Several Gopher Women’s Teams Face Top 10 Opponents this Weekend

Several Minnesota Golden Gophers Women’s Sports all have high profile matchups this weekend against top 10 teams, or the conference championships. Here is a quick preview of each:

Gopher Women’s Hockey @ #1 Wisconsin Badgers

The #7 Minnesota Golden Gophers Women’s Hockey team closes out the regular season WCHA schedule with a trip to face the #1 Wisconsin Badgers in Madison. The Badgers have locked up the WCHA Regular Season Championship, and the Gophers are currently in third place—four points behind second place Ohio State. The Buckeyes can clinch second place with two points this weekend over Bemidji State who visits Columbus, so most likely Minnesota will finish the regular season in third place.

The Gophers will be looking for revenge against a Badger squad that beat Minnesota in two one goal games in Minneapolis in November. The Gophers could really use a win to try and improve their pariwise ranking. Minnesota is currently ranked 8th in the Pairwise (though really seventh if you remove Division II St. Anslem). The Gophers currently are squarely on the bubble and are in danger of missing the NCAA tournament for the first time in 11 seasons. Getting a win against the Badgers would be a big help to make sure that doesn’t happen.

The two teams will face off at 7:00 PM Friday and 3:00 PM on Saturday. Friday night’s game will air live on Fox Sports North and can be streamed on Fox Sports Go

Gopher Women’s Basketball vs #10 Maryland Terrapins

The Gopher Women’s basketball team is coming off of a big home win over #23 Michigan last Wednesday night, and will now turn its eyes to another ranked opponent when the #10 Maryland Terrapins come to Williams Arena for a game at Noon on Sunday. Maryland is coming off of an upset loss to Purdue on Thursday night, and will be looking to make sure the Gophers don’t make it two losses in a row. The Terrapins sit on top of the Big Ten standings at 11-2 with three games left in the regular season. Meanwhile the 9-4 Gophers find them selves in fourth place in the Big Ten with two very winnable games against Indiana and Illinois Fighting Ilini remaining after the Maryland game.

Sunday’s game is a White Out game for Minnesota, and the U will do their part by giving away free t-shirts to the first 2,000 fans in the doors for the game.

If you can’t make it to the Barn, the game will be televised on BTN, and can be streamed on BTN2GO.

#14 Gopher Softball @ #8 Florida State Seminoles

Gopher Softball vs Notre Dame Fighting Irish (at FSU)

The #14 Minnesota Golden Gophers softball team will get their toughest task of the early season so far when they go to Tallahassee, FL for the Big Ten/ ACC Challenge. The Gophers will play host #8 Florida State twice, and face Notre Dame twice on the weekend. Michigan will be the other Big Ten team in Tallahassee.

The Gophers are 5-0 after last weekend’s tournament in Las Vegas. Minnesota will see how they stack up nationally against an opponent who has typically owned the Gophers. Minnesota is just 1-7 all time against the Seminoles with the one win coming in 2013. Minnesota meanwhile has a 4-1 all time record against the Irish.

Minnesota will be looking for back to back big weekends from a couple of players. Senior outfielder Dani Wagner was named the Big Ten Co-Player of the Week for her performance in Las Vegas. He hit .500 for the weekend going 7 for 14 with eight rbi and two home runs. Meanwhile sophomore pitcher Amber Fiser is still perfect in her career in the circle for Minnesota. She went 14-0 last season and then went 3-0 last weekend and also picked up a save. Hopefully she can keep that record up against tough competition.

The schedule for the Gophers is:

Friday 5:30 PM Vs Florida State

Saturday 11:30 AM vs Notre Dame

Saturday 2:30 PM vs Florida State

Sunday 9:00 AM vs Notre Dame.

The Gophers games against Florida State will stream on ACC Network Extra which can be found on WatchESPN

Gopher Women’s Swim and Dive @ Big Ten Championships

The Gopher Women’s Swim and Dive team are taking place in the Big Ten Championships hosted by Ohio State in Columbus this weekend. Through Thursday night the Gophers were in fourth place behind Indiana, Ohio State and Michigan.

Minnesota got a winning performance from sophomore Sarah Bacon who won the 1-meter springboard diving competition. The Gophers took second place in four additional events including the 200 Medley Relay, the 800 Free Relay, the 400 Medley Relay and Danielle Nack in the 50 Free. The three relay performances all set school records for their times.

The meet continues Friday and Saturday and can be steamed live on BTN + ($$)

Gopher Women’s Tennis @ Missouri Tigers

Gopher Women’s Tennis vs Memphis Tigers (At Missouri)

The 7-1 Gopher Women’s Tennis teams take to the road for the first time this season to face the 8-0 Missouri Tigers at 4:00 PM Friday, and the 5-3 Memphis Tigers at 9:00 AM Sunday. Both matches will take place in Columbia, Missouri.

#18 Minnesota Women’s Gymnastics @ GymQuarters Invite

The #18 ranked Gopher Women’s Gymastics team will participate in the GymQuarters Invite Friday afternoon against both Lindenwood and Northern Illinois.

The Gopher gymnasts art off to a great start this season. From Gophersports.com’s preview of the meet:

The Maroon and Gold do not rank less than top-30 in the NCAA on any event this season. Their top event has been beam. They are third in the Big Ten and No. 15 in the country with a 48.970 average. They average 48.955 on bars which is good for a ranking of No. 19. They rank No. 29 on floor and No. 30 on vault. They scored a 49.550 on floor which was the second highest score in school history at Ohio State this year.

The Gophers have a number of gymnasts at the top of the country in the rankings. Ramler leads the Big Ten in all-around and is No. 11 in the NCAA with a 39.400 average. She also leads the conference and is third in the entire country on beam with a 9.925 average.

Lu is first in the B1G and second in the NCAA on bars with a 9.930 average. She has not scored less than a 9.900 this season. Loper is second in the B1G and No. 16 in the country on floor with a 9.888 average.

The meet will take place at 2:00 PM on Friday, and will be streamed live on FloGymastics ($$)

Good luck to all the Gopher Women;s Teams competing this weekend. Ski-U-Mah!