Gopher Sports: Non-Revenue Roundup

It was another busy week for the Minnesota Golden Gophers non-revenue sports. The major event on the calendar was the annual Roy Griak Invitational Cross Country meet. But a pair of soccer matches, a pair of volleyball matches and more also had major consequences. Read on below for this week’s Non-Rev Roundup.

Gopher Women’s Cross Country:

The Gopher women had a great weekend. They won the Roy Griak Invitational cross country meet for the first time since 2008. The Hasz sisters finished first and second with Bethany winning in 20:47.9 and Megan right behind at 20:54.3. Both were season best times. The first/second finish was the best individual performance for the Gophers at the Griak in the 33 year history of the event. Bethany Hasz joins the Gophers two other individual winners in history, Megan Duwell in 2009 and Rasa Michniovaite in 1998.

The Gophers moved up in the national rankings after their meet win. The Gophers are currently ranked #21 nationally and are ranked #2 in the Midwest Region behind Iowa State. The Big Ten is well represented in the national rankings with No. 8 Wisconsin, No. 10 Michigan, No. 11 Indiana, No. 14 Michigan State, No. 19 Penn State all in the top 20.

Minnesota will take a week off before heading back to competition.

Gopher Men’s Cross Country:

The Gopher men also had a good weekend at the Griak. The Men took home a second place team finish behind first place Duke who just edged the Gophers by three points. Minnesota was led by Alec Bastain who took home fourth place in 24:37.4 while Evan Ferlic took home 10th place in 24:53.5.

The Gopher men are off this week before heading to the Pre-Nationals Meet in Madison on the NCAA Championship course in two weeks.

Gopher Volleyball:

The Gophers remained undefeated in Big Ten play with two more big 3-0 sweeps this past week. The Gophers swept #5 Wisconsin on Wednesday night before going to Indiana and sweeping the Hoosiers on Saturday. The Gophers took home some weekly hardware once again with Alexis Hart being named the Co-Big Ten Player of the Week and Samantha Seliger-Swenson taking home the Big Ten Setter of the Week honors for the second consecutive week.

The Gophers moved up one spot in the polls to #5 nationally with the pair of wins. They are tied for first place in the conference at 4-0 with Nebraska. That tie will not last long as the Gophers head to Lincoln for a huge match against the #3 ranked Cornhuskers Saturday night. First the Gophers will need to deal with the Northwestern Wildcats. The Gophers will head to Evanston for the match on Wednesday night. Unfortunately neither match will be on TV this week, only streaming on BTN+.

Gopher Soccer:

It was a mixed bag of results for the Gophers this past week. On Friday night the Gophers had no problem with the Maryland Terrapins winning 3-0 at Elizabeth Lyle Robbie Stadium. The Gophers got goals from Molly Fiedler, Makenzie Langdok, and Megan Gray. Gopher goalie Maddie Nielson did not even need to make a single save for her fourth consecutive shutout.

Unfortunately the Gophers could not keep the streak going as the would fall to Rutgers 2-1 in double overtime on Sunday. Rutgers would take the lead on a penalty kick in the 13th minute. Minnesota would answer back when Emily Heslin scored her first goal of the season off of a corner kick to tie the game at one in the 40th minute.

Neither team could find a way to get another goal until Adora Moneme would find the back of the net in the 105th minute to end the game.

The Gophers are now 7-5-1 and 3-2-1 in Big Ten play on the season. Minnesota currently is tied for third place in the Big Ten standings with Ohio State with 10 points. The Gophers hit the road for Indiana for a pair of games this weekend. They play at Purdue on Friday night before a game against the Hoosiers on Sunday morning.

Men’s Golf:

The Gopher men posted their second top-five finish of the fall season last week taking home fifth place at the Marquette Invitational. The Gophers shot -3 as a team in the third round on Tuesday at Erin Hills Golf Course to finish the tournament at +21 for the tournament, 27 shots behind first place Northwestern Wildcats. Peter Jones was the Gophers top individual finishing in a tie for tenth place.

The Gophers will head to Alabama for the Jerry Pate Invitational next week.

Gopher Women’s Hockey:

The Gophers began the season 2-0 with a sweep of #10 Mercyhurst at Ridder Arena last weekend. The Gophers took the opener 4-2 and won Saturday’s game 5-0. Junior Patti Marshall was named the WCHA Defensive Player of the Week after scoring three points on a goal and two assists, blocking seven shots and having a +5 rating.

The Gophers will have a huge series this weekend at #4 UMD who swept previous #4 Boston College in a pair of games in Duluth last weekend. We will have a full preview of that series on Friday.

Gopher Women’s Basketball

The Lindsay Whalen era officially began on Monday as she had her first official practice with the 2018-19 Gopher team.