Postseason berth about way more than being good enough to get there

When the 6th-seeded Kansas women’s soccer team kicks off in tonight’s opening-round Big 12 tournament match against No. 11 seed Arizona State, the obvious objective for the Jayhawks will be to try to win the game.

But there’s much more on the line in this tournament and this game — win or lose — that the Jayhawks are not afraid to put their arms around.

For the first time ever, the Big 12 tournament will be played at CPKC Stadium, home of the NWSL’s Kansas City Current.

The 11,500-seat soccer venue is the first stadium in the world to be built exclusively for a women’s professional sports team, and that fact, along with their chance to play in it this week, means a lot to the Jayhawks.

“I thought that was the coolest thing ever,” sophomore and KC native Assa Kante told R1S1 Sports earlier this week of the arrival of CPKC Stadium. “I even went to their opening game and I just remember thinking, ‘Wow, we’re making history in Kansas City.’ I’ve always thought that the Midwest is like the soccer capital of the country, and for us to have the first professional women’s stadium ever and then for us to be able to play in the Big 12 tournament there, that’s like a dream come true.”

Like most female soccer players their age, Kante and all-Big 12 junior Lexi Watts grew up in awe of former U.S. Women’s National Team star Alex Morgan. They both acknowledged being inspired by Morgan’s play and the way she brought greater exposure to the women’s game.

Now, they’re hoping they can do the same thing on a slightly smaller scale for young girls in the area.

“I’ve always wanted to play there,” said Watts, who was named to the all-Big 12 first team on Tuesday with sophomore defender Caroline Castans and freshman midfielder Jillian Gregorski. “Even when I think back to when I was a little kid, that was always a big dream of mine, to play in a professional environment like that. It’s just an amazing opportunity for us to be able to play there. And it’s also such a good opportunity for other girls to watch and be like, ‘Wow, that could be me someday.’”

That role as ambassador to the game is something that first-year KU coach Nate Lie takes seriously. He constantly looks for ways for his players to inspire the next generation and said that his current Kansas team is “amazing” at interacting with young soccer players who come to their games, camps and clinics.

He pointed to an intense, mid-season home loss to Colorado in the 83rd minute as a prime example. Moments after losing in the final minutes, the entire team was on the field mingling with a young club team coached by a former KU player, who brought her crew to watch the match. They took photos, signed autographs and handed out hugs and smiles, almost as if the loss had not even happened.

“They could not be better ambassadors for our game,” Lie said of his current players. “They’re amazing, and I couldn’t be more proud.”

At a time when growth in women’s sports is making headlines, Lie hopes that women’s soccer is on the same path as women’s basketball — college and pro — and NCAA softball, which have drawn massive crowds and record-breaking television ratings in the past couple of years.

Because so many young girls grow up playing soccer, Lie believes that his sport has the potential to follow that path. He was overjoyed this offseason, when he was recruiting the St. Louis area and saw tons of people packed into an outdoor venue to watch the Women’s College World Series between Texas and Oklahoma.

“Soccer is as popular and probably more popular than either of those sports on a grassroots level,” Lie said. “What we haven’t been able to accomplish yet is to have our championship take on the same magnitude. But people follow our (U.S. women’s) national team more than any other sport’s national team. So, I think the opportunity’s there to really grow this, but there are still a few hurdles.”

Always interested in finding a way to take steps forward, Lie rattled off a few of those hurdles: The need for a transcendent star in the game, like Caitlin Clark in women’s hoops; a good television partner and the ability to grow interest in the entire NCAA Tournament and his sport’s regular season, as well.

The moves made by the Current show that anything is possible, and the KU players, especially Kante, Watts and the other Kansas City natives on the KU roster, are excited to be connected to that in some small way.

“I mean, you look at the Kansas City Stadium, it’s packed all the time,” Watts said. “There are sellouts all the time and that just shows how well they’ve been doing and how many people are going out there to support them. They’ve really made their mark on the game.”

Because the KC Current is at the forefront of moving women’s soccer in this country to a new level, Lie and the Jayhawks believe they can have a role, too.

The first-year KU coach said the mere existence of the Current, which will host the 2025 NCAA Tournament Final Four, was one of the things that really attracted him to the job opening at Kansas when he decided to leave Xavier. And, as both a coach of young women and the father of a daughter, Lie spends a lot of his time looking for ways to celebrate women’s sports however he can.

He said his daughter, Grace, and one of her friends are dressing up as Caitlin Clark for Halloween. And he said that KU Athletic Director Travis Goff’s daughters, in back-to-back years, dressed up as Lexi Watts for Halloween and wear No. 18 like Watts when they play.

“Celebrating women’s sports in what I do professionally is really special,” Lie said. “We always ask our players to have something bigger to play for that’s outside of the typical things, and growing the game is one of them. The Current itself means something to KU and to our staff. And I would be lying if I said playing there wasn’t going to be really cool for me. We don’t have many opportunities like this. It’s unique and it’s special.”

So much so that even though the Jayhawks (9-5-4 overall, 6-4-1 Big 12) have the advantage of being the closest to KC of the 12 schools that made the Big 12 tournament, they’re still treating it like a road trip.

On Tuesday, KU and its current 4-game winning streak traveled to Kansas City to train on turf and then made the short trip over to CPKC Stadium to have a look around.

Many of them, including Lie, had been there as fans, but the chance to get on the field, see the locker room and ooh and ahh at the environment on a non-gameday was too good of an opportunity to pass up.

“Our sort of Hoosiers moment,” is how Lie described it, referencing the iconic basketball film from the 1980s. “This (was) for them. They’ve earned it. And not many people get this experience, so let’s enjoy it and let it soak in.”

Kickoff for tonight’s Round 1 matchup with Arizona State is set for 5:15 p.m. at CPKC Stadium. Because of the threat of inclement weather, all four of Wednesday’s games were moved up to an earlier start.

With a win tonight, the Jayhawks would advance to Saturday’s quarterfinal round, where No. 3 seed West Virginia awaits.

— For tickets to all KU athletic events, visit kuathletics.com