The Baylor Bears moved to 10-1-2 on Friday night with a 1-0 victory over conference foe Kansas. Baylor is now 1-0-1 in conference play. Senior midfielder Lisa Sliwinski had the only goal of the game.
“That was a tough game,” head coach Marci Jobson said. “Kansas is a great team. They’re fast. They’re good at what they do. I was waiting for one of those [shots] to go in…and finally Lisa [Sliwinski] finished it.”
Kansas Freshman forward Courtney Dickerson had a good opportunity to score early in the match. Her shot beat sophomore goalkeeper, but the Baylor defense was there to clear the ball away from danger before the ball could cross the line into the goal.
Junior defender Kat Ludlow lobbed a pass towards goal with about 24 minutes to go in the first half. The crowd rose to its feet in anticipation, but Jayhawk goalkeeper Kaitlyn Stroud was able to rise up above the offense and make the save.
Stroud was forced to make many spectacular saves throughout the first half because Baylor kept the pressure high.
A brilliant free kick from junior defender Taylor Heatherly landed on the head of Ludlow inside of the six-yard box. The ball went into the back of the net, but the assistant referee had her flag in the air signaling that the play was offside.
Some good interior passing by the Bears led to a scoring chance for freshman forward Jordan Hatler. Stroud again came up with the save, deflecting the ball up and over the goal.
“I wanted to come out and not play for myself,” Hatler said. “This team and God mean more than anything. [I wanted] to do it for them.”
A controversial yellow card was given to senior defender Carlie Davis in the 44th minute of the game.
Davis and the Jayhawk attacker were in a full sprint for the ball when Davis slid to kick the ball out of bounds. Both play ended up on the ground, and the referee issued the card. The ensuing free kick resulted in a chance on goal, but nothing came of it.
The teams went into halftime tied 0-0. Despite the relatively even nature of the game, Baylor led in the shot column 11-3.
The second half started very physically. Players from both teams were hitting the ground on a regular basis. The endurance of both teams was tested throughout the game as a result.
With four minutes left in the game, Sliwinski took the ball down the right side of the field. After beating the Jayhawk defense to the middle of the field, and launched a bullet of a shot. The ball beat the keeper, and the Bears took a 1-0 lead.
“I think what did it was that [the defender] was tired,” Sliwinski said. “She couldn’t accelerate, so I took the touch past her and it wasn’t the most technical of shots, it was just really hard. The keeper got a hand on it, but it went in. It was just luck I guess.”
Junior midfielder Vic Hoffman nearly added to the lead with a minute left in the game. Hoffman had a fast break and hit the ball towards frame, but her shot hit the side of the net.
The Bears do not have a game on Sunday, and their next game will be in Lubbock against Texas Tech.
