Kansas State University Athletics
SE: Loren Providing a Lift For The Wildcats
Sep 23, 2021 | Soccer, Sports Extra
By: D. Scott Fritchen
Jesse Loren is the queen of the clearing header, defensive header, flick header, diving header, and glancing header. She propels from the hips, bends backward, bends forward, centers the forehead, drives those arms backwards, and attacks at her highest point. Impeccable timing. And power. And accuracy. And few opponents can stop it. Or match it.
She has only been at Kansas State since June, but the 5-foot-10 junior transfer from Colorado, behind her art of heading and her penchant for controlling the path of the ball in midair, has provided a literal lift for the Wildcats, who open their Big 12 Conference season against Texas at 7 p.m. Thursday at Buser Family Park.
"She's as good as anybody in the country in the air," K-State associate head coach Don Trentham says.
"Her height, strength, courage and mentality is huge," K-State true freshman defender Kenzi Gillispie says.
"She's a beast," K-State head coach Mike Dibbini finally concludes. "When she gets up there, she wins a lot of battles."
The K-State women's soccer program is in its sixth season. Dibbini has been here since day one. These Wildcats, 5-4, tied their program record for non-conference wins, and well, they're burning the nets. Their 14 goals scored are the most after nine games in school history, and they need five more to set the overall record for goals in a season. They rank second in the Big 12 in total shots (160) and third in shots per game (17.78). Marisa Weichel has scored five goals, including three game winners, and nine other players have scored a goal as well. Brookelynn Entz and Maddie Weichel lead the team with three assists.
Then there's Loren. She has started all nine matches, leads the team with 705 minutes played, and also owns a team-high .556 shots on goal percentage. Unofficially, she also has about nine-quadrillion headers.
Bottom line? K-State has never had a player quite like her.
"She's got a magnet on her head," Dibbini said. "She just attracts the ball."
She's in rare air and isn't afraid of contact.
"Heading the ball? It definitely helps to be 5-foot-10," Loren says after practice, wearing a black practice uniform and flashing fluorescent green nails while adjusting two bands atop her head.
"Heading sets me apart from a lot of girls," she continues. "As far back as I can remember, I always loved to head the ball. Thinking back to under-13 soccer, I scored headers all of the time. I wasn't even tall back then, but I'd just throw my head into any space where the ball was going no matter if somebody's foot or cleat was there.
"I've definitely had black eyes. I have a scar above my eyebrow. I slit my face before. None of that has ever stopped me from getting my head on the ball. It's not even a second thought. It's just instinct at this point."
Dibbini knew Loren, a native of Redondo Beach, California, long before she opted to sign at Colorado in 2018. Dibbini recruited several of Loren's teammates from her LAFC Slammers club team, where she played for six years. Loren helped her team to a 2016 national championship and a third-place finish at nationals in 2017, and Dibbini admits, "I wish we would've had her."
At Colorado, Loren played in 47 career matches with 22 starts. But she says that she played center forward over her preferred position as defender during last spring's abbreviated COVID season. Eventually, the vibes just weren't there anymore for Loren, who decided to seek a change, to make a move after three years at Colorado, and she entered the transfer portal.
Dibbini called Colorado head coach Danny Sanchez, a friend, the day that Loren entered the portal. The next day, he was on the phone with Loren, who wanted to remain in a Power 5 conference, and who had heard good things about Dibbini and K-State through former club soccer teammates.
"I just wanted to be a part of this K-State family," she says.
Loren plays strategically across the field to win balls with her head. One minute, she is putting a header toward the goal and the next she's putting a header toward the field. She is winning a lot of balls to help K-State get up the field faster. When she isn't winning balls in the air, she's drawing contact and getting fouled, which results in a free kick. If K-State gets fouled in the middle of the field, she's often the longball kicker and blasts the ball. She'll also come forward on corner kicks.
Her corner kick goal in K-State's 5-0 win at Austin Peay during the third game of the season on Aug. 27 remains most memorable. She climbed the ladder and headed home the game-winning goal from 10 yards off a corner kick in the seventh minute. It was the first game-winning goal of Loren's career. For her efforts in helping K-State to a pair of shutout wins, Loren was named to the TopDrawerSoccer.com National Team of the Week for Aug. 31.
"It was definitely under the lights in the corner," she says. "Once Maddie kicked the ball, I just ran. I took a couple of steps forward and once I jumped, I knew I was going to head the ball, and seeing that it was going right under the crossbar, I knew it was going in. It was one of the best feelings, especially scoring early to ease the pressure from our team a little bit.
"Everybody came together and was super happy. I had chills."
For as quickly as Loren has progressed in Dibbini's system, she's known for more than heading the ball. She brought NCAA Tournament experience to Manhattan. She's emerged as a leader. She trains and prepares like a pro.
"From day one, it became very apparent she's very commanding and knows what she wants from herself and the players around her," Trentham says, "and you saw that show up not only in what she says but in her dominance on the field."
Her talent and grit definitely rubs off on her teammates.
"She's had a huge impact on this team," Gillispie says. "She's been a great leader. She communicates really well and does a great job of winning balls and helping us attack. As a freshman playing a lot of minutes, it's great watching her because she has a lot of experience and I learn from her as well."
Loren has previous experience playing Texas and Baylor and appreciates the physical style of play consistent with Big 12 teams. She says that "they'll run you over and they'll do it again and again." She says that the Pac-12 plays "pretty" soccer, which isn't particularly her style since she likes to battle.
"We definitely can compete with these Big 12 teams," she says.
There was a wake-up call to all of this. It arrived at halftime of the Wildcats' 3-0 home loss to Indiana on Sept. 12. Trentham entered the room and unleashed fire. And it lit a fuse among Loren and her teammates.
"That halftime against Indiana really got us going," Loren says. "It flipped a switch in our team. We're a family and we can't let other teams throw us around.
"They're not going to throw us around anymore."
Although Dibbini says "we're still kind of in the toddler stage of our program," he's brought in a physical player and leader who acts like a pro, trains like a pro, prepares like a pro, exudes that veteran confidence, and who is the first player in the six years of K-State women's soccer who can craftily do what she does on the field.
Some call it an art. For Loren, it's just instinct.
She simply uses her head.
Jesse Loren is the queen of the clearing header, defensive header, flick header, diving header, and glancing header. She propels from the hips, bends backward, bends forward, centers the forehead, drives those arms backwards, and attacks at her highest point. Impeccable timing. And power. And accuracy. And few opponents can stop it. Or match it.
She has only been at Kansas State since June, but the 5-foot-10 junior transfer from Colorado, behind her art of heading and her penchant for controlling the path of the ball in midair, has provided a literal lift for the Wildcats, who open their Big 12 Conference season against Texas at 7 p.m. Thursday at Buser Family Park.
"She's as good as anybody in the country in the air," K-State associate head coach Don Trentham says.
"Her height, strength, courage and mentality is huge," K-State true freshman defender Kenzi Gillispie says.
"She's a beast," K-State head coach Mike Dibbini finally concludes. "When she gets up there, she wins a lot of battles."
The K-State women's soccer program is in its sixth season. Dibbini has been here since day one. These Wildcats, 5-4, tied their program record for non-conference wins, and well, they're burning the nets. Their 14 goals scored are the most after nine games in school history, and they need five more to set the overall record for goals in a season. They rank second in the Big 12 in total shots (160) and third in shots per game (17.78). Marisa Weichel has scored five goals, including three game winners, and nine other players have scored a goal as well. Brookelynn Entz and Maddie Weichel lead the team with three assists.
Then there's Loren. She has started all nine matches, leads the team with 705 minutes played, and also owns a team-high .556 shots on goal percentage. Unofficially, she also has about nine-quadrillion headers.
Bottom line? K-State has never had a player quite like her.
Game-winning goal ✔️
— K-State Soccer (@KStateSOC) September 1, 2021
2 shutouts ✔️@J_loren13 had a strong weekend in helping K-State to a pair of wins.
📝 - https://t.co/LTWsvvWua2#KStateSOC x #RisewithUS21 pic.twitter.com/spfNWT5FQl
"She's got a magnet on her head," Dibbini said. "She just attracts the ball."
She's in rare air and isn't afraid of contact.
"Heading the ball? It definitely helps to be 5-foot-10," Loren says after practice, wearing a black practice uniform and flashing fluorescent green nails while adjusting two bands atop her head.
"Heading sets me apart from a lot of girls," she continues. "As far back as I can remember, I always loved to head the ball. Thinking back to under-13 soccer, I scored headers all of the time. I wasn't even tall back then, but I'd just throw my head into any space where the ball was going no matter if somebody's foot or cleat was there.
"I've definitely had black eyes. I have a scar above my eyebrow. I slit my face before. None of that has ever stopped me from getting my head on the ball. It's not even a second thought. It's just instinct at this point."
Dibbini knew Loren, a native of Redondo Beach, California, long before she opted to sign at Colorado in 2018. Dibbini recruited several of Loren's teammates from her LAFC Slammers club team, where she played for six years. Loren helped her team to a 2016 national championship and a third-place finish at nationals in 2017, and Dibbini admits, "I wish we would've had her."
At Colorado, Loren played in 47 career matches with 22 starts. But she says that she played center forward over her preferred position as defender during last spring's abbreviated COVID season. Eventually, the vibes just weren't there anymore for Loren, who decided to seek a change, to make a move after three years at Colorado, and she entered the transfer portal.
Dibbini called Colorado head coach Danny Sanchez, a friend, the day that Loren entered the portal. The next day, he was on the phone with Loren, who wanted to remain in a Power 5 conference, and who had heard good things about Dibbini and K-State through former club soccer teammates.
"I just wanted to be a part of this K-State family," she says.
Loren plays strategically across the field to win balls with her head. One minute, she is putting a header toward the goal and the next she's putting a header toward the field. She is winning a lot of balls to help K-State get up the field faster. When she isn't winning balls in the air, she's drawing contact and getting fouled, which results in a free kick. If K-State gets fouled in the middle of the field, she's often the longball kicker and blasts the ball. She'll also come forward on corner kicks.
Her corner kick goal in K-State's 5-0 win at Austin Peay during the third game of the season on Aug. 27 remains most memorable. She climbed the ladder and headed home the game-winning goal from 10 yards off a corner kick in the seventh minute. It was the first game-winning goal of Loren's career. For her efforts in helping K-State to a pair of shutout wins, Loren was named to the TopDrawerSoccer.com National Team of the Week for Aug. 31.
"It was definitely under the lights in the corner," she says. "Once Maddie kicked the ball, I just ran. I took a couple of steps forward and once I jumped, I knew I was going to head the ball, and seeing that it was going right under the crossbar, I knew it was going in. It was one of the best feelings, especially scoring early to ease the pressure from our team a little bit.
"Everybody came together and was super happy. I had chills."
For as quickly as Loren has progressed in Dibbini's system, she's known for more than heading the ball. She brought NCAA Tournament experience to Manhattan. She's emerged as a leader. She trains and prepares like a pro.
"From day one, it became very apparent she's very commanding and knows what she wants from herself and the players around her," Trentham says, "and you saw that show up not only in what she says but in her dominance on the field."
Her talent and grit definitely rubs off on her teammates.
"She's had a huge impact on this team," Gillispie says. "She's been a great leader. She communicates really well and does a great job of winning balls and helping us attack. As a freshman playing a lot of minutes, it's great watching her because she has a lot of experience and I learn from her as well."
Loren has previous experience playing Texas and Baylor and appreciates the physical style of play consistent with Big 12 teams. She says that "they'll run you over and they'll do it again and again." She says that the Pac-12 plays "pretty" soccer, which isn't particularly her style since she likes to battle.
"We definitely can compete with these Big 12 teams," she says.
There was a wake-up call to all of this. It arrived at halftime of the Wildcats' 3-0 home loss to Indiana on Sept. 12. Trentham entered the room and unleashed fire. And it lit a fuse among Loren and her teammates.
"That halftime against Indiana really got us going," Loren says. "It flipped a switch in our team. We're a family and we can't let other teams throw us around.
"They're not going to throw us around anymore."
Although Dibbini says "we're still kind of in the toddler stage of our program," he's brought in a physical player and leader who acts like a pro, trains like a pro, prepares like a pro, exudes that veteran confidence, and who is the first player in the six years of K-State women's soccer who can craftily do what she does on the field.
Some call it an art. For Loren, it's just instinct.
She simply uses her head.
Players Mentioned
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