photo by: Angilo Allen/Kansas Athletics

Kansas head coach Nate Lie during the spring match against Washburn on Sunday, April 21, 2024, in Lawrence.

The year in Kansas sports begins unofficially on Sunday, and that may be a little early from the perspective of the team for which it is beginning.

Within a week of getting all his players on campus for the first time — a group that includes 11 freshmen and three more transfers who will be new to Lawrence — first-year KU soccer coach Nate Lie will take them to Fayetteville, Arkansas, for an exhibition against the host Razorbacks on Sunday at 11 a.m.

It is “by far the earliest we’ve ever had to play one” in a preseason, said Lie, who arrived at KU in December after seven seasons as the head coach at Xavier.

“The positive is, we get to throw the players into the fire really early,” he told the Journal-World in a recent interview. “If there are lessons to be learned, and if there are growing pains to be had, it gives us more time to fix it on the back end.”

The exhibition isn’t expected to have published results, and Lie said that it could feature some situational work, penalty-kick practice and the like as both teams look to build gradually toward the 2024 season. Arkansas is coming off an NCAA Tournament campaign, while it’s a new beginning for KU after it struggled in the Big 12 last season, saw longtime coach Mark Francis retire and then built a fresh staff and half a new roster under Lie this offseason.

The team is melding old and new with a trio of captains — redshirt senior midfielder Avery Smith, graduate student and reigning points leader Hallie Klanke (four goals and five assists in 2023) and Ohio State transfer defender Brooke Otto, a junior who came to Lawrence in the spring and made an immediate impression.

Despite some of its offseason attrition, the team does return several key starters who are forming a bridge to the new era, such as defender Mackenzie Boeve, midfielder Caroline Castans and forward Lexi Watts. Other returning contributors who played extensive minutes include midfielders Raena Knust (formerly Childers) and Mackenzie Hammontree and defenders Emily Minard and Olivia Page. The squad is quite young on the whole, with just a few returning seniors to go along with numerous freshmen and some uncommonly experienced sophomores after players like Castans and Page saw time in their first season in Lawrence.

As he attempts to parse through the redone roster, Lie said that the team’s objective in the exhibition should be “whatever we’ve layered in game-plan-wise, to try to execute it to the greatest extent possible, to show a competitive spirit, and then whatever happens in the game, to take whatever lessons we need to, to learn, to have that growth mindset.”

The contest will be particularly influential because unlike Arkansas, which has two more exhibitions before it begins its season, KU has just the one in Fayetteville ahead of its first real game at South Dakota State 11 days later.

photo by: Angilo Allen/Kansas Athletics

Kansas midfielder Raena Childers during the spring match against Washburn on Sunday, April 21, 2024, in Lawrence.

photo by: Angilo Allen/Kansas Athletics

Kansas defender Mackenzie Boeve during the spring match against Washburn on Sunday, April 21, 2024, in Lawrence.