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

KU junior Caroline Castans goes to take a corner kick during the Jayhawks' match against Missouri State on Thursday, Aug. 14, 2025, at Rock Chalk Park in Lawrence.

The Kansas soccer team’s season-opening exhibition will be, as usual, the first KU athletic competition of its academic year.

It just arrives a little deeper into the Jayhawks’ time on campus this time around. Thanks to a revised calendar for the women’s soccer season, new this year, KU has had a bit more time to settle in ahead of Saturday’s preseason match at 1 p.m. against Iowa.

“I feel like it’s been easier to integrate newer girls into our concepts and stuff,” goalkeeper Sophie Dawe told the Journal-World recently. “It gives us a little bit more time before our first game to get everybody on the same page.”

The revised timeline is a mixed bag. As third-year head coach Nate Lie noted, more time to prepare is good on paper, but it has still required that the Jayhawks make the most of it.

“Before, you feel like you never have enough time, but there’s some beauty in it to me that you’re just jamming everything in there and you almost feel like you’re living in the facility and it comes so quick, right?” Lie said. “So by the time the game comes, you feel like you just got there. I think one potential negative is as this is drawn out, how do you keep the same focus and joy and intensity and excitement about the season?”

Saturday’s exhibition is certainly a significant milestone on the path to Wednesday’s season opener against Utah State.

With as much success as KU has had in Lie’s first two years at the helm — including a Big 12 tournament championship in 2024 and Sweet 16 appearance in 2025 — the Jayhawks were picked in a poll of league coaches released on Monday to tie for third in the conference, which is the highest preseason projection in program history.

The Jayhawks’ ranking comes on the strength of players like preseason all-conference selections Caroline Castans and Jillian Gregorski. The senior Castans is a crafty left wing back who generates so many chances for KU on offense that she tallied a program-record 15 assists in 2025. Gregorski, a junior, scored 10 goals with three assists as an attacking midfielder last season and will shoulder an even greater burden this year given that the Jayhawks will have two new starters at striker.

Players such as senior Jocelyn Herrema, sophomores Jordan Rowan and Faith Johnston and transfers Norah Jacomen (Butler) and Hannah Palmer (Kansas State) are expected to figure in upfront. Elsewhere, the Jayhawks have plenty of returning experience. Livvy Moore will serve as Castans’ counterpart on the right after thriving at that position late in 2025, the “skeleton key” midfielder Kate Langfelder is back for a third straight year in a prominent role and defenders Jordan Fjelstad and Emily Tobin will provide continuity at center back, playing in front of Dawe. There are some spots up for grabs, however, especially given that KU isn’t fully healthy on the back line.

Fans should savor the opportunity to see the Jayhawks at home on Saturday in exhibition play and on Wednesday in the season opener, because they only host eight regular-season home matches this year. In the nonconference, KU is playing return dates against several teams it hosted in previous seasons and also starting a new home-and-home with Saint Louis on the road.

“We’d rather play at Rock Chalk Park,” Lie said, “but we need the right teams to play to prepare us for the Big 12 and to position ourselves, hopefully, the right way in RPI.”

Iowa was picked 10th in the 18-team Big Ten Conference in a poll released Monday. Midfielders Sofia Bush and Elle Wildman and defender Millie Greer were named players to watch. The Hawkeyes went 12-5-4 (6-2-3 Big Ten) in 2025 and lost to LSU in the second round of the NCAA Tournament.

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

Kansas sophomore Jillian Gregorski takes a free kick during the Jayhawks’ NCAA tournament game against California Baptist on Friday, Nov. 14, 2025, at Rock Chalk Park in Lawrence.