K-State women’s soccer opens Buser Family Park Thursday night

Workers spent the off season getting Buser Family Park ready for K-State’s women’s soccer. *Photo courtesy k-statesports.com*

MANHATTAN, Kan. — K-State will begin the home portion of its 2019 schedule this weekend, as the Wildcats will open Buser Family Park against Arkansas State on Thursday night at 7 p.m., and host South Dakota State on Sunday at 1 p.m.

Both matches this weekend will be streamed on Big 12 Now on ESPN+ and available on 101.5 KROCK in Manhattan and kstatesports.com. Brian Smoller (play-by-play), Oscar Montenegro (analyst) and Anna Christianson (sideline) will have the call on Friday. John Kurtz (play-by-play), Oscar Montenegro (analyst) and Adam Cook (sideline) will call the action on Sunday.
The Wildcats are winless in 11 straight matches (0-10-1). Kansas State will look to snap a seven-match home losing streak.

Weekend in review

For the third time in four seasons, Kansas State exited the opening weekend of the season with a loss and a draw (2-3-3).
At Creighton in the season-opener on August 23, senior Katie Cramer ended K-State’s overall scoreless streak at 317:11, as she headed in a long pass from sophomore Emily Crain in the fourth minute at Creighton. Six minutes later, Cramer tallied her second goal of the match by redirecting a free kick from junior Brookelynn Entz.
Cramer is the second Wildcat (Entz) in program history to score two or more goals in a match.
K-State was unable to hold back Creighton, as the Bluejays scored three unanswered goals to secure the win.
At Omaha on August 25, senior goalkeeper Emma Malsy recorded K-State’s first shut out of the season with three saves in a scoreless draw.

Wildcats in home openers

Kansas State will open its permanent home of Buser Family Park on August 29 against Arkansas State, but the pitch site remains the same as the previous three seasons of soccer in Manhattan.
K-State owns a 2-1-0 record and a +2 goal differential (4-2) in home openers, including a current streak of two straight wins. The Wildcats opened the 2018 season at home against Saint Louis and downed the Billikens, 1-0. K-State returned from a three-match road trip in 2017 to defeat Omaha, 2-0.
Additional notes and records about Buser Family Park (pronounced – Boozer), can be found on page 6.

Scoreless streaks end in opener

The Wildcats ended a scoreless stretch of 317:11, which encapsulated the final three and a half matches of the 2018 season and the first four minutes of 2019. Senior Katie Cramer halted the streak with a header on her first shot of the season.
In addition to the overall scoreless stretch, K-State ended a road scoreless streak of 381:51 as the last road goal came at Tulsa on September 16, 2018.
However, after Cramer scored her second goal at 10:06 the Wildcats have now been held scoreless for the last 179:54 of action.
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.

Cramer top point scorer at K-State

Senior forward Katie Cramer owns the ultimate piece of K-State soccer history and continues to ascend the K-State career charts.
Cramer registered the first two goals of the 2019 season, as she scored a pair at Creighton in the season-opener. The two goals tie her career-high for a single season.
She is the first Wildcat to score two or more goals in a season-opener. In K-State’s four season-openers, Cramer has scored three goals including the first goal in program history at Saint Louis on August 19, 2016, converting directly on a corner kick.
Cramer is the second player in program history to score two or more goals in a match, joining Brookelynn Entz (vs. Central Arkansas, 9/8/17).
The product of Goddard, Kansas, is tied for the lead in career points with 18 and is second for career goals with six.
For her career, Cramer ranks tied for first in program history for points (18), is second in program history for goals (6) and tied for second for assists (6).
In the 2018 season, Cramer tied for the team lead in goals (2) and led the Wildcats in assists (3) and points (7).
Cramer set a new career season-high for goals, assists and points in a season. She owns the school record for assists by a junior and total points by a junior.
In 2017, Cramer registered five points with a goal and career-best three assists. She ranked second on the team in assists and led the team in assists in Big 12 action with two.

Entz adds to career totals

Junior forward/midfielder Brookelynn Entz continued to build upon her career resume at Kansas State in the 2019 opener.
Entz recorded an assist on K-State’s second goal of the season to boost her career total to four. She ranks fifth in program history for career assists.
In her career, Entz holds the school record for career goals (7) and is tied for the school record (Katie Cramer) for career points with 18.
In 2018, the product of Newton, Kansas, tallied six points on a pair of goals and an assist. She tied for the team lead in goals and was second on the team in assists and points.

Malsy Pockets seventh shut out

Senior goalkeeper Emma Malsy started the second match of the season at Omaha on August 25 and notched her first clean sheet of the season.
Malsy, who made three saves in the effort, ranks second in program history for career shut outs with seven.
In the 2018 season, Malsy registered six shutouts with a 1.37 goals against average and a .784 save percentage on 91 saves. She was tied for fifth in the league in shutouts. She was third in the Big 12 for saves (91) and saves per match (5.06).
In addition to setting the school record for shutouts in a season, Malsy collected the school record for a single season for starts and games played (18), minutes played (1693:43), saves by a sophomore (91), season goals against average by a sophomore (1.37) and shutouts by a sophomore (6).
Against Saint Louis on August 17, Malsy made her first start since October 23, 2016, at Oregon, when she was a freshman at Arizona State. She tallied four saves including a pair of clutch efforts in the first half and sent K-State to a 1-0 win. It was her first collegiate win since October 6, 2016, against Washington.
Malsy tallied her second shutout of the weekend with a pair of saves in the second half against Oakland on August 19.
The product of Westminster, California, is the first goalkeeper in program history to register a pair of shutouts in the opening weekend of a season.
At Indiana on Sept. 9, with adverse conditions in both goal areas, Malsy recorded her fifth shutout of the season with a career-high 11 saves and tied the school record for saves in a match.
Malsy owns a career collegiate record of 7-16-4 and has nine career shutouts, after spending one season between the pipes for Arizona State.

– kstatesports.com –