It’s time for a quick drop of the Golden Nugz, our quick look at several stories around the Gophers sports world over the past few days you should know. From soccer to women’s basketball we have you covered.
Gopher Volleyball:
The Gophers moved to 2-0 at Maturi Pavilion this season with a pair of 3-0 sweeps to win the Diet Coke Classic. Minnesota defeated Miami 25-15, 25-16, and 25-14 on Friday night. Sophomore Kelly Kinney led the Gophers with nine kills with eight each from McKenna Wucherer and Carly Gilk.
Sunday afternoon
the Gophers swept St. Thomas 25-22, 25-20-and 25-22. Wucherer was dominant with 18 kills, only a pair of errors and hit .615 for the match. Kinney added another 10 kills of her own.
Minnesota heads back to Sioux Falls this weekend for another pair of matches, this time against local schools. Minnesota will face South Dakota at 7 PM Friday before facing South Dakota State at 2:30PM Saturday at the Sanford Pentagram. Both matches will stream on Midco Sports Plus.
Gopher Soccer
Minnesota headed to Penn State on Sunday coming off of their 1-0 upset win over @25 Iowa on Thursday night and unfortunately dropped the match by the same 1-0 score. The Nittany Lions scored the afternoon’s only goal in the 34th minute when Aubrey Kulpa connected on a right-footed strike into the bottom right corner following an assist from Olivia Robinson. Sarah Martin made seven saves in goal for the Gophers.
Martin was rewarded for her great performances against Iowa and Penn State when she was named the Big Ten Goalkeeper of the Week on Tuesday. It’s the second time in her career she has earned the honor. Martin picked up her 14th individual career shutout against #25 Iowa on Thursday. Over the weekend, Martin faced 40 shots, 22 against Iowa and 18 against Penn State, allowing only one goal to the Nittany Lions. She made 13 total saves, including six in the shutout of Iowa and a season-high seven at Penn State.
The Gophers return to action Sunday when they host Northwestern at 1 PM on B1G+.
Gopher Women’s Golf
The Gopher women completed their lone home tournament of the season this past weekend with the Annika Intercollegiate at Royal Golf Club in Lake Elmo, The Gophers finished in 12th place out of 12 teams facing stiff competition. Wake Forest won the team competition at -24 over the three days defeating USC by ten strokes. Michelle Xing of UCLA won the individual title at -9. Minnesota’s best performance was from sophomore Lauryn Finley who finihsed with a three day score of +8.
The Gophers return to action beginning on Friday at the Furman University Golf Club in Greenville, S.C., as it takes part in the Lady Paladin Invitational.
Gopher Men’s Golf
The Gopher men’s golf team kicked off their fall season at the Bearcat Invitational hosted by the University of Cincinnati. Minnesota finished the tournament in a tie for 15th place with a team score of +13. Minnesota’s top individual finisher was junior Jack Crousore who finished in a tie for 28th place at +1 over three rounds.
Minnesota returns home to host the 2nd Swing Gopher Invitational at Windsong Golf Club in Independence beginning on Sunday.
Gopher Cross Country
It was a good start to the 2026 cross country season for the Gophers as both the men and women won the team titles at the Cyclone Preview hosted by Iowa State last weekend. The women were led by 5th year Ali Weimer who was dominant. She dropped an entire minute off her previous best 5000 meter cross country time to win the event in 16:15.3. For her efforts she was named the Big Ten Cross Country Athlete of the Week for the third time in her career. She was also named a Runner to Watch by the Big Ten prior to the season.
The men also won the team event led by a third place finish by Gopher senior Emmit Geres. Also named a Big Ten Runner to Watch prior to the year Geres finished in third place in his first ever 6000 meter cross country race.
The Gophers will host the 40th Annual Roy Griak Invitational this weekend, but it will look considerably different. No longer will be course be ran at the Les Bolstad Golf Club as the University is actively trying to sell it off for private development. Instead the new course will be located at Fort Snelling Golf Club. The two-day event begins with the Women’s Suzy Wilson College 6K race at 10:30 a.m. CT followed by the Men’s JO Rider College 8K race. Saturday will be reserved for the high school and youth events.
Gopher Women’s Basketball
Gopher junior Tori McKinney is in Wuhan, China with the Team USA U23 3×3 basketball team participating in the U23 World Cup. McKinney was on the USA squad in July that won the 2026 FIBA 3×3 Nations League Americas North Conference in Ñuñoa, Chile that qualified them for this larger tournament. She is teaming up with the same three players as in July including McKinna Brackens from Arizona State, Dani Carnegie from Georgia, and Katie Fiso from Oregon.
The USA is the #1 seed in Group D and the #4 overall seed in the tournament. They begin pool play Wednesday Morning against #5 overall seed Japan at 4:55 a.m. CT, followed by a matchup with Slovenia at 7:25 a.m. They play their final two pool matches on Friday morning vs. Kenya at 2:25 a.m. CT and Australia at 7:25 a.m. CT. Following pool play, the top two teams from each of the four five-team pools will move on to bracket play beginning with the quarterfinals on Sept. 19.
All of the matches can be streamed for free on the FIBA3x3 You Tube page HERE.
