photo by: AP Photo/Doug Murray

Kansas infielder Kadence Stafford (5) bats during an NCAA softball game against Florida Atlantic on Thursday, Feb. 19, 2026 in Boca Raton, Fla.

The Kansas softball team moved to 10-6 after another weekend tournament in Florida, one that saw the Jayhawks lose a lead late against host Florida Atlantic and get run-ruled by UMass but also claim three decisive victories.

“It was a long weekend, and we’ve got to figure out how to not beat ourselves in games as we did earlier,” head coach Jennifer McFalls said in a press release on Saturday. “That was a tough loss for us, but the important thing is learning from it and growing. I loved the way we bounced back; we found a way to win. That’s important.”

Hailey Cripe and Ella Boyer as usual brought power to the lineup with two home runs each for the weekend, while Aynslee Linduff continued her hot start to the season with a pair of three-RBI games and is batting .444 with a 1.256 OPS. In the circle, Blakely Barber, Lizzy Ludwig and Kaelee Washington all recorded wins on the weekend as KU continues to deploy a wide-ranging group of pitchers.

The first game of the Joan Joyce Classic resembled KU’s early-season losses to Boston College and Michigan in which the Jayhawks conceded a late flurry of scoring when they had been clinging to a one-run lead. But on Thursday against FAU, KU actually got walked off with two outs in the seventh inning.

In an action-packed, back-and-forth game, Boyer doubled to score Audri Youngblood in the fifth, and Ava Wallace drove in Bailey Amezcua in the sixth to make it 5-4.

Washington got the Jayhawks to the seventh inning, but she conceded a leadoff double to Lily Holtje. McFalls went to freshman Lila Partridge, who struck out a pair of Owls immediately. However, she issued two walks to load the bases and allowed a walk-off RBI single to Destiny Johns.

KU fared much better on Friday against winless Villanova. Barber pitched five innings of one-run ball and Kennedy Diggs kept the Wildcats hitless in the final two innings. Meanwhile, Linduff, Cripe and Boyer led the Jayhawks to six runs in the fifth inning on their way to an 8-1 win.

KU then proceeded to beat Southern Indiana 9-1 later in the day, this time in six innings after the Jayhawks scored six runs in the fourth and activated the run rule with Boyer’s two-RBI double in the sixth. Ludwig and Partridge combined to allow zero earned runs.

The low point of the weekend was a surprising 8-0 loss on Saturday morning to UMass, which went 14-33 last year while playing in the Atlantic 10. Chloe Barber gave up five runs in the second inning, including a bases-clearing double by Brooke Musch. Diggs didn’t get any favors from her defense, which committed two errors that led to two more runs in the third. In the meantime, UMass’ freshman pitcher Kelsey Blanchette pitched five shutout innings. She allowed five hits, including a two-out double to Emma Tatum in the second, but did not issue a walk and kept KU at bay.

The Jayhawks wrapped up the tournament by beating Villanova again, this time with a complete game from Washington and a key two-run home run by Kadence Stafford that fueled a 4-1 win.

KU will leave the state of Florida for the first time this season to attend the Wooo Pig Classic in Fayetteville, Arkansas. That begins on Friday with games against Omaha and Boise State.