What started as a beautiful fall night in Manhattan turned into a rain-soaked, lightning-riddled affair as K-State soccer held its last home match of the 2026 season. The Wildcats’ opponent was UCF, sitting just inside the playoff bubble. To stay in, they had to avoid falling to a K-State team looking to spoil their party.
Right from the get-go, the Wildcats showed they wanted the upset. In the first two minutes, they created two quality attacks but couldn’t find the back of the net, but that didn’t stop them from haunting UCF’s back line for the first twenty minutes.
Momentum took a hard shift after UCF strung together a series of good passes to take a dangerous shot that junior goalie Maddie Sibbing knocked just wide of the post. UCF continued to rain shots, but Sibbing kept them out — as the halftime whistle blew, she had three saves under her belt, and the score remained nil-nil.
After the half, soccer resumed, and the K-State crowd’s intensity remained just as high as it was at the end of the first.
“Buser is a really special place,” head coach Colleen Corbin said. “It’s one of the best facilities, not just in the Big 12 but in the country. And the way that our fans come out and support our kids is pretty special.”
In the 57th minute, freshman Lauren Moylan put a high cross into the box that junior Allison Marshall rose to meet and headed into the back of the net for her fourth goal of the season. The goal tied her for second all time in career goals with Kyler Goins, who scored 10 from 2020-22. Brookelynn Entz (2017-2021) holds the record with 19 goals during her K-State career.
Marshall also moved into second place in program history with 24 career points, behind Entz, who has 51 points.
“I saw Lauren [Moylan] winding up to serve it, and her serves have been great all year,” Marshall said. “I knew we had to score, so just doing whatever it took to get on the end of that ball.”
As has been the story for K-State all season, Video Assisted Referee (VAR) stepped in to check for offsides in the play leading up to the goal. But for the first time all season, VAR ruled in favor of the ‘Cats, and the goal stood.
However, less than a minute later, UCF’s Ashley Moy found the equalizer, and just like that, the match was back in a deadlock tie.
Lightning in the area prompted a 30-minute pause in the match as the weather shifted to a downpour.
“We always talk about weather being one of those things that we don’t get to control, and we still have to show up and compete and try to find ways to win,” Corbin said.
Even though players were slipping on the rain-slicked pitch following the pause, aggression levels from both sides stayed high as both teams searched for an equalizer. When the 90 minutes were up, the score remained 1-1, marking K-State’s fifth draw of the season. The result tied the school record for draws in a season and capped their home schedule with a draw for the second year in a row.
“I would just say obviously frustrated,” Marshall said. “I think we’re all glad that we got a result, but just knowing we left something on the table, we know we could have won that game. So just a little bit of frustration, definitely leaving with a tie.”
The ‘Cats will close their fall season next week in Salt Lake City, Utah, as they take on the Utes at 8 p.m. on Nov. 5.
