Soccer preview: Kansas
Sept. 29, 2011
MATCH #11: Texas (7-3-0, 1-1-0) vs. Kansas (7-4-0, 0-1-0) Versus Kansas ... The Longhorns and the Jayhawks have met a total of 16 times with Texas leading the series at 12-2-2. Texas lost last year’s game in Lawrence 1-0, but the Longhorns own a 5-2-1 overall advantage in games played in Lawrence. Texas is 82-46-15 all-time vs. the Big-12 Conference. Iowa State recap ... The Longhorns were led to a 2-1 victory over the Cyclones thanks to goals by Nina Frausing Pedersen and Taylor Knaack. Pedersen’s 22nd minute goal gave the Longhorns an early lead. Knaack then extended Texas’ lead with her 84th minute goal. Vanessa Ibewuike had the assist. Iowa State got one back a with just minutes to play, but Texas was able to hold on for the win. Gaul piling up the shutouts ... With her back-to-back road shutouts against Houston and Georgia and home blankings of UTSA and Dartmouth, Alexa Gaul increased her career shutout tally to 16 to move her into a tie with Cami Varnadore (16 - 1996-99) and Jaime Strong (16- 1994-97) for second place. Dianna Pfenninger (29 - 2005-08) owns the school record. UT CAREER SHUTOUTS Gaul moving up the career wins list ... With her early wins over Houston, Georgia, Cal State Northridge, UTSA, Dartmouth and USC, Alexa Gaul has moved into third place ahead of Jaime Strong (25 - 1994-97) on Texas’ career wins list with 26 victories. Dianna Pfenninger (54 - 2005-08) owns the school record and is followed by Alex Gagarin (28 - 2001-04). UT CAREER WINS Gaul coming off a banner year ... Junior goalkeeper Alexa Gaul is coming off one of the best goalie seasons in school history. Last season, Gaul registered a 0.99 goals-against average and eight shutouts to earn All-Big 12 Second Team recognition. The GAA ranked fourth on UT’s single-season list and the eight shutouts ranked second. She enters the season with 11 career shutouts (No. 5 UT career) and a 1.36 GAA (No. 4 UT career). Three consecutive games with three or more goals ... With their offensive output against Houston (3-0), Georgia (3-0) and Cal State Northridge (5-1), the Longhorns registered three consecutive games with three or more goals for the first time since 2006. Three consecutive wins by three or more goals ... With their three straight victories over Houston (3-0), Georgia (3-0) and Cal State Northridge (5-1), the Longhorns recorded three consecutive wins by three or more goals for the first time in the history of Texas women’s soccer. Back-to-back road shutouts ... With their shutouts against Houston (3-0) and Georgia (3-0), the Longhorns registered consecutive road shutouts for the first time since 2008, when they notched shutouts at Texas Tech (Oct. 12 - 1-0) and at Kansas (Oct. 24 - 1-0) with two games in between. Back-to-back shutouts with three or more goals ... With their shutouts against Houston (3-0) and Georgia (3-0), the Longhorns registered consecutive shutouts while scoring three or more goals in each game since 2007, when they notched shutouts against Houston (Sep. 21 - 4-0) and Stephen F. Austin (Sep. 23 - 4-0). Returning for the Horns ... Texas returns 13 players, including seven starters, from last year’s squad that advanced to the program’s ninth NCAA Tournament appearance. The Horns bring back 67.5 percent of their starting positions (156 out of a possible 231), 67.4 percent of their points (60 of 89 points) and 76.7 percent of their goals (23 of 30 goals). The returning 13 have played in a total of 427 games, averaging out to 32.8 games per person. Making them count ... Senior captain Lucy Keith has eight goals for her career and all eight goals are game-winners. Her eight game-winning goals ranks fifth on Texas’ career list tied with Kylee Wosnuk (8 - 2000-02), Katie Baruth (8 - 1996-98) and Carol Finch (8 - 1995-97). Petrucelli ranks among top coaches ... Chris Petrucelli currently ranks eighth all-time among Division I women’s soccer coaches in winning percentage (.744) and victories (336). Among active Division I coaches he ranks seventh in winning percentage and eighth in victories. His 336 wins rank 15th all-time across all NCAA divisions. Two All-Big 12 performers return ... The Longhorns return a pair of All-Big 12 performers from 2010. Goalkeeper Alexa Gaul and midfielder Kylie Doniak were both tabbed All-Big 12 Second Team in 2010. Gaul registered eight shutouts and a 0.99 GAA and Doniak scored 23 points on seven goals and nine assists. Transfers of Influence ... Vanessa Ibewuike and Taylor Knaack were two of the 10 players named as Transfers of Influence by Soccer America. Ibewuike made the All-Big Ten Freshman Team in 2009 when she led Purdue with five assists. Knaack started 22 games for Notre Dame in 2009 when she scored six goals and scored one goal in a handful of games in 2010. She played in 27 games in 2008 after missing 2007 with an ACL injury. Freshman of Influence ... Freshman midfielder Clarissa Wedemeyer was one of 10 players named as Freshmen of Influence by Soccer America. A midfielder out of Colleyville, Texas, she was a member of the U.S. U-17 National Team and played for the Dallas Texans ‘93 Red squad. She served as the Texans’ team captain in 2008 where she helped lead her team to the USYS National Championship en route to picking up the Golden Boot Award as the top goal scorer in the tournament. Three former Big 12 All-Newcomer Team members return ... The Longhorns return three players who have garnered Big 12 All-Newcomer honors in the past, including defender Nina Frausing Pedersen and midfielder Lexi Harris from 2010 and forward Hannah Higgins from 2009. Early shutouts ... Texas has recorded four shutouts in the first six games of the season for just the second time in the history of the program. In 2008, Texas blanked Samford (4-0), Louisville (1-0, 2OT), UTSA (3-0) and Arizona State (0-0, 2OT) early in in the season. A shutout of San Diego would mark the first time UT blanked five of its first seven foes. Winning early ... Texas started the season with six wins in its first eight games for the fifth time in school history. All five of those seasons have occured since 2006. TEXAS BEST EIGHT-GAME STARTS Streaking ... The Longhorns are looking for their first six-game win streak since the 2006 season when they won nine consecutive games between Oct. 6 and Nov. 3. This marks just the sixth time Texas has won five or more consecutive games. The Longhorns won a school record 11 in a row in 2001 and also won nine consecutive games in 2002. TEXAS WIN STREAKS OF FIVE OR MORE GAMES Overtime ... Texas has only played in one overtime match this season. With their 2-1 double OT win over USC, Texas is now 1-0 in overtime matches this season. Higgins assists ... Hannah Higgins has recorded a total of six assists this season, ranking her tied for second in total assists among Big-12 players. Her assists per game ratio of .60 ranks her second in the Big-12 behind Kansas’ Whitney Berry (.78). Doniak ranked #87 among upperclassmen ... Soccer America ranked Longhorns’ senior midfi elder #87 among all upperclassmen. Doniak earned All-Big 12 Second-Team honors in 2010, leading Texas with seven goals, nine assists and 23 points. She was ranked 93rd prior to the 2010 season. Doniak enters the season ranked ninth on both UT’s career assists list with 13 and UT’s career game-winning goals list with five. Gaul named Big 12 Defensive Player of the Week (Sept. 6) ... Gaul was named the leagu’es defender for the first time this season and the fourth timeme in her career. She collected her third and fourth shutouts of the season as Texas recorded a pair of 2-0 wins over UTSA and Dartmouth. It marked just the second time in school history that a Texas team had notched four shutouts in its fi rst six games. For the weekend, Gaul had four total saves. She also earned an assist on the Longhorns’ second goal against UTSA, launching a long toss over nine Roadrunners to a sprinting Hannah Higgins who set up Vanessa Ibewuike for a shot on goal from 20 yards. Doniak named Big 12 Offensive Player of the Week (Aug. 29) ... Doniak’s impressive week began in the Longhorns’ 3-0 win against Georgia in which she scored one goal. Doniak added two goals and an assist as the Longhorns eased by Cal State Northridge 5-1. Both goals scored by Doniak against Cal State Northridge came in the first five minutes of the second half. The wins against Georgia and Cal State Northridge along with another 3-0 win against Houston on Aug. 22 helped the Longhorns complete their historic week. Doniak moved into UT’s career Top 10 for goals ... With her goal against USC, Kylie Doniak moved into a time with Kati McBain (2000-03) and Abby Gutowski (1998-2001) for 10th place on the Longhorns’ list for career goals with 18. She also ranks ninth on Texas’ career list for assists with 16. She needs three more points to enter the Top 10 for points. She currently has 52 points. Scoring off set pieces ... The Longhorns have scored ten goals off set pieces this season, including four goals off corner kicks, five goals off free kicks and one goal off a throw-in.
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