Kansas Athletics
LAWRENCE, Kan. – Kansas soccer was selected for the 2025 NCAA Division I Women's Soccer Championship for the second straight year and will be a three seed in the tournament field. Kansas will host the first round at Rock Chalk Park for the first time since 2019 against California Baptist on Friday, Nov. 14 at 6 p.m. CT. The match will be broadcast on ESPN+.
Kansas is in the NCAA Tournament for the 11th time in school history. The back-to-back NCAA Tournament appearances mark the third time in program history and the first since 2018-19. This will be the seventh time that Kansas has hosted the NCAA Tournament and the No. 3 seed is tied for the highest seed in program history with 2019.
"I'm proud of this team for earning a three seed," Kansas head coach Nate Lie said. "That's a reflection of the body of work over three months or so. What we just talked about with the team is even more than that, because in order to be successful at the beginning of the year, you need to come in fit, and that was probably three months of hard work in the summer on your own. So to earn a three seed, that's the highest I've ever been placed, is already a great start. We have our work cut out for us, but I have a lot of confidence in this group, and we'll just see how long we can keep playing."
Kansas enters the NCAA Tournament with a record of 14-5-3 after advancing to the Big 12 Tournament Championship for the second straight season. The Jayhawks knocked off the number two and three seeds in the first two rounds before falling to BYU in the championship match. Kansas has already surpassed its win total from last season and has its most wins since 2019.
The five losses for the Jayhawks this season have all come against teams in the top 20 in RPI (No. 5 TCU, No. 8 Colorado, No. 16 Texas Tech, No. 17 Baylor, No. 20 BYU). Kansas has been battle tested this season as 14 of its 22 matches have come against teams that qualified for this year's NCAA Tournament.
Defender Caroline Castans was named to the Big 12 All-Tournament Team for the second straight year. After the regular season concluded, Castans and Lexi Watts were All-Big 12 First Team selections, while Kate Langfelder and Jillian Gregorski were named to the All-Big 12 Second Team.
California Baptist has a record of 12-8-2, including a 6-3-1 mark in the Western Athletic Conference. The Lancers won their conference tournament by defeating Utah Tech and Utah Valley, with both matches going to penalty kicks. Ava Westlund leads the Lancers offensively with nine goals this season, while Mikayla O'Brien has started 19 games this year at goalkeeper, and has tallied 81 saves and recorded six shutouts.
This will be the first matchup against California Baptist in program history.
The winner of the Kansas-California Baptist match will face the winner of No. 6-seeded Louisville and Kentucky on Thursday, Nov. 20 in the second round.