With the Minnesota Golden Gophers football team on their bye week this week, it seems like a good time to take a look at the other Gophers fall and winter sports that are well into their seasons and recap the most recent action and look ahead to when you can catch them play next. Full previews of men’s and women’s hockey will be published on Friday.
Volleyball:
The Gopher volleyball team remains ranked #21 in the nation as they enter the second third of the Big Ten schedule. Minnesota sits with a 9-5 overall
record and are 3-3 in Big Ten action. The Gophers are coming off of a weekend sweep on the road last weekend they defeated Rutgers 3-1 and Ohio State 3-0. McKenna Wucherer has continued to play at an All-American level so far this season as she added 20 kills in the win over the Scarlet Knights and on her 13th and final kill in the win over Ohio State she brought her career total to 1,000. Kelly Kinney was right behind Wucherer with 12 kills against Rutgers and 13 versus the Buckeyes.
The Gophers will host a pair of home matches this weekend as Minnesota faces Michigan Friday night in the team’s annual Dig Pink Breast Cancer Awareness Match and will host Maryland on Saturday night.
The Wolverines comes in with a 11-6 overall record and a 2-4 record in Big Ten action. They split a pair of matches last weekend defeating Iowa before losing to Oregon. As a team, Michigan is hitting .269 which is sixth in the Big Ten. The Wolverines are also second in the conference in total kills with 862. Minnesota is 65-17-0 all-time against Michigan but dropped a four set match in Ann Arbor in their most recent meeting in 2025. The match against the Wolverines will be the Dig Pink Match for the Gophers who will wear pink jerseys that will be auctioned off through Monday HERE with all proceeds going to Breast Cancer Research.
Saturday the Gophers host Maryland who enter the Pav with a 12-5 overall record and a 2-4 record in Big Ten action. Maryland split a pair of five-set matches last weekend losing to UCLA but defeating Northwestern. They will play at Wisconsin on Friday night. As a team, Maryland is hitting .289, which is third in the Big Ten. Eva Rohrbach is third in the conference hitting a .445. Setter Sara Toth sits second in the conference with 10.91 aps.
Minnesota is 20-1 all-time against the Terrapins with their lone loss coming in 2023.
Friday’s match will begin at 7 PM, and Saturday’s will kick off at 6 PM both streaming on B1G+.
Soccer:
The Gopher soccer team has seen their hot non-conference start stagnate a bit against rougher Big Ten competition. Minnesota has a 7-5-2 overall record but just a 3-4-1 Big Ten record and they currently sit in a three-way tie for 9th place in the conference with four regular season matches remaining. Only the top eight teams qualify for the Big Ten Tournament, so Minnesota has some work to do if they want to earn their way in.
The Gophers dropped a pair of matches against top-10 opponents last weekend. Minnesota lost 4-0 at #2 Michigan State last Thursday before returning home and losing to #6 Ohio State 2-0 last Sunday.
Minnesota returns to action this Sunday with a critical match in Madison against Wisconsin. The Badgers sit in 8th place right above the Gophers in the conference standings, and the winner of the match will have a significant edge down the stretch to try and earn one of the final Big Ten Tournament spots. Kickoff is set for 1PM and will stream on B1G+.
Cross Country:
The Gopher cross-country teams remain ranked in the Top 25 in the most recent national polls. The Gopher men are ranked #21, while the women are ranked #22. The teams both competed at the Nuttycomb Invitational hosted by Wisconsin last weekend against fields loaded with ranked opponents. The Gopher women finished in 13th place, while the men were one spot back in 14th.
The Gopher women were led by a 24th place individual performance from Ali Weimer which at 19:46.9 was the 8th fastest time in school history.
Aiden Jones led the way for the men with a 49th place individual performance in a time of 23:29.2. Emmet Geres was not far behind in 56th place in 23:31.9. The Gopher men defeated several ranked teams including #2 Iowa State, #13 Washington, #17 Washington State and #18 Michigan State.
The Gophers close out the regular season with some in-state action with some runners competing in the Bennie Johnnie Autumn Classic in St. Joseph on Saturday and the Winona State Invitational in Winona on October 23rd. The Big Ten Championships are October 30th in Madison.
Women’s Golf:
The Gopher Women’s Golf Team closed out their fall season this past weekend at the Illini Invitational hosted at the storied Medinah Country Club in Medinah, Ill. While the Gophers took home a 13th place finish as a team, it was senior Mariana Mesones stealing the show winning the individual competetion with a total pf -15 over the three round tournament. It’s Mesones’ lowest tournament score as a Gopher and her first ever tournament win in the maroon and gold.
Mesones got off to an amazing stat shooting a -8 64 with eight birdies and no bodies in the opening round and then following that with a -5 67 in her second round. Her -20 70 clinched the title by two shots over Illinois’ Sophia Vargas. On Wednesday Mesones was named the Big Ten Golfer of the Week for her efforts. It’s the fourth time in her career she has been so honored.
Minnesota will return to action in the spring portion of their season beginning January 31-February 2 at the Cocotal Golf and Country Club in Punta Cana, D.R., for a three-day event, The Dominican Republic Classic.
Men’s Golf:
The Gopher men’s golf team also had their most successful tournament of the fall last weekend taking home a team second place finish at the Moraine Invitational hosted by Miami, Ohio. Gopher junior Chun-ta Wu would win the individual title for the Gophers shooting a -6 207 for the tournament to win by two shots. Wu shot even par 71’s in his first two rounds before his bogey-free -6 65 in the final round to win. On Wednesday he was named the Big Ten Golfer of the Week for the second time in his career.
Minnesota also got a -6 final round from Jack Crousore which heled propel the team to a -3 final round and a second place finish just two shots back of VCU.
The Gopher men’s Golf team will complete their fall season this weekend at the Quail Valley Collegiate Invitational hosted by South Florida. Live scoring is available HERE.
Swimming and Diving:
The #24 ranked Gopher women’s swim and dive team kicked off their 2026-27 schedule last weekend at home with a win over Iowa. Minnesota took first place finishes in 11 out of the 16 events at the Jean K. Freeman Aquatic Center.
The Gopher men will begin their season this weekend joined by the women at the second annual The Dual Swim and Dive meet held at Georgia Tech. The meet is set up in a bracket format with Minnesota set to face off against #20 South Carolina in the opening match at 7:30 AM on Friday. Minnesota wither either face #23 Florida State or Georgia Tech in the Semifinals or the Consolation Semifinals at 2PM Friday afternoon. The 3rd and 7th place matches will be held at 8 AM Saturday with the Championship and 5th place matches at 2PM. Their potential opponents from the opposite side of the bracket include #17 Auburn, George Washington, Kentucky and Penn State. All of the action can be streamed on ACC Network Extra on the Watch ESPN App.
Last year Minnesota lost their opening meet to Auburn before back to back wins over GW and Georgia Tec to take home 5th place.
Tennis:
The Gopher Tennis team continues their fall schedule this weekend at the ITA Central Regional Championships. Earlier this fall the Gophers had split squad action at both the Gopher Invitational held at the Baseline Tennis Center and at the Husker Invitational in Lincoln.
The Gophers finished the 14th annual Gopher Invitational with a 8-3 record in doubles and a 5-7 mark in singles.Minnesota was led by Anlin Xie who went 4-1 in doubles and 3-0 in singles. Her doubles partner Jeselle Ante also went 4-1 in doubles and was 1-1 in singles.
The Gophers finished the Husker Invitational with a 3-3 record in doubles and a 7-5 mark in singles. Both Nora Knezevic and Mia Liepert went 2-1 in both doubles and singles.
This weekend the Gophers are in Memphis for the ITA Central Regional Championships. All nine Gophers will compete at the ITA Central Regional Championships. Those include fifth year Anali Kocevar, seniors Jeselle Ante, Anlin Xie and Mia Liepert, juniors Nora Knezevic and Kamea Medora, and freshman Massiva Boukirat, Ksenia Hanke and Leina Gao. All Minnesota doubles pairs will compete in the doubles draw, while Boukirat and Xie are in the main draw for singles. Kocevar, Ante, Liepert, Knezevic and Hanke will play in the qualifying rounds for a spot in the main draw, while Gao plays in the B draw.
Rowing:
The Gopher rowing team impressed at the season opening Head of the Mississippi Regatta earlier this month. The Golden Gophers turned in five race victories across the six events in which they were entered with wins over teams from Nebraska, Creighton, Drake and St. Thomas.
Minnesota will face Wisconsin in a scrimmage on Halloween on Lake Mendota before competing in the Riviana Romp hosted by Virginia the following week to close out the fall portion of their schedule.
