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SE: How K-State Soccer Flipped the Script on the 2020 Season - K-StateSports.com

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By: Austin Siegel

On a different team, they wouldn't talk about the worst loss in program history. 
 
There weren't many positives when K-State traveled to Austin back in October - the Wildcats lost 7-0 to Texas and starting defender Avery Green left the match with an injury.
 
But with 90 minutes left in a season that will end with the most Big 12 wins in school history, that Texas match is when it clicked for K-State Soccer. 
 
"The talk between the team and myself after that loss was really important," head coach Mike Dibbini said. "I think that was the turning point."
 
The numbers back him up. The loss to the Longhorns dropped K-State to 0-4 and last place in the Big 12. Since that match, the Wildcats are 2-2 with a top-five offense in the conference.
 
Digging a little deeper into that last point: A program that joined the Big 12 four years ago has bagged more goals this season than almost half the teams in the conference. 
 
We're talking about schools that have been playing soccer since the 90's. 
c It all started with a 3-0 win over Oklahoma, when the Wildcats delivered the biggest conference win in program history and seemed to reverse every negative trend holding the team back. 
 
Outscored in the first 15 minutes of matches? There was Shae Turner to give the team a 1-0 lead within minutes. 
 
Not getting enough from set pieces? Turner's header came off a perfectly placed corner kick from Silke Bonnen. 
 
By the time Kyler Goins scored the first goal of her K-State career and Brookelynn Entz sealed the game with a second-half penalty kick, the Wildcats were celebrating their first win of 2020.  
 


"This past week we were like, 'What do we have to lose? Let's just love soccer again.' That's how we played out here," Turner said after the Oklahoma win. "It's been a hump and it's been hard to believe, but this is everything to us."
 
You could make a case that the team meetings and practices between the Texas loss and the win over Oklahoma were some of the most important in the history of K-State Soccer. 
 
That's because "Let's just love soccer again" was more than an attitude.
 
It meant changing the way the players and K-State coaches communicate with each other. 
 
"Too much paralysis by analysis," Dibbini said. "Now, it's more of a loose mentality. The coaches have the information, but they keep it to themselves and only use it when needed."
 
The Wildcats began the season with an absolutely brutal stretch of games against four teams that played in the 2019 NCAA Tournament. 
 
Without a spring season or summer workouts, Dibbini said that the team's underclassmen missed out on a crucial opportunity to develop their game and prepare for the 2020 season.
 
"A team like an Oklahoma State, a West Virginia or a KU has so many players that have been there and done that," Dibbini said. "Psychologically, we were at a disadvantage."
 
Even though the results weren't there, Dibbini never lost sight of the identity of K-State Soccer. 

The Wildcats have now scored a school record eight goals this season, with seven of those coming in K-State's last four matches. 
 
"Each team in the country has a certain type of player," he said. "A player we recruit is really comfortable on the ball, a player that wants to play soccer and has a little more freedom, a green light to play the way they see it. We have to know the information as coaches but let the players go out and compete." 
 
There's a reason that type of players sounds a lot like Brookelynn Entz, Maddie Souder and the seniors who have stepped up for the Wildcats in the second half of the season.
 
Souder scored her first goal of the season against No. 5 TCU, a banger from 40 yards out that should be a goal-of-the-year candidate in college soccer.
 

 
In the Wildcats win 2-0 win over Iowa State on Friday, it was Entz scoring a brace against the Cyclones, putting moves on defenders and earning a spot on two national teams of the week.
   
Before he had a team or a stadium, Dibbini recruited these players to help K-State Soccer jump into one of the most challenging conferences in the country.
 
"My gratitude to these players for taking this journey with me, because I didn't have anything to sell at that point except for K-State and the Big 12," he said. "I was very lucky to have some players come in here, buy in and understand that the journey was going to be difficult."
 
As the Wildcats have embraced the culture their head coach laid out for the program, the results are beginning to follow. 
 
"Everybody can make predictions, but reality is that we're seven games into the season and the trajectory shows how much better we're playing," he said. "We've definitely turned the page." 
 
 
 
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