The art of the penalty kick...

Kansas soccer coach Nate Lie has one key requirement when it comes to selecting which players on the field will take penalty kicks when they come.

“Who takes a PK is who wants a PK,” Lie said after last Thursday’s 4-1 win over Kansas State, which, in no small way, was sparked by a successful KU PK midway through the first half.

With the Jayhawks trailing Kansas State 1-0, and reeling a bit after back-to-back losses last week, freshman forward Jordan Rowan drew a foul in the box that resulted in Kansas being awarded a penalty kick.

Immediately, sophomore forward Jillian Gregorski stepped forward.

It came as no surprise, really. After all, Gregorski is one of the few Jayhawks who practices PKs before every game, home and away. And she said after the win that she believed her teammates’ awareness of that work and her ability to finish around the net made her an obvious choice for everyone.

“Personally, if you draw the foul, I think you get to take it if you want it,” Gregorski told R1S1 Sports after the victory. “If you don’t, I’ll take it. A lot of people do take them when they get the foul and some people don’t. It’s all a matter of preference. But I’m always down. And this team is great. They have so much trust in me.”

Her execution in the moment illustrated why. Without much fuss, Gregorski prepared herself for the kick with extreme focus and a deliberate pace.

And when the whistle blew, she calmly buried the ball in the back of the net to the inside of the right post after starting her run a little from the left.

That, too, was the product of elite planning. Gregorski said she typically knows the day before each game which way she’s going to go with a penalty kick if she happens to get one in the upcoming contest.

“So, I walk on the field knowing which one I’m going to do,” she said. “It kind of depends on how I’m feeling that week. Because you’ve gotta go with which one you’re confident with.”

There’s no looking at the opposing goalkeeper to try to read what they might be thinking?

“No. I stare at the ball,” Gregorski said.

Just the ball?

“Yep.”

You don’t want to give anything away with your eyes?

“Correct. I feel like it’s me and the ball versus the net. I know there’s someone there, but I’m very focused on how I want to hit it and I can see it in my head.”

All of the prep and planning and strategy and specifics make taking PKs somewhat of an art or a science. But Gregorski acknowledged that even with all of that, there are still things that are out of her control.

“You never know what the goalie’s gonna do,” she said.

Because of that, she does everything she can to control as many variables as possible, including making sure that she doesn’t let the moment get too big or her adrenaline spike too high.

See, one of the most popular ways people miss PKs is by launching a shot over the crossbar simply because they’re trying too hard to put serious power on the shot.

But Gregorski’s goal against K-State was anything but a laser.

“You don’t need to strike it,” she said. “You just need to hit it in the right place and with accuracy. You just need to put it in the right spot, you don’t need to fire it in.”

She added: “I don’t really think about anything other than visualizing what I have to do. If you want to be a penalty kick taker, you have to accept the fact that you’re gonna miss sometimes or the goalie’s gonna save it. That’s just the reality of it. So, I don’t think there’s pressure, it’s more about just focusing on where I want to place it.”

The successful PK against Kansas State was sweet for Gregorski for two reasons. For one, it helped her atone for a missed PK in the Jayhawks’ second game of the year against South Dakota.

KU won that game anyway, and she said she really didn’t dwell much on the miss beyond the following day. But it was something she thought about as soon as she converted against K-State.

“It’s nice to get one in the back of the net,” she said. “Clean slate for me. But I haven’t been too worried about it.”

More pressing on her mind was the fact that the Jayhawks (8-2-2) really needed Thursday’s win. And after starting down a goal and a bit sluggish, getting the PK was a serious spark for the team.

“Yeah, I felt it,” Gregorski said of how big that goal was at the time. “It was a huge moment for us, a turning point in our game. That’s what the team needed. We just needed someone to make a play and Jo made a play and look where we went.”

Added Lie: “Relief. It was. I felt relief personally. I think once we got that goal, it gave us confidence and I think we were able to get a lot more of a rhythm and settle into our identity.”

It was smooth sailing from there, and Lie, who said he leaves the decision on who takes PKs up to the players on the field said he was thrilled to see Gregorski step up and deliver.

“I think it was just waiting to see if she wanted it, after missing one early,” he said. “So I wouldn’t be surprised, if we received another, if she’d step up again.”

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