By: Jordan Griffitt
Kennesaw State (0-0-0), (0-0-0)
@ ETSU (0-0-0), (0-0-0)
Location: Johnson City, Tenn. | Summers-Taylor Stadium
Date: Thursday, Aug. 17
Time: 5:00 p.m. EST
Live Stats
KENNESAW, Ga. - The Kennesaw State women's soccer team opens the 2023 slate traveling to Johnson City, Tenn. at Summers-Taylor Stadium at 6 PM ET Thursday night.
Neither team has seen each other in regular season play for quite some time with the last matchup coming Oct. 6, 2013 in Tennessee with the Buccaneers coming away with a 2-0 victory. The all-time series favors ETSU with a 3-3-1 record but the Owls hold the largest margin of victory in any match, winning 4-0 in the first all-time meeting in 2005. In season openers, Kennesaw State is 11-9-1.
Coach Benji Walton leads his squad into the 22nd season in school history with this year marking his eighth at the helm. Walton nears the 70-win mark with a 65-53-13 record at KSU.
The Rain Keeps Coming
Macie Rainwater continues to stack up the achievements as she landed herself a spot on the All-ASUN Preseason Team. She has already collected ASUN Preseason, Third-Team Postseason and All-Freshman Team accolades coming into her junior year. She led the Owls in scoring racking up four goals with nine points earned last season. She was not only lethal on the attack but also served as a workhorse totaling over 1,000 minutes played after appearing in all 19 matches.
Top Owls on the Pitch
Kennesaw State returns a abundance of talent brining back four of the top-five point scorers form last season.
Macie Rainwater,
Tianna Rivera,
Stella Allen and
Mai Jensen all bolster down a roster retaining 20 players from last years roster. They also accounted for 26 points between them with 11 goals scored.
New Faces
Walton not only found a injection of youth with seven freshmen joining the team but he also dipped into the portal. Transfers
Alana Nesbit (Wright State),
Taylor Youmans (Tusculum) and
Jade Barkett (UCF) hope to add to a talented squad.
Standout Sophomores
Last year's freshman class quickly became one to remember with the explosion of players like
Aly Bryan,
Mai Jensen,
Brenna Young,
Stella Allen and
Naomi Moleka. With 32 combined starts among the group, they will be looked to for bigger roles after outstanding rookie campaigns. The Owls will look to replace losing four of the teams top-five minutes players.
Alannah Making Shots Go Blye, Blye, Blye...
You can't mention the stellar freshman class without recognizing the season Alanna Blye put up in her first year between the posts. After acquiring the starting gig five games into the season, she recorded 93 saves for a 85.3 save %. After one year, Blye is the current all-time leader in program history in save % and saves per game (5.81). She also recorded the most saves in a game in KSU history with 16 versus Liberty. Blye ended the season with an ASUN All-Freshman Team accolade.
Golden Goalkeeping
Goalkeeping as whole was a bright spot last year as the team shattered their previous record of saves in a season with 124. The previous record was set in fall of 2021 with 106. The record setting performances didn't stop there as the team also recorded the most saves per game by nearly a full shot from the next closest record. Last years team recorded 6.52 saves per game breaking the fall 2021 teams 5.58 mark.
Adding Another Leader
One of the biggest offseason acquisitions was of the now Associate Head Coach Chris Cahill from MTSU. During his time in Murfreesboro, Tenn., Cahill coached two Conference USA (CUSA) Freshman of the Year and two CUSA Offensive Players of the Year. These awards were a part of the 27 total conference selections Cahill coached between CUSA and the Sun Belt Conference (SBC). Cahill is familiar with the area spending time as an Assistant to the Director of Student-Athlete Services in 2008 at KSU.
Next Match
The Owls open the home slate versus Presbyterian at Fifth Third Bank Stadium Aug. 20.
To keep up with the latest on the Kennesaw State women's soccer team, follow the team on Twitter
@KSUOwlNation and
@KSUOwlsSoccer or by liking Kennesaw State University on
Facebook.
