The Gopher football team may have been on their bye week, but nearly every other Golden Gopher fall sport and several winter ones were in action this past weekend. We saw some epic wins on the ice and on the course as well as on the volleyball court, and a painful loss on the pitch. Below catch a full recap of the weekend action that happened for the Gophers:
Women’s Hockey:
The Minnesota Golden Gophers headed into their series against #1 Ohio State untested. Minnesota was 4-0 but had defeated Bemidji State who finished
last in the WCHA a year ago three times allready. Meanwhile the Buckeyes had taking down #5 Penn State and #2 Wisconsin in a quartet of games prior to their trip to Minneapolis. So the Buckeyes knew what to expect in a tough game from their team, while the Gophers were going to be a mystery. Needless to say, Minnesota is right with the Buckeyes as one of the top teams in the nation.
Minnesota took it to Ohio State winning on Friday by a 6-2 score over the #1 team in the country. Freshman Adriani Milani scored her 5th goal of the seas just 14 seconds into the game after intercepting an OSU pass in their defensive end and putting the puck past Buckeye goalie Rowan Houwelling. The Gophers would add two more goals in the opening period from Madison Kaiser and Chloe Primerano to take a 3-0 lead into intermission. Milani made it 4-0 just minutes into the second period and it appeared the Gophers would run away with the game. However, the Buckeyes took advantage of a major penalty to Kaiser for hitting from behind and scored a pair of goals to cut the Gopher lead to 4-2 after two periods. But it was the Gophers night. UConn transfer Ashley Allard scored her first goal in the maroon and gold to make it 5-2, and Kaiser potted her second of the night to round out the 6-2 dominant win for the Gophers. Hannah Clark made 26 saves in the win.
Saturday afternoon’s rematch was a ferocious back and forth affair. The Buckeyes came out on fire this time scoring two first period goals and adding another early in the second peirod to take a 3-0 lead. But the Gophes came storming back. Freshman Maddie McCullough scored the first goal for the Gophers 2:30 after the third Buckeye goal to begin the comeback. Sophomore Avery Hovland scored her first goal of the season next to cut the lead to 3-2. With 4:45 left in the period, the Gophers evened the score when Emma Kreisz took a great Teresa Plosova pass and put it past Buckeye goalie Genny Klein. The teams would trade goals one more time before the end of the period with Sarah Paul scoring with 24 seconds left in the second to knot the game at 4. OSU pulled Klein for Taylor Kressin for the third period, but it initially appeared to backfire as the Gophers took a 5-4 lead on a Paul tip of an Allard pass. Unfortunately the Buckeyes came back and scored a pair of goals in 42 seconds to take the lead back at 6-5 which they would hold onto for the win. Clark made 40 saves in the loss.
The rest of the nation did see what the Gophers did against the previously impervious Buckeyes. Minnesota moved up in the national rankings when the new polls came out on Monday to #2 in the nation leapfrogging Wisconsin. The Buckeyes remained at #1. Paul was named the WCHA Forward of the Week after a four point weekend with a pair of goals. Minnesota hosts Lindenwood in a Thursday/ Friday series this weekend.
Volleyball:
The Gopher volleyball team did what they were supposed to do against a pair of weaker opponents this weekend picking up a 3-1 win over Michigan on Friday night and a 3-0 sweep of Maryland on Saturday at the Pav. Minnesota is now 11-5 overall and 5-3 in Big Ten action, good for a for way time for 5th place in the conference.
The Gophers were able to overcome a poor performance from star McKenna Wucherer in the win over the Wolverines. Minnesota won the first set 25-19 before falling 25-20 in the second set to even the match. After the break the Gophers stormed back and took control with a 25-15 Set three win, and finished off the Wolverines 25-21 to take the match. Wucherer ended with only four kills and five hitting errors. The Gophers were led by Kelly Kinney with 10 kills. Setter Stella Swenson added a career high eight kills to go with 27 assists. Minnesota added a season high 10 service aces as well.
The Gophers jumped on the Terrapins from the start on Saturday. Maryland never had a chance as Minnesota blitzed to a 25-9 opening set win, and would add 25-18 and 25-17 wins in the next two sets for the sweep. Kinney again led Minnesota with 11 kills.
Minnesota faces a pair of ranked teams this week heading to #13 Purdue on Friday before returning to host #20 Washington on Sunday.
Men’s Hockey:
It was another rough weekend to start the Brett Larson era as the Gophers traveled up I-35 to face #9 ranked UMD. Friday went about as poorly as you could have asked as the Gophers got beat in every single facet of the game losing 7-1. The lone bright spot was the first NCAA goal for freshman Jacob Kvasnicka.
Saturday the Gophers showed some grit in the rematch. They still feel down 2-0 early, but clawed their way back in with a pair of goals by junior captain Brody Ziemer, including a gorgeous between the legs goal to knot the game up in the second period.
Neither team cold score in the third period and in OT Gopher goalie Luca DiPasquo stood on his head repeatedly to keep the puck out of the net and preserve the 2-2 tie. The two teams headed to a shootout that counted for nothing but pride and sophomore LJ Mooney scored the winning goal for the Gophers and then cupped his hand to his ear a la Phil Kessel in Madison in front of the Bulldog student section as the Gophers celebrated their tie.
The schedule gets no easier this week as #3 North Dakota comes to town for the first home series of the Larson era. Minnesota hosts the Fighting Hawks on Thursday and Friday.
Soccer:
The Gopher soccer team needed a win at Wisconsin on Sunday badly, but could not come up with one and returned home after a 1-0 loss to the Badgers. Both teams took 10 shots, and Minnesota had a 5-3 advantage on shots on goal, but the Badgers scored the lone goal in the 74th minute to take the win. The Gophers are now in a four-way tie for 9th place in the Big Ten, four points behind 8th place Wisconsin with three games left to play. Only the top 8 teams make the Big Ten Tournament.
Cross Country:
The Gopher women’s cross-country team saw some of their lesser used runners compete at the Bennie-Johnnie Invitational in St. Joseph against D3 competition on Saturday. As expected the Gophers dominated finishing first overall as a team and had their top six runners finish first through third and fifth through seventh. Freshman Audrey Ward won the event in a time of 22.15.9, twelve seconds faster than teammate Caroline Mendek.
Men’s Golf:
The Gopher men’s golf finished the fall season on a high note winning the Quail Valley Collegiate Invitational hosted by South Florida. Minnesota was at -1 after two rounds four shots back of Kansas. However the erupted shooting a -16 as a team on Monday and took home the title with a final score of 17 under par, five shots better than the Jayhawks. Their comeback was mostly on the shoulders of junior Chun-Ta Wu.
Wu would finish in 3rd place overall at -9. That’s impressive. What was even more impressive was that he shot a -10 62 in Monday’s final round. Ten birdies, no bogies. His 62 is tied for the lowest score ever by a Gopher golfer with Runar Arnorsson who shot his 62 in 2016. What a great way to finish the fall.
Swimming and Diving:
The Gopher Swim and Dive team matched their 2025 performance at The Duel Meet held at Georgia Tech. Minnesota faced off against #20 South Carolina in the Quarterfinals and dropped their opening meet 423.5-366.5. Minnesota tallied 10 first place finishes throughout 22 total events against the Gamecocks, with five events won on the women’s side and five events won on the men’s side.
In the afternoon session the Gophers won their consolation semifinal over #23 Florida State 410-380. Minnesota tallied 11 first place finishes throughout 22 total events in their afternoon session against the Seminoles, with six events won on the women’s side and five events won on the men’s side.
Sunday the Gophers faced of against Penn State i the 5th place match where they dominated 511-264. The Gophers tallied first place finishes in 15 out of the 22 total events against the Nittany Lions, with 10 events won on the women’s side and five events won on the men’s side.
Minnesota returns to action this weekend in a tri-duel against South Dakota and Nebraska hosted by South Dakota.
Tennis:
The Gopher Tennis team continued their fall schedule at the ITA Central Regional Championships in Memphis. Over the course of three days the Gophers finished the ITA Central Regional Championship with a 4-4 record in doubles and a 14-14 mark in singles. Massiva Boukirat made it the farthest winning in the round of 32 in the main singles draw before retiring with an injury in the round of 16.
