(Photo Credit: KUSports.com)
LAWRENCE, Kan.- The border war bragging rights stay in Missouri, for now. (Maybe some day basketball or football will decide to rekindle the rivalry) On Sunday the Missouri Tigers women’s soccer team eliminated the Kansas Jayhawks from tournament play with a 3-1 victory.
Missouri executed its game plan to perfection as Taylor Grant put the Tigers on the board right out of the gate as she positioned herself perfectly on the receiving end of a Reagan Russell cross. Grant’s goal gave Missouri the quick 1-0 lead and they never looked back.
The Tigers outshot the Jayhawks 9-1 in the opening 20 minutes of play as the high-pressured attack proved too much for Kansas to handle. Coming into Sunday’s game the Jayhawks had not allowed more than two goals to an opponent all season. The new 3-5-2 formation allowed Missouri to keep possession of the ball more and dictate the tempo of play.
The Tigers had to control the ball and make the most of their opportunities seeing as how Kansas had only given up a total of 15 goals through the entire regular season. Coming out of halftime Grant found the back of the net once more in the 51st minute to push Missouri’s lead to 2-0.
From there the Tigers were able to pull back and add defensive help to limit any sort of comeback the Jayhawks may have had in mind. The moved looked costly at first as Kansas cut the deficit in half to 2-1 when leading goal scorer Liana Salazar netted a goal past Missouri keeper Mackenzie Sauerwein.
With the Jayhawks now breathing down the Tigers necks Russell eased the tension nine minutes later as she made a nice run and capitalized to put Missouri back up by two with the score at 3-1.
The Tiger defense then locked down and disrupted any chance of a comeback for the Jayhawks as they pulled out the victory 3-1 and now move on the second round to take on fourth seeded Washington on Friday.
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