photo by: Kahner Sampson/Special to the Journal-World

KU redshirt senior Emika Kawagishi meets a Missouri State defender during the Jayhawks' match on Thursday, Aug. 14, 2024, at Rock Chalk Park in Lawrence.

The Kansas soccer team conceded an early goal for the third straight match that came on Iowa State’s only shot of the first half, but the Jayhawks took control down the stretch and beat the Cyclones 3-1 on Friday night in Ames, Iowa.

“I’m really proud of our team today,” KU coach Nate Lie said in a video posted on social media. “We’ve had a tough stretch that’s just really tested us emotionally, and tried to create some energy. Then you have to come on the road against a team that really posed some challenges to us, played a style that I think was tough for us to adjust to.”

KU ultimately outshot ISU 25-5 on the night and did not allow a corner kick while attempting 10 of its own.

Sophomore midfielder Kate Langfelder equalized for the Jayhawks midway through the first half with her first career goal on what was already at the time KU’s 10th shot of the match. Livvy Moore got the assist, as her free kick placed the ball in a dangerous spot outside the box, and Langfelder seized on a Cyclone’s header for a long-range shot that bounced off goalkeeper Kasey Cannistraro.

“Credit to our team for responding,” Lie said. “I think we did a really nice job in the first half of continuing to play on the front foot, create really dangerous opportunities. And we actually scored one that wasn’t as clean as a lot of the ones that we had missed.”

KU had a few more opportunities after the break but managed to go ahead at last in the 55th minute, as sophomore Jillian Gregorski moved into the team lead for goals with her sixth of the season. She put the ball in through the legs of an ISU defender after a deflected shot by Lexi Watts, taking advantage of a goalmouth scrum caused by Langfelder’s penetrating cross from the left wing.

“It’s one of Jill’s different qualities, is that she always ends up in the right spot,” Lie said.

The Jayhawks’ final goal came as the result of a pinpoint-accurate service from Caroline Castans, recently named to the midseason watchlist for the Hermann Trophy for the nation’s best player. She got the ball back on a short corner and sliced a pass to the near post for Emika Kawagishi, and the redshirt senior midfielder got enough of a touch to knock the ball past Cannistraro and make it 3-1.

It was the veteran’s first goal since her second match as a Jayhawk — Aug. 18, 2024, at Drake — and it came in her first-ever start at KU, as Lie implemented a more offensively inclined starting lineup with Kawagishi replacing center back Fiona Skwierawski.

Iowa State attempted one shot after Kawagishi’s tally, an effort from Erin Hopewell in the 86th minute that required a save by Sophie Dawe. Megan Walters scored ISU’s lone goal.

“I thought we saw the game out without too much incident,” Lie said. “We let them get one opportunity that was a little cleaner than I would have liked, but in general I thought we closed the game out pretty well.”

KU’s star forward Watts returned to the starting lineup after missing one game and coming off the bench for another. She took three shots, as did Langfelder; Castans attempted four and Gregorski led all players with five.

The victory boosted the Jayhawks to 9-3-2 on the year and 3-3 in league play, placing them back in the top half of the league standings with five matches to go. That is important given that only eight teams make the Big 12 tournament this season.

KU returns home for a pair of matches, beginning with a big one on Thursday against West Virginia. The Mountaineers, against whom the Jayhawks played a pair of hotly contested matches last season, are on a 10-match unbeaten streak that includes their first six Big 12 contests. Most recently, they won three home matches in a row, including a wild 3-2 win over Houston on Friday night in which forward Taylor White scored two late goals in a four-minute span.

WVU has a familiar face in sophomore defender Sophia Nickel, who transferred away from KU after one year in which she played 335 minutes as a reserve on the back line. She has 344 minutes so far for the Mountaineers and recently scored her first career goal.