Football
That was not fun. That seems to be the prevailing sentiment after Kansas State’s 31-26 loss to Cincinnati on Saturday. As Jon Morse noted in the official BotC recap, the loss was mostly due to a nightmare third quarter that the Wildcats could not quite recover from before time ran out. We’ve heard this song before, unfortunately.
After the game, Collin Klein did not mince words. Visibly frustrated, he noted that “[w]e didn’t play well enough tonight. There are no excuses. There’s nothing
that makes it feel any better for myself, our staff or our players.” It’s hard to point to just one facet of the game that failed on Saturday, but what stood out was a lack of poise, an inability to execute when things started to go awry.
Klein’s words echo the real and palpable disappointment of the Wildcat faithful. But it’s probably a sign that our expectations were outsized and unrealistic in the first place. In the grand scheme of things, a five-point loss on the road to a determined and vastly improved conference opponent is not that big of a setback.
In 2026, Kansas State is an above-average team led by a first-year head coach trying to break in a mostly new offensive line and dealing with a lack of depth at quarterback. It was never going to be a perfect season or even a smooth one.
So let’s just this put this one down as a learning experience and hope the bye week helps Kansas State heal for whatever ails this team.
Onwards.
Soccer
Kansas State dropped to 0-2 in the Big 12 after a 2-0 loss to Arizona State at Buser Family Park this weekend. Both Sun Devils’ goals came early in the match, in the ninth and 23rd minutes and the Wildcats, who had only four shots on goal for the whole match, never managed an answer. The lone bright spot for K-State was the second half play of goalkeeper Maddie Sibbing who also saved the second penalty kick of the season in this contest.
On Friday, the Wildcats hit the road for a key Big 12 matchup against BYU at 8 PM CT. The match will be streamed on ESPN+.
Volleyball
Unfortunately, Kansas State’s woeful weekend continued into Sunday’s volleyball match against Houston at Morgan Family Arena. The VolleyCats nine-match winning streak finally came to an end with a 3-1 (25-23, 25-21, 15-25, 25-20) loss to Houston. The Wildcats are now 1-1 in the Big 12 with the meat of their schedule still ahead.
Nevertheless, there were some bright spots for the VolleyCats. Addison Massie had 18 kills in the match, the sixth straight time she’s had 10 or more this season. Meanwhile, Fuka Sekita made history by recording the 500th dig of her collegiate career.
Next up, Kansas State hosts BYU on Thursday, followed by a match against Utah on Saturday.
