“She has very quick reaction time, and she's strong,” Comets head coach Kelly Falcone said, “and she has the longest arms ever. She's really built to be a goalie.”

That said, the reason Kenney leads the state with 307 saves is simple.

The Vista High graduate hates to get beaten. Hates it. That's clear just watching her stare down shooters, daring them to score – in pre-game warm-ups.

“The only part I don't like about playing goalie is taking a ball to the face,” Kenney said. “It hits you, and then it's really tingly, and you can almost tell what shape the ball was on your face. But if I get one in the face, I know I blocked it, so it worked out.”

Comets fans, that's your goalie. That's why Kenney is regarded as one of the top cage-minders in the state, why opposing coaches go out of their way to compliment Kenney even as she's gobbling up their teams' best shots, and why Falcone was grinning like a kid on Christmas morning when she learned Kenney would be starting for her this fall.

ROBERT BENSON Kenney leads the state with 307 saves, and Palomar is ranked eighth in California. Above, Kenney in a practice session.

A year ago, Kenney didn't even know if she'd be playing, let alone as part of team now ranked eighth in the state. After an All-CIF career at Vista and a standout freshman season for the Comets in 2006, Kenney got the kind of itch she could only scratch by putting a few hundred miles between herself and home. When Cal State Bakersfield came calling, she packed up three days before the start of the semester and joined the CSUB water polo program.

But her career as a Roadrunner was over almost before it started, derailed by a shoulder injury that required rehab and eventual surgery.

“It really put a damper on water polo for me,” Kenney said. “I kind of separated myself from water polo (during rehab). I didn't do anything, couldn't do anything.”

When the 2007 fall semester rolled around, complete with a new coach and little hope for a starting position, she began to wonder what had taken her away from home.

“I wondered, 'Why would I stay up here?' ” she said. “It was just that sense of homecoming – you've got your family, you've got everything you left behind – and I liked it.”

Little did she know what a homecoming it would be. Kenney joins Tristan Kennedy, Milena Brkich and Anjuli Palos de la Rosa – all teammates from Vista and the North County Stars club team – as well as Rancho Buena Vista alum Natalie Pompa, who was also a member of the Stars.

“I think that's part of what makes our team chemistry so good – five of us have played together since we were 14 years old,” Kenney said.

Just as her goalie has found success in returning home, Falcone has built this year's Comets by staying close to campus: 12 of her 15 players prepped in the CIF San Diego Section. The result, Kenney said, is a unity of purpose that reaches beyond the push for a state title.

“That's one thing we pride ourselves in,” Kenney said. “We're all local, we all know how to play. We are representing our hometown. It's probably one of the first times I've felt like representing my hometown.”

Falcone calls them the best team she's had in her time at Palomar, and she's not the only one who's noticed.

“Last weekend, the Ventura coach (Mary Giles) came up to me and said, 'My team loves to play your team,' ” Falcone said. “It's a huge compliment that we're able to be a strong, successful team but also a team that other teams respect and actually want to compete against.”

For her part, Kenney is ready to leave again after this season, but with caution this time. The sophomore has her eye on goalie-hungry UC Santa Barbara but says she'll be willing to leave the West Coast if the fit is right.

“I'm really just trying to go somewhere where I'm going to feel comfortable.” Until then, that somewhere is right here, at home.

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