Kansas City, Missouri — In the hallway leading to the locker room after Wednesday night’s 2-1 victory by the Kansas women’s soccer team over 17th-ranked Texas Tech in the Big 12 tournament semifinals, KU coach Nate Lie’s youngest son, Josh, asked his dad a pretty pointed question.
“Dad, what’s our RPI gonna be now,” Josh said.
The answer, after the Jayhawks’ 7th win in a row and 12th of the season, was somewhere near 40.
That mark puts Kansas firmly in contention for a spot in the NCAA Tournament, a place they haven’t been since 2019.
In fact, KU coach Nate Lie said after the victory that he believes the Jayhawks already have done enough to earn a spot in the NCAA Tournament.
“I mean, hey, I think we deserve to be in at this point,” Lie said when asked about his team’s status as a bubble team. “I don’t know if we’re on the bubble or not, but I think we should be in.”
But, first, they have a title to play for.
And for a group of players who come from varying backgrounds, having experienced different degrees of success up to this point, that alone makes the opportunity they have on Saturday night in the Big 12 title match vs. TCU something surreal.
Up to this point, the biggest game that KU junior and leading scorer Lexi Watts had ever played in came during the final regular season game of her freshman year in 2022. That game, against Iowa State, was to get into the Big 12 tournament.
The Jayhawks won that won but lost in Round 1 of the Big 12 tournament to, of all teams, TCU.
Now, Watts has at least two games bigger than that under her belt and a third coming Saturday night.
It’s something she always believed could happen. But she admitted that before the tournament began getting to this point and even being able to talk realistically about their NCAA Tournament chances seemed a little like “a long shot.”
“I knew we could do it,” she said. “But it was all about if we could be consistent and lock in and play for each other the whole 90 minutes.”
That’s exactly what this team has been for the past three games in Kansas City, and seven in a row during the red-hot winning streak.
While Watts has never played for a title of any kind, there are others on this team who have at least experienced it.
Take Wednesday’s two goal scorers — senior Raena Knust and sophomore Olivia Page — for example.
Knust, who hails from Grain Valley (Mo.) High, reached a state title game during her senior season of high school – the first season in which her school had even made it to the state tournament.
“Unfortunately, we didn’t win, but it was a huge experience,” she recalled after Wednesday’s victory. “Even today, my brother (Coleman) actually text me and was like, ‘Just think back to your senior year, your state championship final, and think about how you played and go with that mindset into this game. That was really special and I was thinking about that the entire day and entire night.”
Page, who played for a couple of club soccer titles, also reached a state title game her senior season of high school at Mill Valley High, and her Jaguars did win.
All of it has contributed to these women and this team getting ready to play for a title together at Kansas, in a loaded conference during their first season under a new head coach.
Rather than shy away from talking about everything that was on the line in coming over to Kansas City, the Jayhawks addressed it head-on on a couple of different occasions.
The winning streak, their RPI, their NCAA Tournament chances, and, of course, a conference title.
“We do have those conversations, but, for me, I still take it game by game because I’ve seen what we can do when we do that,” Page said.
So, too, have Josh and Nate Lie. And the fact that one of the youngest KU soccer fans follows it so closely, so late and on a school night no less, was mind-blowing to both Watts and Knust.
“The fact that he knows what RPI is at that age is so cool,” Watts said. “I didn’t know what RPI was until last year.”
The stage is set now for Kansas to take all of the guesswork out of the equation. A win on Saturday gets the Jayhawks an automatic berth into the NCAA Tournament.
But, believe it or not, that will be the farthest thing from their minds when they hit the pitch at CPKC Stadium on Saturday night.
“I’m so excited, but it hasn’t hit me yet that we are going to the finals,” Watts said after Wednesday’s win. “It’s crazy and I’m super-proud of this team.”
Added Lie: “I don't think they need any extra motivation to go try to win a ring, you know, to go try to hoist a trophy, to go try to earn a banner that will be hung up at RCP (Rock Chalk Park) forever. I think that should be enough motivation. I don't think we have to talk about the NCAA Tournament too much anymore.”
Kickoff on Saturday night is set for 7 p.m.
— For tickets to all KU athletic events, visit kuathletics.com
