Kansas University soccer coach Mark Francis concedes most people would view the Jayhawks’ 2014 season as a success. KU, after all, won eight more games than it had the previous year, finished third in the Big 12 and reached the NCAA Tournament.

When Francis thinks about last season, though, the 17th-year KU coach first reflects on its less-than-memorable finish. Kansas, which won 14 of its first 15 games, dropped out of first place in the Big 12, lost five of its final six contests and got bounced from the postseason by the program’s old rival from the SEC, Missouri, at Rock Chalk Park.

“We really feel like we let down,” Francis said, “and didn’t achieve what we could’ve done.”

Ranked No. 23 in the NSCAA Coaches Poll, the Jayhawks, who return seven starters from last season, don’t want to settle for relative success.

Kansas soccer coach Mark Francis talks about recruiting and how Rock Chalk Park influences recruits during KU fall sports media day Wednesday, Aug. 19, 2015, at Hadl Auditorium.

“Our goal this year is to cross the line,” Francis said, using the team’s slogan for 2015, “meaning we’ve got to finish the race. We started it really well last year, but we didn’t finish it.”

Sophomore defender Kayla Morrison said at the beginning of each KU practice, the players line up, hold hands and step onto the field in unison as a symbol of what they hope to accomplish — crossing the line — and doing so helps them maintain their focus.

“I think we were on such a high when we won so many games in a row,” Morrison said of KU’s 15-6 season, “we felt like we were indestructible. And then we kind of lost it all, and we didn’t really know how to get our feet back under us.”

With the potential for greater achievements on the horizon, the Jayhawks used their disappointment as offseason fuel, as they worked together this summer in Lawrence. The players entered preseason practice in such good shape Francis threw his typical fitness test out the window. He could tell his players already had set a tone for the months ahead.

“We wanted to build off of where we were already at,” junior midfielder Tayler Estrada said, “because we knew we were really close to finishing really well, and we just weren’t able to cross the line.”

Returning starters Morrison, Estrada, senior Liana Salazar, senior Ashley Williams, junior Jackie Georgoulis, junior Kaley Smith and junior Morgan Williams join freshmen Grace Hagan, Parker Roberts and Anna Courtney as KU’s probable starters for its season opener Friday at Nebraska.

Francis said all three goalkeepers — sophomore Maddie Dobyns, red-shirt freshman Lauren Breshears, freshman Regan Gibbs — have looked like potential starters.