by Alan Hoskins, KCKCC
Kansas City Kansas Community College’s women’s soccer team will take its longest winning streak in its brief history into Jayhawk Conference play Tuesday.
The Lady Blue Devils won their third in a row Friday, blanking the Blue River campus of Metropolitan Community College 4-0. It is the longest winning streak in history for the Lady Blue Devils and kept them unbeaten while the KCKCC men improved to 2-0 with a 9-2 rout of Blue River.
Both KCKCC teams will begin Jayhawk and Region VI play Tuesday when they entertain Neosho County. Women’s play will kick off at 5 p.m.; the men at 7:30 p.m.
The Blue Devil women took a 1-0 lead in the first half of a goal by Bishop Ward sophomore Serena Ortiz assisted by Harmon freshman Itzel Almanza and then broke the contest open with three second-half goals.
The first came five minutes into the half on a penalty kick by Leavenworth freshman Natalie Zink after Almanza had been taken down in the penalty box. Emilie Lutz, a sophomore from Toronto, scored the second on a pass from Ortiz and sophomore co-captain Bailey Zinser of Lansing closed out the scoring off a corner kick.
Jessica Hill, a freshman from Topeka Shawnee Heights, turned back three shots on goal for her second shutout in three contests.
“It was nice to put a full 90 minutes together,” KCKCC head coach Shawn Uhlenhake said. “Our center backs, Bailey Zinser and Carmen Rush, are really tough to beat while Jessica Hill did a great job in goal for her second shutout. Also, Emilie Lutz came in and gave us a real spark and was really dangerous all game.
“With conference play starting Tuesday, it’s good to know that we can score some goals against good competition when we need it. Overall we have a long way to go but if our defense continues to play well we will have a chance in a lot of our games this year.”