Gopher Sports: Non-Rev Review

Obviously football gets the most attention this time of year, but its out duty to give you a quick recap and look forward to several of the Minnesota Golden Gophers less notable sports. It’s a new article we are calling the Non-Revenue Review. So read on for a look Gopher soccer, Gopher cross-country, and more.

Gopher Soccer:

The Gopher soccer team dropped a pair of games last weekend. Thursday night they lost to DePaul 1-0, and then Sunday afternoon the Gophers nearly pulled an upset of #1 Stanford, but could not hang on in overtime to lose 2-1.

The Cardinal took a 1-0 lead 19 minutes into the game on a gorgeous header. The Gophers were getting dominated and did not have a shot on goal until the 75th minute when Senior Molly Fielder took a pass directly in front of the Cardinal net and put it behind the goalie to tie the game at 1. It was the first open play goal the defending NCAA Champs had allowed in over a year.

The game would go to overtime—the first time anyone had taken Stanford to an extra session since 2016, but it was all red and white in the OT. Stanford would end the game after Sam Hiatt put a rebound of a corner kick into the net to end the game. The loss dropped the Gophers record to 3-3 on the season.

Minnesota hosts its final non-conference game Friday night when North Dakota State comes to Elizabeth Lyle Robbie Stadium.

Gopher Volleyball:

As we wrote earlier in the week, the Gophers are now the #1 ranked team in the country after sweeping the Diet Coke Classic last weekend and getting some help. Minnesota takes its new top ranking into a huge weekend set of games in Palo Alto, California. On Friday night Minnesota plays #18 Oregon and Sunday afternoon the Gophers will play #4 Stanford on their home court. We will hopefully have a greater detail preview of the weekend Friday.

Gopher Cross Country:

The Gophers are gearing up for their first meet of the season the 19th Annual Oz Memorial Meet on Friday as the Les Bolstad Golf Course. Drake, Concordia-St. Paul and Minnesota State will also participate in the meet. The four mile men’s race will begin at 6:30 PM and the women’s 6 kilometer race will begin at 7:00PM. The Gopher women enter the season as the #24 ranked team in the nation.

Earlier this fall the Gophers announced that the two Cross Country Teams would be combined with both the men’s and women’s track and field teams under one coaching staff. Matt Bingle who was the head of the women’s cross country and track and field teams will be the head of the program, while former men’s head coach Steve Plascenia will remain on staff and direct the men’s cross country and distance track runners.

Both teams will be gearing up for the annual Roy Griak Invitational that will feature several of the best teams in the nation at Les Bolstad on September 29th.

Gopher Women’s Golf:

The Gophers will begin their season Monday when they host the Minnesota Invitational at Prestwick Golf Course in Woodbury. The event will be a 36-hole competition with 18 holes on Monday and another 18 on Tuesday.

Three Gopher golfers, senior Muyu Wu, and sophomores Joanne Free and Grace Kellar were named as golfers to watch in the preseason Big Ten honors. Last year Wu was second on the team in scoring average at 75.75, which ranks 15th in program history. Free was third on the team in scoring average (76.58), a mark which ranks fourth among all-time Gopher freshmen. Kellar also had an outstanding freshman season, where she was three-tenths of a stroke behind her classmate Free with the fourth-best scoring average on the team (76.88). That mark is fifth all-time among Gopher freshman.

The Gophers will host one additional home tournament this season from September 17-19. The ANNIKA Intercollegiate will be hosted at The Royal Golf Club in Lake Elmo and will feature several of the top teams in the nation.

Minnesota Women’s Hockey:

The Gophers had their media day on Wednesday as their season rapidly approaches. Though it seems far too early the Gophers will host British Columbia for an exhibition game on Sunday September 23rd and will open the regular season a week later against Mercyhurst at Ridder Arena.

Three Gophers will leave the team next week to complete with the Canadian National team at their annual Fall Festival. Sisters Sarah and Amy Potomak and Olivia Knowles will all compete with 56 other players for a chance to be added to the Canadian 4 Nations Cup roster which will complete in November.

Minnesota Women’s Basketball:

Ticket sales for the Gophers have seen a significant jump this season thanks to the Lindsay Whalen effect. According to Whalen the Gophers have sold over 2,300 season tickets for the season and thanks to their efforts to try and sell out Williams Arena for the Gophers season opener against New Hampshire on November 9th only 2,000 tickets remain for that game.

Additionally it was announced last week that the Gophers will have a new radio home this season. All Minnesota games will air on 96.7 FM, which has been rebranded as KFAN+. It is also one of the local IHeart Media stations and all Minnesota games will stream live for free on the I Heart Radio App.