game and perform at a high level. If we don’t, we’re going to get our butts handed to us because the way the schedule is panned out.”

Things won’t get any easier when it comes to Big 12 Conference play, when the Jayhawks will travel to No. 5 Texas A&M, No. 9 Texas and No. 21 Colorado.

The Jayhawks will play host to one ranked Big 12 Conference foe: No. 29 Oklahoma State.

“We always seem to play better when we play a better team,” said junior goalkeeper Julie Hanley, whose squad was picked to finish fifth in conference. “It will be a really great challenge for us to play some top-level teams this year and gauge where we are at.”

Hanley is hoping that stiffer competition will appeal to the NCAA Tournament selection committee.

The junior class of Jayhawks – Hanley, Jessica Bush, Missy Geha, Kristin Graves, Jenny Murtaugh and Sara Rogers – didn’t earn a trip to the postseason event in its first two years.

Kansas University soccer players Jessica Bush, left, and Shannon McCabe will attempt to prove the Jayhawks worthy of their No. 26 preseason ranking. They will face four other highly regarded teams in nonconference play.

“That has been one of our most talented classes, and as I said to them as a class at the end of last spring, ‘You guys right now, there’s a lot of talent, but you guys have not made the NCAA Tournament as a class,'” Francis said. “I said, ‘I don’t think you want to finish your career with that as the tab on your class.’ So I think that group, particularly, that’s never been is very fired up about it.”

That talented junior group, along with a strong freshman class, has Francis convinced that this is one of his best teams.

“There is a lot of depth on the roster,” Francis said. “I don’t think anybody thinks that their starting spot is secure, and I think across the board everybody is concerned that they’re going to have to bring it every day in practice because there’s enough talent.

“We return nine starters from last year’s team … but I would say there is legitimately probably five or six kids that will challenge to start against people who have already started. I think that’s great for us as a program, but it’s a pain in the neck as a coach.”

But is this year’s team better than the 2004 squad that was a co-conference regular-season champ?

“There’s absolutely no doubt that this is a more talented team than that group,” Francis said. “That group (in 2004) overachieved, for sure. I would say last year we underachieved as a group, and that’s my fault as the head coach. This year, if we achieve what we’re capable of doing, we’ll do very well. To win a championship, it takes a lot more than talent. There are a lot of intangibles there. We’re seeing signs of that. This group has the leadership.”