SE: K-State Soccer Reloads for Unique Spring Season
Mar 05, 2021 | Soccer, Sports Extra
By: Austin Siegel
The first line of the K-State Soccer game notes for Saturday's spring opener against No. 25 Kansas sets the scene pretty well.
Welcome to "one of the most unique collegiate soccer seasons in the history of the sport."
Over the next two months, the Wildcats will play five matches and a friendly against Kansas City NWSL, a pro soccer team that didn't exist when K-State played their first game in September.
The K-State roster will also feature players who began the fall at Ohio State, Arizona State and North Carolina State.
Oh, and these matches count towards K-State's non-conference record for the 2020-21 season.
"From an experience standpoint, it's going to look a lot different," head coach Mike Dibbini said. "We're very thin in our depth…It's a great thing for a coach who doesn't have to worry about subbing everybody, but it's a challenge when it comes to staying fresh and keeping your legs for 90 minutes."
Diving a little deeper, K-State will have 15 field players and three goalkeepers available throughout the spring season.
The team also lost sophomore defender Silke Bonnen, who became the first K-State Soccer player to turn pro when she signed with HB Køge in her native Denmark over the winter.
Despite the roster shakeup, there are still plenty of reasons to believe in these 'Cats.
The most important one will be wearing No. 8 on Saturday night and patrolling the midfield at Buser Family Park.
Brookelynn Entz returns to Manhattan for a fifth season at a school where she owns the K-State career record for goals, assists and points. She was drafted by NWSL Kansas City as one of the first draft picks in club history and will join the expansion franchise ahead of the 2022 season.
First, Entz has some unfinished business to take care of in Manhattan.
"At the end of the season we had our system down in how we played," Entz said. "But we want to play possession, we want to have the ball and I think the players we have now, especially the transfers, are helping us out a lot."
There wasn't a team in the Big 12 more disappointed to see the fall season end than the Wildcats. K-State won three of their final five matches to secure the best conference record in school history.
K-State will open the spring season with a Sunflower Showdown matchup against No. 25 Kansas on Saturday night, a chance for the Wildcats to grab their first win over a ranked opponent.
"It's KU," Entz said. "No matter what, we want to win that game. I think the mindset is going to be good going in. I want to beat KU. Even thinking back to the game in the fall, there are some things I wish I could have done better and some opportunities I wish I could have finished."
The Wildcats began the 2020 season with four-straight losses, including the biggest defeat in program history at Texas on October 9. That was also the match where K-State lost senior defender Avery Green for the season with a lower-body injury.
It ended up being a defining moment for K-State Soccer.
After that defeat in Austin, the Wildcats regrouped to shut out Oklahoma, Iowa State, Texas Tech and take No. 5 TCU to overtime. For Dibbini, it meant watching his players turn the page.
"We've never been in the situation we were in last fall with that momentum. Can we piggy-back and build off of that?" Dibbini said. "We know we have the pieces to compete."
Plenty of those pieces are in net. K-State began the fall with three healthy goalkeepers and exactly zero games of starting experience after junior Rachel Harris went down with an injury.
Alaina Werremeyer became the first freshman in school history to record a shutout, blanking Oklahoma and finishing the season among the country's top 15 keepers in saves per game.
A position that looked dangerously thin for the Wildcats in September is suddenly solid.
It's the same story on defense. Green is graduating and Bonnen turned pro, but the Wildcats reloaded with transfers Aliyah El-Naggar and Kursten von Klahr.
El-Naggar started 13 games for Ohio State as a freshman, while von Klahr has experience playing in a pair of NCAA Tournaments with North Carolina State.
The Wildcats have never brought in this much Power Five talent in a single offseason.
With the NWSL-bound Entz and a class of battle-tested freshmen back at Buser Family Park, the future of K-State Soccer might look familiar. Beginning on Saturday, the 'Cats are looking ahead.
"I'm done talking about what it used to be like," Dibbini said. "We're moving forward."
The first line of the K-State Soccer game notes for Saturday's spring opener against No. 25 Kansas sets the scene pretty well.
Welcome to "one of the most unique collegiate soccer seasons in the history of the sport."
Over the next two months, the Wildcats will play five matches and a friendly against Kansas City NWSL, a pro soccer team that didn't exist when K-State played their first game in September.
The K-State roster will also feature players who began the fall at Ohio State, Arizona State and North Carolina State.
Oh, and these matches count towards K-State's non-conference record for the 2020-21 season.
"From an experience standpoint, it's going to look a lot different," head coach Mike Dibbini said. "We're very thin in our depth…It's a great thing for a coach who doesn't have to worry about subbing everybody, but it's a challenge when it comes to staying fresh and keeping your legs for 90 minutes."
Diving a little deeper, K-State will have 15 field players and three goalkeepers available throughout the spring season.
The team also lost sophomore defender Silke Bonnen, who became the first K-State Soccer player to turn pro when she signed with HB Køge in her native Denmark over the winter.
Despite the roster shakeup, there are still plenty of reasons to believe in these 'Cats.
The most important one will be wearing No. 8 on Saturday night and patrolling the midfield at Buser Family Park.
Brookelynn Entz returns to Manhattan for a fifth season at a school where she owns the K-State career record for goals, assists and points. She was drafted by NWSL Kansas City as one of the first draft picks in club history and will join the expansion franchise ahead of the 2022 season.
First, Entz has some unfinished business to take care of in Manhattan.
"At the end of the season we had our system down in how we played," Entz said. "But we want to play possession, we want to have the ball and I think the players we have now, especially the transfers, are helping us out a lot."
There wasn't a team in the Big 12 more disappointed to see the fall season end than the Wildcats. K-State won three of their final five matches to secure the best conference record in school history.
Practice pitch #KStateSOC pic.twitter.com/0h1BFelYHF
— K-State Soccer (@KStateSOC) March 3, 2021
K-State will open the spring season with a Sunflower Showdown matchup against No. 25 Kansas on Saturday night, a chance for the Wildcats to grab their first win over a ranked opponent.
"It's KU," Entz said. "No matter what, we want to win that game. I think the mindset is going to be good going in. I want to beat KU. Even thinking back to the game in the fall, there are some things I wish I could have done better and some opportunities I wish I could have finished."
The Wildcats began the 2020 season with four-straight losses, including the biggest defeat in program history at Texas on October 9. That was also the match where K-State lost senior defender Avery Green for the season with a lower-body injury.
It ended up being a defining moment for K-State Soccer.
After that defeat in Austin, the Wildcats regrouped to shut out Oklahoma, Iowa State, Texas Tech and take No. 5 TCU to overtime. For Dibbini, it meant watching his players turn the page.
"We've never been in the situation we were in last fall with that momentum. Can we piggy-back and build off of that?" Dibbini said. "We know we have the pieces to compete."
Plenty of those pieces are in net. K-State began the fall with three healthy goalkeepers and exactly zero games of starting experience after junior Rachel Harris went down with an injury.
Alaina Werremeyer became the first freshman in school history to record a shutout, blanking Oklahoma and finishing the season among the country's top 15 keepers in saves per game.
A position that looked dangerously thin for the Wildcats in September is suddenly solid.
It's the same story on defense. Green is graduating and Bonnen turned pro, but the Wildcats reloaded with transfers Aliyah El-Naggar and Kursten von Klahr.
Welcome to the Family #KStateSOC x Newcomers pic.twitter.com/7Hr4cjeUiK
— K-State Soccer (@KStateSOC) February 28, 2021
El-Naggar started 13 games for Ohio State as a freshman, while von Klahr has experience playing in a pair of NCAA Tournaments with North Carolina State.
The Wildcats have never brought in this much Power Five talent in a single offseason.
With the NWSL-bound Entz and a class of battle-tested freshmen back at Buser Family Park, the future of K-State Soccer might look familiar. Beginning on Saturday, the 'Cats are looking ahead.
"I'm done talking about what it used to be like," Dibbini said. "We're moving forward."
Players Mentioned
D
/ Soccer
M
/ Soccer
D
/ Soccer
GK
/ Soccer
D
/ Soccer
GK
/ SoccerK-State Baseball | Highlights vs Michigan - Feb. 22, 2026
Monday, February 23
K-State Men's Basketball | Postgame Press Conference at Texas Tech
Sunday, February 22
K-State Women's Basketball | Tess Heal Senior Video
Sunday, February 22
K-State Women's Basketball | Mikayla Parks Senior Video
Sunday, February 22
