With one season remaining in her Kansas career, the time has arrived for KU soccer star Lexi Watts to pour everything she’s got into her final season on the pitch.
As she does, we’ll follow her every step of the way in the latest edition of our weekly diary series that will chronicle Watts' 2025 season.
Some of what you’ll read here, in Watts' own words, will focus on the stuff happening between the lines — big wins, memorable moments and the grind of the season.
But a lot of it will focus on Watts the person, who loves soccer, loves KU, loves her teammates & coaches and is looking to make one more mark on the program before she says goodbye.
The Watts File
Age: 21 | Number: 18 | Height: 5-7 | Position: Forward
High School: St. James Academy (Lenexa) | Club: Sporting Blue Valley
Notable: Lexi Watts began playing soccer at 3 years old and has not looked back. The daughter of soccer-playing parents, Watts quickly showed her skills in the game en route to earning all-league and all-state honors in high school, where she solidified her status as a goal-scoring machine... During an all-Big 12 freshman year at Kansas in 2022, Watts' 6 goals were the most by a KU freshman since 2012... In Year 2, Watts appeared in all 18 KU matches, finishing second in points scored and third in assists... Last season was Watts' true breakout season, as she finished with a team-best 21 points and 9 goals. Her shots on goal (38) and total shots (82) both ranked in the top seven on KU's all-time, single-season lists, and she was named to the Big 12's all-tournament team as the Most Outstanding Offensive Player of the 2024 Big 12 tourney, with a spot all-Big 12 first team following that.
KU record to date: 7-0-2 | Next up: Thursday vs. Baylor, 6 p.m. kickoff, and Sunday vs. TCU, Noon kickoff.
By the time you reach your senior season, in any college sport, odds are you’ve seen just about everything the game has to offer.
But last week, during the 14th-ranked Jayhawks’ 1-0 road win over Oklahoma State in the Big 12 opener, Watts experienced a new one, with the Jayhawks playing one player down after Jordan Rowan was hit with a red card late in the first half.
From there, the Jayhawks played 57 minutes and 10 seconds with one less player than the Oklahoma State side.
Not only was Watts not used to playing 10 on 11, she also had never seen a red card handed out to a teammate or an opponent at any level or stage of her soccer career.
“I’ve never even been through anything like that. Never. So, I think that was the part where we were like, whoa, no one knows what to do.”
“It affected the forwards probably more than anything because we went from two to one. How we press was different. Defensively, we had to drop in and help. But we never really talked about it. We all were just like, we just need to figure out how to win the game.”
At halftime, with the teams knotted up at 0-0, Watts experienced another first.
“Coach Lie said something like, ‘Coming out with a tie would be good,’ but, obviously, we wanted to win.”
Anyone who’s been around him knows that Lie isn’t the kind of coach that rallies the troops by gunning for ties. So, it was worth asking whether Watts had ever heard him talk like that.
“Never. Never. But, I think we all knew that OSU’s so good that even with us playing with 11 players it was going to be hard. And then with 10… When he said that at first, I was like, ‘Really? He’s never said anything like that.’ Everything kind of changed and it was just hard. It was a crazy game.”
Watts even played midfield for a while, for just the second or third time in her entire career. She played there during one of the Jayhawks’ spring games earlier this year. And she also played their for about 10 minutes in the Big 12 tournament championship game last fall, to help protect the Jayhawks’ lead.
While KU’s forwards rotated a little quicker than normal throughout the second half to manage being one forward down, Watts said she felt the worst for fellow-forward Jocelyn Herrema, who was out there with Rowan when the red card was issued after Rowan bumped the OSU goalkeeper while charging after a loose ball.
The infraction was initially ruled a yellow card, which would have allowed Rowan to remain in the game, but upgraded to a red card after video review.
“She slipped, too. It wasn’t like it was on purpose at all. You could just tell she felt awful. That’s just so unfortunate.”
“But Jocelyn definitely had it the worst out of all of us, just because, second half, we knew what we were going to do. She had no idea when it first happened.”
It wasn’t until halftime arrived when the Jayhawks could regroup and try to figure out a plan of attack for the final 45 minutes. No extra chatter from the coaches on the sideline while play went on. No impromptu strategy sessions with the white board either.
“No. I think they were just trying to figure out what to do, too. At the same time.”
KU grabbed the lead on a rocket shot by Caroline Castans in the 56th minute. From there, the Jayhawks’ strategy shifted for the final 34 minutes of the game.
“It was kind of like, if we can get another one, let’s try and get another one. At least in the beginning. Once it came to like 10 minutes left, it was like, ‘No, we don’t need a goal. We just need to take it to the corner.’ The last 3 or 4 minutes, we just took it to the corner the entire time. And they were getting chances. Luckily (KU goalkeeper) Soph Dawe was just a beast.”
After closing out the win with extra effort from everyone and a mixture of aggressive play and time-wasting tactics, the significance of this victory set in in stages.
“We realized right away that it was awesome that we won, but, seeing that we hadn’t won at OSU since 2004 and then we were down a player, there were so many things that made that awesome. We were even seeing Tweets from Jason Booker and Travis Goff. I didn’t realize how big of a deal it was until they posted. But we were definitely happy we won. We were hyped.”
Where did that show up the most?
“The bus ride. There’s a song we play after wins on the road. It’s by Taylor Swift. ‘Love Story.’ And we were all singing it at the top of our lungs and even our coaches were getting in there singing and drumming on the seats.”
“That was the first road trip that we’ve done that so far this year. Last year, we did it after every single road win.”
Needless to say, Watts believes the Jayhawks’ latest triumph provided them with a little extra preparedness that not every team can or will have.
“I feel like it’ll feel more normal, which is crazy to say, if it did happen again. It’ll probably never happen again, though. It’s just cool that we all came together and worked together to get that win. And then scoring that goal was just the cherry on top.”
The Jayhawks play host to Baylor at 6 p.m. tonight. So, does Watts think it’ll feel weird to have 11 players back out on the pitch?
“No. I think it’ll feel normal. We’ve played that way a lot more in our careers. And we’re super-excited for Baylor.”
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