Minnesota Gophers: Non-Rev News and Notes

Here are some Minnesota Gophers non-revenue sports news and notes that you may have missed over the holiday weekend:

Soccer:

The Gopher soccer team picked up their first two wins on the season last week taking a 4-0 game from Drake at home on Thursday and then heading up to Grand Forks to knock off North Dakota 3-1 on Sunday.

It was the Izzy Brown show for the Gophers against Drake as the senior recorded her first career hat-trick with a trio of goals in the 35, 49, and 50-minute marks.

Brown scored the first, third and fourth goals of the match for the Gophers with fellow senior Christa Van Loon scoring the second. Gopher Goaltender Megan Plaschko earned the clean sheet making just a single save in the win.

Sunday Minnesota headed up to North Dakota it was junior Sophia Romine’s turn scoring a pair of goals and assisting on the third Minnesota goal by Alana Dressley in the 3-1 win. North Dakota would add a goal in the 83rd minute but it would not be near enough.

Minnesota now sits at 2-3-1 in the non-conference and will finish off their non-conference schedule this week with back-to-back home matches against Nebraska Omaha on Thursday at 6 p.m. and Marquette on Sunday at 1 p.m. Both games will be streamed live on B1G+.

Cross Country:

Minnesota kicked off their season this past Friday at the Oz Memorial held at Minnesota’s Les Bolstad Golf Course. Minnesota competed against St. Thomas and Drake in the season opener and won both the men’s and women’s events.

Anastasia Korzenowski captured the victory in the 5K race for the Gophers on the women’s side in a time of 18:53.50. The entire top five of the meet were represented by Minnesota with Brianne Brewster finishing as the meet’s runner-up in a time of 18:57.50. Freshman Ali Weimer, who competed unattached, was third overall in a time of 19:11.60. Izzy Roemer, also a freshmen competing unattached, was fourth in a time of 19:19.70 while Liesel Paulsen was fifth at 19:31.10.

On the men’s side, Minnesota went 2-3-4 with Emmet Anderson finishing at the top of the Gophers pack in a time of 19:39.90. Just a tenth behind Anderson was captain Eli Hoeft who was third overall. Newcomer Matt Lepine finished fourth while Matt Wilkinson competed unattached and was fifth. Just behind Wilkinson was Willem Landis who was Minnesota’s fifth-best runner at 19:41.30.

Minnesota heads to Ann Arbor this weekend for the Michigan Preview, which is set for Sept. 9. The meet will be a preview to the Big Ten Championships, which is also hosted in Ann Arbor and will be a loaded field of many of the nation’s best teams.

Women’s Hockey:

Nine current or former Gophers represented their countries at the Women’s World Championships this past week in Denmark. Canada won the gold medal defeating the US 2-1 in the Championship game. Sarah Potomak earned the gold while current Gophers Grace Zumwinkle and Taylor Hesie and former Gophers Lee Stecklein, Hanna Brandt, Amanda Kessel, and Kelly Pannek won silver. Also competing were incoming Gopher freshmen Nelli Laitinen for Finland and Josefin Bouveng for Sweden.

Despite finishing in second place, Heise earned Tournament MVP honors and Best Forward after leading all players in points (18) and goals (7) in her first IIHF Women’s World Championship. Her 18 points is the second highest total ever at a Women’s World Championships. Not a bad few months on the biggest hockey state for Heise.

The four returning Gophers all trade in their national team colors for maroon and gold and will kick off the season October 7th when the Gophers host Bemidji State.