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SE: Looking Back at the Top K-State Sports Moments of the Fall - K-StateSports.com

By: Austin Siegel

This season was always going to be unlike any other in college sports history - which is why it was a little disappointing to see one fall tradition return in 2020:
 
Underestimating the Kansas State Wildcats.
 
Not a single K-State team was picked to finish higher than seventh in the Big 12 Preseason Coaches Poll - every single one has now surpassed their projection or is on pace to do so.
 
Football, Soccer, Volleyball, Tennis, Cross Country and Women's Golf all returned to K-State over the past two months and brought a little normal back to the Little Apple. 
 
Just a few days before Thanksgiving, here are 10 fall sports moments worth revisiting:
 
10. K-State Tennis Ties Program Record
 
Just hosting a tournament at Mike Goss Tennis Stadium was a big deal for K-State Tennis this season. 
 
Putting down 13 singles victories was historic.
 
Behind strong performances from Maria Linares, Ioana Gheorghita and Manami Ukita, the Wildcats handled Iowa State and Kansas to tie a program record for singles victories in a home tournament.
 

 
That trio combined to go 9-0 over three days of matches, powering K-State to a dominant team performance over two local rivals. 
 
9. A Sunflower Blowout at Special Teams U
 
The feeling of disbelief is what K-State fans will remember: Kansas is actually going to punt to Phillip Brooks. Again.
   
A pair of punt-return touchdowns from the sophomore helped K-State beat Kansas 55-14 for the team's 12th-straight win in the Dillons Sunflower Showdown.
 
With 189 punt return yards against the Jayhawks, Brooks ended the game with more yards than any other team in the country had managed to that point in the entire 2020 season. 
 
In the postgame press conference, Brooks reminded fans why that shouldn't be a surprise.
 
"This is Special Teams U," he said.  "I felt like I needed to contribute."
 
8. Aliyah Carter Arrives vs. Texas
 
You won't find many games K-State lost on this list, but not many Wildcats have had performances like Aliyah Carter against the No. 1 team in the country.
 
In just the fifth game of her college career, Carter shattered the K-State freshman kills record as the Wildcats went the distance with No. 1 Texas at Bramlage Coliseum.
 
Suzie Fritz called her "fearless" and Carter's 26-kill night was an early sign the Wildcats might have found their newest weapon at outside hitter. 
 
"I think it's just realizing what I can do and not setting a limit on myself," Carter said. "With a team like Texas, you have nothing to lose."
 
7. Deuce Vaughn Calls Game
 
The legend of K-State's 5-foot-5 freshman phenom was already growing when K-State returned home to face Texas Tech in October.
 
It took just one play for Deuce Vaughn to add another chapter.
   
With the Wildcats looking to run out the clock and clinging to a three-point lead over the Red Raiders, Vaughn lined up in the slot on 3rd and 5 with just over two minutes left. 
 
Eleven seconds later, Vaughn was in the end zone after a 70-yard catch-and-run that electrified the socially-distanced crowd at Bill Snyder Family Stadium and delivered K-State a conference win. 
 
6. A Brace for Brookelynn Entz 
 
After spending four years in Manhattan, Brookelynn Entz didn't rewrite the K-State Soccer record books. She basically wrote them herself as the face of the Big 12's newest program.
 
The team leader in goals, points and game-winning goals scored what would be the final two goals of her K-State career in a 2-0 road win over Iowa State back on October 30.
 
Entz corralled a ball over the top from Shae Turner and played it off the bounce for her first goal of the night. 
 
"I honestly wasn't thinking at all," Entz said. "I just saw the ball coming and I kept myself really calm and all I had to do was place it in the corner. The ball from Shae was absolutely perfect. All I had to do was tuck it away."
 
She beat the offside trap again to complete her brace in the second half, putting moves on Iowa State defenders and securing the second Big 12 win of the season for the Wildcats. 
   
5. Jayden Nembhard Sparks a Sweep in Morgantown
 
Just a few days after learning she would replace Brynn Carlson in a weekend series with West Virginia, Jayden Nembhard made the most of her nationally-televised opportunity. 
 
The freshman outside hitter put down 24 kills to help the Wildcats rally back from a 2-1 deficit on ESPNU. The first extended action of her college career saw Nembhard hit .389 to power the K-State attack in Morgantown.
 
Trailing 21-19 in a must-win fourth set, Nembhard came up with four kills to help the Wildcats keep the match alive and win a five-set thriller on the road.

"It was like, 'Hey, I'm here.' I think that's what honestly got me into the match," Nembhard said. "Now, you just go out there and play volleyball."
 

 
She added 19 more kills on Friday night to help secure the sweep, earning Big 12 Rookie of the Week honors after an unforgettable start to her K-State career.

4. Reid Isaac Wins Second Tournament of Her Career
 
With COVID-19 wiping out the spring season, K-State Women's Golf returned to action in Norman for the Schooner Fall Classic. All Reid Isaac did was win the whole thing. 
 
Battling wind gusts that halted the tournament, the senior used booming drives off the tee to post a second-round score of 65 that put herself right in the mix ahead of the final day.
 
"My long game is very consistent. I don't miss super big to the right or to the left so that helps me keep it in the middle of the fairway on windy days," she said. "The wind was a lot higher on the second day and par was a great score. That's where I can lock in and play better than the typical golfer in the wind."
 

 
A 58-foot putt on the final day of the Schooner Fall Classic would help Isaac secure the second-best 54-hole mark in program history with a 70-65-70—205 (-5) and a share of the tournament title. 
 
3. Shelby Martin Caps Triple-Double with Game-Winner
 
The shortest list in the NCAA this season belongs to Shelby Martin. 
 
She's the only player in the country to record a triple-double this season – 11 kills, 10 digs, 38 assists – and Martin added some style points.
 
With the Wildcats battling in the fifth set against Oklahoma, their senior setter delivered the knockout after the Sooners fought off a pair of match points to make it 14-13 in the fifth set. 
 
Her quick-hit kill to finish it was also the first game-winner of Martin's career.
   
"The pass was there; it gave me an opportunity and they hadn't slowed me down yet so I figured I might as well take it," Martin said. " I just went ahead and took a swing."
 
The win helped the Wildcats continue to climb in the national rankings and delivered one of the best postgame celebrations of the fall season.
 
2. K-State Soccer Sends Off Seniors in Style
 
Saying goodbye to the largest senior class in program history, K-State Soccer threw one heck of a party.
 
A 2-0 Senior Night win over Big 12 preseason favorites Texas Tech was highlighted by a spectacular goal from Christina Baxter, the second of her career in her final college game.
 
"I almost blacked out in that moment," she said. "Me and Bailey [Nemechek] locked eyes, and I knew she was going to play me the ball. It felt like I just needed to shoot it, I saw it going and I could not believe it. Of course, this happens on Senior Night."
   
An emotional postgame ceremony had as much to do with saying goodbye to seven seniors as what the Wildcats accomplished – K-State ended 2020 with the most conference wins and the best Big 12 finish in program history. 
 
1. K-State Football Shocks No. 3 Oklahoma
 
If there was one game that embodied the entire fall sports season at K-State, it was this one. 
 
Underdogs? The Sooners were favored by more than three touchdowns. A freshman stepping up? Deuce Vaughn racked up 164 all-purpose yards and a touchdown. 
 
The Wildcats took down No. 3 Oklahoma for the second-straight season with a furious comeback in the second half, as Skylar Thompson threw for 334 yards and the K-State defense picked off Spencer Rattler three times.  
"Once we got the momentum, I feel like we never gave it back," Vaughn said. "We had all types of feelings coming off of a loss a few weeks ago, just knowing that we were a better team than we showed against Arkansas State. For those two weeks, we prepared, prepared, prepared, to show the nation that last year wasn't a fluke."
 
Down 21 points in the third quarter, the Wildcats staged a rally that has been successful exactly one time the previous 545 times an AP top-five team has led by 21 points since 2004.
 
"Like I said after week one, you find out a lot about a person and team through challenge and adversity. This team responded, and I had no doubt going into this game that we were going to have a chance to win," Thompson said. "Kept pounding the stone and kept believing."
   
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