Mid-September Athletics Update

TKC Cross Country Opens Season at Queensborough Invitational
On a beautiful September weekend at Van Cortlandt Park up in the Bronx, a legendary running venue, the TKC Cross Country team made their season debut after 4 weeks of training. Women’s team captain, Sophomore Keyah Harvey led the way with a 25:45 in the Women’s 5K. Last year at the same meet she ran a 30:06, so this was a remarkable improvement of 4:21!  Sophomore Hannah Lezak came in next at 28:41 and freshman Rachel Moreno made her collegiate debut with a 33:23. In the Men’s 8K, freshman Chance Layton finished strong with a 35:09 in his first collegiate race. It was an encouraging start for all the athletes as they now have two more weeks to train before returning to the grueling hills of Van Cortlandt Park on September 28 for the College of Staten Island Invitational.

Lions Men’s Soccer Records First Victory
The TKC Men’s Soccer team won their first game in 2013 in dramatic fashion with an overtime golden-goal win against Fisher College from Boston. Not quite as dramatic as a sudden death overtime victory but equally as exciting, the Lions bested Fisher again yesterday. After being down 0-1 late in the first half, the team rallied for four unanswered goals and won 4-1 for their first win in the 2014 season. Despite being outshot 27-15 for the game, the team remained focused and five minutes into the second half, freshman Emilio Godinez found the net to tie the game with an unassisted goal. Sophomore Zach Adams put TKC ahead with the game winner just 11 minutes later on an assist from freshman Sadiq  Keshwani. Felix Bravo nailed a direct kick for his first goal of the season at the 66 minute mark and junior Carlos Santos put the game away in the 79th minute with his first goal of the season. The men return to action against Vaughn on Saturday 9/20 at home in an HVIAC conference game.

TKC Women’s Soccer Evens Record at 2-2
After a tough weekend last week at the Panther Invitational in Albany that included an overtime loss, the Lady Lions were eager to get back to the playing field against Briarcliffe College out in Long Island. One year ago the Bulldogs gave TKC all they could handle as the Lady Lions squeaked out a 1-0 victory after an equally tough 2-1 win in 2012. This game started off exactly like the previous two with Briarcliffe having the better of play in the TKC half of the field for the first 10 minutes. But TKC freshmen Aleena Cruz broke loose and netted her fifth goal of the season to put the Lady Lions ahead 1-0. This goal would prove to be the game winner as TKC rolled to an 11-0 win. Sophomore captain Genesis Castrellon had 4 goals with junior captain Caitlin Essex adding a three goal hat trick. Cruz would add another goal and freshman Maizy Medley would add two goals with a successful penalty shot and a rebound in the goal mouth. The team will gear up for two games next weekend, Friday versus Sarah Lawrence College and Saturday against conference rival Berkeley.

Volleyball Wins Two in A Row
After notching their first win of the season on Saturday, a thrilling 3-2 victory over NCAA D3 Bay Path, the TKC Women’s Volleyball team took on D3 Yeshiva in a Hudson Valley Intercollegiate Conference contest. King’s came out on top for their second win in a row and their first conference win of the season as they went 25-9, 25-11, 25-19. Senior captain Kelli O’Donnell led the way with 7 kills, 8 service aces and 7 digs. Junior captain Alex Rollis had 5 kills, 4 service aces and 8 digs. Junior captain Jessie Schnoebelen had 19 assists. Freshman Dekka Hunley had 6 kills. Freshman Abena Anim-Somuah had 4 kills. Senior Joanne Vo had 4 digs and freshman Alina Baumgartner had 1 kill and 3 digs.