The Kent State soccer team has begun its push for its first Mid-American Conference tournament championship since 2016 and its second MAC title under head coach Rob Marinaro.
“It’s a young team, so we don’t want to be too focused on a particular goal,” Marinaro said. “We’re just trying to get better each day.”
The Flashes have played three games so far, starting with a record of 1-1-1, defeating Cleveland State 1-0, falling to Duquesne 3-2 and tying Northwestern 1-1.
In its victory against Cleveland State (1-2), Kent State took 16 shots, eight of which were on target, while only allowing the Vikings to get three shots off, none of which were on target.
“We did outshoot them, but we had chances to put them away, and we let them hang around in the second half,” Marinaro said. “Credit to Cleveland State. They played an amazing second half, but we needed to be more physical than we were.”
Kent State took a 2-0 lead into halftime in its following game against Duquesne (3-0), but a Dukes goal followed by two penalty kicks, all within four minutes, turned the tide in the second half, leading to the first defeat of the season for the Flashes.
“We played a good game until that ten-minute stretch in the second half that really ended up costing us that game,” Marinaro said.
Despite being heavily outshot 16-5 against Northwestern (2-1-1), the Flashes’ lone shot on goal found the back of the net, and strong goalie play by junior Leah Shaffer prevented six of the Wildcats’ seven shots on target from going in, resulting in a tie.
“If you look at the box score, we were really outshot in that game, but she really stepped it up in that game to help us get a tie in that one,” Marinaro said.
Kent State landed sixth out of 13 teams in the preseason MAC poll, two spots below last year, when the team landed fourth in the preseason poll. After losing six seniors at the conclusion of the 2024 season, the team reloaded with eight incoming freshmen.
“I wouldn’t say there’s one in particular that I’m excited about, I think they’re all growing and getting better,” Marinaro said.
One of the holes Kent State has had to fill from last season will be in the net after Heidi Marshall graduated after the 2024 season. Shaffer has been the team’s goalie through the first three games this season, giving up just under two goals per game. After facing no shots on goal in the team’s first game, Shaffer has racked up a total of ten saves in the last two games.
Kent State will need to turn up its offensive production after losing its top two goal-scorers from last season, Alisa Arthur and Siena Stambolich, who accounted for nearly half of the team’s total goals. Arthur netted 11 of the team’s 31 goals, while Stambolich scored four times and led the team in assists with four.
No other player scored more than twice last season, but this year, junior midfielder Samantha Miller has already found the back of the net twice in three games, while sophomore defender Allison Collins and freshman forward Isabelle Leofanti have each scored once.
“I don’t think we can look for just one or two players to be our go-to scorers,” Marinaro said. “We have to be able to rely on everyone to be a source of scoring.”
Junior forward Kiyomi McCausland has led the team in assists with two, while freshman forward Mia Cleroux, freshman midfielder Maya Justice and senior defender Kelsey Salopek all have one.
Kent State will play four more games in its non-conference schedule before taking on a 12-game conference schedule starting Sep. 14 at Bowling Green (2-1).
“There’s been a lot of growth from the Cleveland State game to the Northwestern game, and we have to keep building on that every day,” Marinaro said. “We have to keep working and putting in the effort to improve before conference play starts and then keep that going afterwards.”
Demetri Manousos is a reporter. Contact him at [email protected].
