Kansas City’s women’s soccer team will look to defend its Conference title when they suit up for the WAC Tournament on Nov. 5-10. Once again, the Roos are a formidable group this season, and have a good chance of repeating as conference champions this fall.
Currently the Roos have a comfortable record of 8-3-4 and have been difficult to score on for most of the season. However, Kansas City has struggled to produce goals in the last four games, resulting in a four-game winless streak.
Scoring on a regular basis has been something that Kansas City has struggled with at times this year, and if they figure that part out they could be virtually unstoppable. Kansas City lost a bulk of its goal-scorers from the graduating class last season, and the team has to fill the shoes of the 33 goals from those individuals. Kansas City’s defense is so dominant that if the Roos score a couple of goals early on in a game, they could easily sit on that lead for the duration of the match. Despite struggling to put up goals, this group is very talented and cohesive and will be a difficult out in the WAC tournament later this season.
Kansas City’s backline is a well constructed group, and they make it almost impossible for opponents to score. The team’s tenacity to get results that sometimes come with struggle and difficulty is something coach Chris Cissell reflected on after a hard fought draw against Seattle.
“The girls battled so hard,” said coach Cissell. “We showed a warrior mentality against a really good Seattle U program. To come from behind again and get a tie with one minute left, we feel like we left it all out there. Our entire back line played 110 minutes and only allowed two goals combined against two really good opponents.”
This season so far the Roos have struggled with conference play in their four games, and own a 0-2-2 record. Nonetheless, these results should not disway Kansas City fan’s confidence and expectations for this team. Kansas City is a very strong side that every team in their conference would want to avoid when tournament play begins. The group is cohesive and sound, but are just struggling with consistency offensively. This was a key component in the loss to Grand Canyon on Oct. 10.
“We just didn’t have our ‘A’ game,” coach Cissell said. “We created several really good scoring opportunities and just could not finish. We were pushing like crazy for the tying goal and just fell short.”
Rylan Childers has been a huge benefit for the team in terms of creating goals for her teammates and herself. As long as the defense continues to be lockdown, the Roos have an opportunity to defend and reclaim the throne as conference champions once again this year.
