Kansas Soccer Earns Trip to Sweet 16 After Win vs Louisville

The Kansas Jayhawks are headed to the Sweet 16 for the first time since 2019 following a 3-1 victory over No. 20 ranked Louisville in the second round of this year’s NCAA Tournament.

The 3-seeded Jayhawks beat the 6-seeded Cardinals in front of a KU-friendly crowd at Koskinen Field in Durham, North Carolina thanks to a trio of goals from freshman forward Faith Johnston, sophomore midfielder Jillian Gregorski, and senior forward Lexi Watts.

After trailing 1-0 through most of the first half, Johnston tied the game with four minutes left before halftime.

In the second half, the Jayhawks had multiple corner kicks and shots on goal, but were unable to find the net until Gregorski scored with just over eight minutes remaining. Watts then scored the final goal a few minutes later to seal the win.

Following the match, head coach Nate Lie expressed his pride in the team’s efforts.

"We started a little bit slow, which we were going to continue to try to address," Lie said. "But I'm really proud of how the team stuck in there, held their ground, and then slowly, slowly started to gain momentum, gain territory, and feed into our identity and what we like to do. It was a really, really important goal from Faith (Johnston) before halftime to tie the game and to give us that burst of energy. I thought her and Jocelyn (Herrema) were tremendous in their shift up front, and then really proud of the second half that we just put out there … I can't be more proud of this group and this team, and I'm very happy and proud to be their coach."

KU is now 16-5-3 on the season with a chance to advance to their first-ever Elite Eight if they’re able to beat No. 2 seed Duke on their home turf on Sunday.

The Blue Devils are led by first-year head coach Kieran Hall who has guided the team to a 15-4-1 record this year. They beat Elon 3-0 in the first round of the NCAA Tournament and then escaped 1-0 over UCF in the second round.

Junior forward Mia Minestrella leads the Blue Devils in scoring with 16 goals on the season – including all four of Duke’s goals in this year’s NCAA Tournament.

Kansas and Duke will face off at 1 p.m. CT this Sunday with the game airing live on ESPN+.