Texas Tech Athletics
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Kansas (Play-in Game)
Kansas Edges Texas Tech in Shootout
November 02, 2009 | Women's Soccer
Nov. 2, 2009
LUBBOCK, Texas - With as close as the entire Big 12 season was this year, it should come at little surprise that the play-in match to the Big 12 Championship between Texas Tech and Kansas went all the way to penalty kicks.
After Kansas swept through its five attempts and Tech connected on its first four, KU goalkeeper Kat Liebetrau stopped a Maggie Fete penalty kick to push the Jayhawks into the Big 12 Championship after a 1-1 tie through regulation and two overtime periods at the Blossom Soccer Stadium in San Antonio Monday night.
"We've never outplayed Kansas until tonight, and it really spoke to how wonderfully the team performed under these conditions," Tech head coach Tom Stone said. "We really were fantastic, and we couldn't have played any better. I was so proud of the team. The last 48 hours would have demoralized a lot of teams, but our team was able to shake that off and put on one of the greatest performances of the year. As a coach, I couldn't ask for anything more."
With over 110 minutes played prior to penalty kicks, oddly the two goals in regulation were only separated by 30 seconds. Whitney Berry put the Jayhawks on the board first at the 19:33 mark with a header to the left corner of the net from a Monica Dolinsky cross.
Tiffini Smith responded for Tech soon after with a 25-yard blast that whisked by Liebetrau and pulled both teams back to a 1-1 tie midway through the first period. The goal was Smith's second of the season and came unassisted.
Despite an 18-9 shot advantage throughout regulation, the Red Raiders were unable to net the game-winner as Smith, Taylor Lytle, and Conner Williams all had failed attempts. The trio combined for 20 of Tech's 24 shot attempts in the match.
Tech was able to respond to each made Kansas penalty kick in the shootout period, beginning with Lytle, then Sarah Ellison, Williams and Dawn Ward. Liebetrau made the big save on Fete, however, ending the match and sending the Jayhawks into the Big 12 Championship.
Even with the loss, the Red Raiders (8-8-4) end one of the most successful seasons in program history as no Tech team had finished .500 or better since 1998.
"It was obviously a great year for the program with all these freshmen helping us set this standard," said Stone, who had led the Red Raiders to the Big 12 Championship in each of his first two seasons. "This is a year where we took a major step forward in the Big 12. In addition to creating a wonderful home-game atmosphere where we broke the attendance record three times, we have a very talented and young team that has already shown it can play with anybody."
Kansas (12-7-2) advances to face Big 12 regular season champion Missouri at 5:30 p.m. Wednesday in the quarterfinal round. NCAA guidelines state matches decided by a shootout are credited as draws on both teams' overall records.
