K-State soccer opens fourth season in Omaha

K-State women’s soccer opens the season in Omaha Friday. *Photo courtesy k-statesports.com*

MANHATTAN, Kan. — K-State will begin its fourth season of action on Friday night, as the Wildcats travel to Omaha, Nebraska, to face Creighton at 7 p.m. K-State will conclude the opening weekend on Sunday afternoon at 1 p.m., against Omaha.

Friday night’s match will be streamed for free on Jays All-Access and available on 101.5 KROCK in Manhattan and kstatesports.com.
Sunday’s match at Omaha will be streamed for free on Mavs All-Access and available on 101.5 KROCK in Manhattan and kstatesports.com.
In its two tune-ups before the start of the regular season, Kansas State finished 1-0-1 and tallied a +3 goal differential (7-4). The Wildcats tied Arkansas in a closed practice, 3-3, and pocketed a 4-1 win at Oral Roberts.
The Wildcats own a 2-2-2 record in the opening weekend of a season. K-State tallied a pair of wins last season during the opening weekend, downing Saint Louis (1-0) and Oakland (4-0).
For the 2019 season, Kansas State returns 17 letter winners from the 2018 season, including eight starters. Among the 17 letter winners returning, K-State welcomes back nine of the 13 players to register at least one point from the 2018 season including top scorers: senior Katie Cramer (two goals, three assists, seven points) and junior Brookleynn Entz (two goals, two assists, six points).
In addition to the 17 returning letter winners, Kansas State also adds 10 newcomers and two redshirts to the rotation for the 2019 season.
K-State will play four of its first six matches on the road. Overall, K-State has played 30 of the 52 matches in program history on the road.

Odds and ends from 2018

Of K-State’s 18 matches in 2018, the Wildcats faced nine opponents that would reach the 2018 NCAA Tournament. Kansas State registered a 1-7-1 record those matches with the lone win coming against Saint Louis and the lone tie coming at San Jose State.
K-State played a program-record 10 home matches, including five Big 12 home matches.
The Wildcats tied the program record for home victories, going 3-7-0 at the K-State Soccer Complex in 2018.
K-State finished the 2018 season ranked 19th in the nation for average attendance with 1,115 fans per match.
K-State registered the best month of August in program history, as the Wildcats were 3-1-0. For the third straight year, K-State outscored its opponents in the month of August, 6-2. In the last three seasons, K-State is outscoring its opponents 16-9 in August matches.
The Wildcats posted a school-record six shutouts, as redshirt sophomore goalkeeper Emma Malsy pocketed all six. K-State was 4-0-2 in those six games and are 12-0-4 in the last three seasons when registering a shutout.
Overall, K-State was outscored by its opponents 26-13, a -13 goal differential. In Big 12 action, K-State was outscored 20-2, a -18 goal differential.
K-State set the school records for total shots (236) and shots on goal (107).
For the third straight season, K-State had at least 10 different players record at least one goal. Only one of K-State’s goal scorers notched their first career collegiate goal (Chloe Fisher).
Kansas State will enter the 2019 season looking to end a school-record nine-match losing streak.
Kansas State had nine players play in every game in the 2018 season: junior forward/midfielder Katie Cramer, sophomore midfielder Brookelynn Entz, senior forward Tatum Wagner, sophomore forward Christina Baxter, senior midfielder Morgan Mauck, freshman forward Chloe Fisher, sophomore midfielder Maddie Souder, junior defender Laramie Hall and redshirt sophomore goalkeeper Emma Malsy. Only two players have played in all 52 games in program history: Wagner and Hall.

2019 roster items

K-State’s 2019 roster features 30 student-athletes including 17 letter winners and four redshirts from the 2018 season.
Joining the returners are nine true freshmen. The freshmen hail from California, Denmark, England, Kansas, Oklahoma and Wales.
In total for 2019, Kansas State’s roster features 16 sophomores, redshirt freshmen or true freshmen which is 53 percent of the total roster.
The six seniors on the roster this season are: defender Grace Brennan, forward Katie Cramer, defender Laramie Hall, goalkeeper Emma Malsy and defender Aly Rocha.

Dibbini In Fourth Season at K-State

K-State announced the formation of its women’s soccer program on Oct. 12, 2014. With the task of building a program from the ground up, K-State announced on Dec. 26, 2014, that Mike Dibbini would be the first head coach in program history.
Dibbini is entering his fourth season with the Wildcats. He owns a 279-110-37 (.698) career mark, including a 14-32-6 (.327) mark at K-State.
Prior to coming to K-State, Dibbini spent eight seasons at Kansas Wesleyan (NAIA) and two seasons at Cal Poly Pomona (NCAA D-II).

Scoreless streaks entering 2019

The Wildcats will look to snap a scoreless stretch of 313:44, which encapsulates the final three and a half matches of the 2018 season. K-State’s last goal came off a corner kick at 46:16 against TCU from Haley Sutter.
In addition to the overall scoreless stretch, K-State will look to end a road scoreless streak of 378:24 as the last road goal came at Tulsa on September 16, 2018.
The longest overall scoreless streak in program history, 575:09, spanned the end of the 2016 season and the first two matches of the 2017 season, just over seven matches.

Wichita area natives scoring goals for Wildcats

Through 52 matches in the program’s history, Kansas State has scored a total of 47 goals.
Of the 47 goals, 16 have been scored by players from the Wichita-area including current Wildcats: Katie Cramer (Goddard), Brookelynn Entz (Newton), Avery Green (Wichita) and Ashley Zane (Wichita).
In the 2016 season, Cramer recorded the first goal in program history, while Zane pocketed one.
In year two, Cramer and Zane each added their second career goals while Entz and Green joined their fellow Wichita natives on the stat sheet. Entz owns the K-State career goals scored record at five.
Cramer, Entz, and Zane registered at least one goal in the 2018 season. Cramer and Entz bagged a pair of goals while Zane recorded her goal at Tulsa on Sept. 16.

– kstatesports.com –