SANTA CLARA, Calif. – With just one game on the schedule this week, Santa Clara women's soccer travels to play at Kansas Fri., Sept. 4 at 3 p.m. Last week the Broncos lost a hard fought 2-1 game at No. 7 Notre Dame but bounced back to win 1-0 vs. Northwestern. Santa Clara is now 2-2-0 on the season. The matchup will be broadcast live on ESPN3.
"We're getting closer and closer to figuring out what works best for our group," said Santa Clara head coach Jerry Smith. "In college sports you lose a good percentage of your team every year so it can take a little while to figure everything out and we choose not to play an exhibition game so it makes it a little more difficult. We're making progress and figuring out things that don't work, which is sometimes as important as things that do work. The team is moving in a positive direction and we'd like to get back over .500, hopefully this weekend."
Santa Clara has outscored opponents 5-4 despite being outshot 61-30. They are also trailing in shots on goal 33-11. Most of those shots are due to the game at Notre Dame.
Jenna Roering leads Santa Clara with four points and two assists. She has also added one goal this season. Grace Cutler, Julie Vass, Janae Gonzalez, and Jenna Holtz each have one goal while Megan Crosson and Kellie Peay have an assist apiece.
In net Andi Tostanoski has played all 360 minutes and allowed four goals for a 1.00 GAA. She has collected 29 saves and has a .879 save percentage to go with two shutouts.
Santa Clara is 1-0-0 against Kansas with the lone meeting coming in 2013. Santa Clara won that game 3-2 at home.
"Kansas has a great coach and a great coaching staff," said Smith. "They went to the NCAA Tournament last year so it's good to put our team in tough environments against tournament caliber teams. They have a new soccer facility that looks beautiful and the challenge of playing a great university like Kansas on the road will be good for us. In a year where we're trying to get back to the NCAA Tournament we want to challenge ourselves with as many tournament teams as possible."
Kansas enters the week with a 2-1-1 record and have yet to play at home. Last week they topped both SMU and North Texas 2-1 on the road.
The Jayhawks have been outscored 5-4 but outshot opponents 61-38. They hold a 28-21 advantage in shots on goal.
Parker Roberts leads the team with three points and is the only player with both a goal and an assist. Lois Heuchan is tops on the team with two assists. Three other players have one goal each and Ashley Williams has the other assist.
Maddie Dobyns has played every minute in net and allowed five goals for a 1.18 GAA. She has picked up 14 saves for a .737 save percentage and has one shutout.
