Back-to-back bids: Kansas Jayhawks snare No. 3 seed in NCAA soccer tournament
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Kansas secures consecutive NCAA bid as No. 3 seed; hosts California Baptist Friday.
- KU earned its highest seed in program history and will defend at Rock Chalk Park.
- Five losses came vs top-20 RPI teams; KU finished No. 7 and played 14 tourney qualifiers.
Kansas has secured a bid to the NCAA Division I women’s soccer tournament for the second consecutive season.
The Jayhawks (14-5-3), the third team in program history to make back-to-back tourney appearances and first to do so since 2018 and 2019, as a 3-seed will play host to California Baptist (12-8-2) in a first-round match at 6 p.m. Friday. That matchup at Rock Chalk Park will be streamed on ESPN+.
The winner will meet the winner of a first-round match between Louisville and Kentucky on Thursday, Nov. 20, at a site yet to be announced.
This marks the first time KU has been chosen to host a tourney game since 2019. In all, KU, which has played in the postseason event 11 times, has hosted a game seven times.
The No. 3 seed is tied for the highest seed in program history.
Of attaining a 3 seed, second-year KU coach Nate Lie said: “That’s a reflection of the body of work over three months or so. What we just talked about with the team is even more than that, because in order to be successful at the beginning of the year, you need to come in fit, and that was probably three months of hard work in the summer on your own.
“So to earn a 3 seed — that’s the highest we’ve ever been placed (including seven seasons at Xavier) — is already a great start. We have our work cut out for us, but I have a lot of confidence in this group, and we’ll just see how long we can keep playing.”
KU in the recent Big 12 tourney lost to BYU in the title game 1-0. The Jayhawks had defeated West Virginia 4-0 in the first round and Colorado 2-1 in the semifinals.
KU was denied in its bid to become the first team to win Big 12 tourney titles in back-to-back seasons since West Virginia in 2013 and 2014.
KU’s five losses have all been against teams in the top 20 in RPI (No. 5 TCU, No. 8 Colorado, No. 16 Texas Tech, No. 17 Baylor, No. 20 BYU). KU is No. 7 in RPI. In all, 14 of the Jayhawks’ 22 matches have come against teams that qualified for the 2025 NCAA Tournament.
Defender Caroline Castans, a junior from Flower Mound, Texas, was named to the Big 12 all-tournament team for the second straight year.
Lexi Watts, a senior out of St. James Academy, and Castans recently claimed first-team all-Big 12 honors. Kate Langfelder (sophomore, Wyckoff, New Jersey) and Jillian Gregorski (sophomore, Wethersfield, Connecticut) were named to the all-Big 12 second team.
Watts leads the team in goals scored with 10. Gregorski has eight goals, while Saige Wimes, Livvy Moore and Jordan Rowan have four apiece. Wimes is a junior out of St. Teresa’s Academy, Rowan a freshman from Madison, Ohio, and Moore a junior from Deer Park, Washington.
This will be the first matchup against California Baptist in KU program history.
California Baptist has a record of 12-8-2, including a 6-3-1 mark in the Western Athletic Conference. The Lancers won their conference tournament by defeating Utah Tech and Utah Valley, with both matches going to penalty kicks.
Ava Westlund has scored a team-leading nine goals. Mikayla O’Brien has 81 saves and has recorded six shutouts in goal.
KU, Baylor, BYU, UCF, Colorado, TCU, Texas Tech and West Virginia all earned seeded bids to the 64-team field, tying the league’s most representation in the tournament (2003).
TCU (15-2-20) secured a No. 2 seed after claiming its second consecutive Big 12 regular season title. This season’s appearance marks the second-straight and ninth overall NCAA Tournament selection for the program.
