photo by: Kansas Athletics

Kansas forward Lexi Watts dribbles past Louisville's Grace Maddox on Thursday, Nov. 20, 2025, in Durham, N.C.

A dominant second-half performance eventually paid dividends for the Kansas soccer team in the final minutes on Thursday afternoon, as Jillian Gregorski and Lexi Watts’ late goals lifted No. 3 seed KU to a 3-1 victory over No. 6 Louisville at Koskinen Stadium in Durham, North Carolina.

The Jayhawks trailed for much of the first half following an early set-piece goal by Grace Maddox, but Faith Johnston’s equalizer shortly before the break gave them a shot in the arm, and they came out of the interval and outshot the Cardinals 11-1.

“Again, we started a little bit slow, which we’re going to continue to try to address,” Kansas coach Nate Lie told reporters postgame. “But really proud of how the team stuck in there, held their ground, and then slowly, slowly started to gain momentum, gain territory and feed into our identity and what we like to do.

“It was a really, really important goal from Faith there before halftime to put us 1-1, to give us that burst of energy. I thought her and Jocelyn (Herrema) were tremendous in their shift up front, and then, really proud of the second half that we just put out there.”

Watts led the way with four of KU’s 17 shots on the match. Junior wing back Caroline Castans’ two assists gave her 15 on the year, setting a single-season record for the Jayhawks.

KU advances to the Sweet 16 and will remain in Durham to face host No. 2 Duke on Sunday at 1 p.m. Central time. Duke beat UCF 1-0 on Thursday night. The Jayhawks have reached the Sweet 16 on two previous occasions, in 2003 and 2019, and have never advanced further.

“We listened to a podcast called ‘College Soccer Nation,’ which (has) really respected coaches,” Lie said postgame. “And they talked and previewed this game, and they said that this is when the Big 12 gets found out. And they used Kansas as an example of a team that didn’t even have a chance against Louisville. We were dismissed. I found that pretty tough. We had five top-50 wins this year, Louisville had two.

“I think it’s professional negligence to dismiss a team of this caliber. We deserve to be here. I appreciate it — we played it for our team before the game to tell them what the rest of the country thinks about this. And what I would just tell you and whoever’s listening — whoever we play here … we very, very, very much respect anyone that we’re going to play and we know the caliber at Duke, but like, we’re not really intimidated at all, if I’m being honest.”

Louisville looked tentative to start but didn’t suffer any consequences as KU struggled to generate shot opportunities. The Cardinals won a somewhat greater share of possession as the match crossed the 10-minute mark.

Despite some promising opportunities for Watts and Saige Wimes upfront, Louisville struck first. In the 19th minute, Liza Suydam played in forward Emersen Jennings, whose close-range attempt from a sharp angle on the right side of the net was deflected out by defender Olivia Page. KU goalkeeper Sophie Dawe initially batted away the ensuing corner kick, then leapt to tip a header by Karsyn Cherry off the crossbar, but Grace Maddox won possession off the rebound and knocked in a goal.

After an injury to Suydam, Karina Peat entered and almost doubled the Cardinals’ lead after a long run by Jennings around Page.

A quiet stretch of the first half featured little in the way of substantive opportunities for either sides until a pair of reserve forwards sparked the Kansas offense.

First, Herrema earned a corner kick with a physical one-on-one battle against Hadley Snyder. Then, Castans played a corner short to teammate Lydia Viets, who found the freshman striker Johnston with favorable positioning in the box against Snyder. Johnston took a touch to her right, then found an angle to shoot the ball across the face of the goal and in for a much-needed equalizer.

The second half began at a fast pace. Livvy Moore’s foul on Amelia Swinarski created an early free kick from a dangerous position, but Wimes cleared the ball away.

Moore won a ball in the midfield and created a three-on-two opportunity with Watts and Wimes charging forward alongside her. Wimes tried to loft a ball over Louisville goalie Erynn Floyd but missed.

Wimes had another chance on a breakaway, but Cherry slid in for a challenge to knock the ball away and out of bounds, though she got hurt in the process and was replaced by Brooklyn Lee.

KU’s pressure continued to wear on the Cardinals as the second half drew on. Herrema outran two Louisville defenders and challenged Floyd with a long-range shot, requiring a tough one-handed save. The Jayhawks attempted a series of three corner kicks to no avail.

KU finally reaped the rewards of its 37 minutes of sustained offense when Gregorski found an uncovered Castans for a low shot, then secured the rebound from Floyd’s save and put it into the back of the net.

“I could see Caroline running on my back shoulder, so I tried to just get any ball to her, because I knew she was wide open,” Gregorski said. “And then like she always does, (she) hits a clean strike, the goalkeeper saves it, and I’m just lucky to be in the right spot and finish it.”

Castans had another interpretation: “She said she’s lucky to be in that spot, but she puts herself in that spot, so she deserves those goals.”

Watts added an insurance goal with Floyd too far from her net after an interception by Gregorski in the 86th minute.

Of note, freshman forward Jordan Rowan saw her first action since Oct. 26 after missing KU’s previous five matches. She played eight minutes.

photo by: Kansas Athletics

The Kansas soccer team celebrates its 3-1 victory over Louisville on Thursday, Nov. 20, 2025, in Durham, N.C.