EITAN SCHOENBERG: Hello everyone. My name is Eitan Schoenberg, I’m here with Andrew Cornelius and we’re here with The Gold Standard podcast where we talk about everything Gopher sports. So we’ll start off with a Gopher soccer, Andrew, if you want to take that away. 

ANDREW CORNELIUS: Yeah, the Gophers last game at Elizabeth Lyle Robbie Stadium was head coach Erin Chastain’s 150th win as the program’s head coach.

They won 3 nil against Michigan. And for their last time out, they lost 1 nil on the road to their rival, Wisconsin, in a game that they dominated possession and shots, but were unable to put one across the keeper and into the back of the net. And they’ll next play USC on Sept. 26.

SCHOENBERG: Transitioning back into some Gopher wins. We got women’s cross country coming in first in the Roy Griak Invitational. Men’s coming in third. Ali Weimer finishes in first, followed by teammate Emma Atkinson, very exciting story for them. It was a very great atmosphere. I was at the Roy Griak Invitational. It was a very great turnout from fans from all over. 

There were fans from different states — Wyoming, Ohio, Colorado. And even some high school teams. It was a pretty major event, so I had a story on that. It was great talking with Emma and Ali after, and then, Coach Hopkins as well. So it’s a good start to their season. 

CORNELIUS: Yeah. Go read if you want to hear something positive about Minnesota sports, it’s been a tough stretch as of late. The Gophers football team hosted the Iowa Hawkeyes for the annual battle for Floyd of Rosedale.

And lost it, 31-14 in disappointing fashion. Had a 14-7 point lead at halftime, but once again, it was the second half that plagued the Gophers. Same thing that happened against North Carolina, 19-17 loss where they also led 14-7 at halftime. So two 14-7 leads at halftime. And then those two second halves that P.J. Fleck called the two bad halves. 

They’ve been outscored 36-3. And the one thing that’s been a big issue has been missed tackles, 22 in the game against UNC and probably a very similar, if not more, bigger number against Kaleb Johnson, who went for 206 yards. Two touchdowns of over 30 plus yards on the ground and three overall on the day.

Their quarterback, Cade McNamara, only had to throw for 62 yards. And on top of that, they’re going to play a very similar style of offense in the Michigan Wolverines who had under 50 yards of passing and beat a top 15 team in USC, who the Gophers will host in two weeks time at home, with Mullings and Edwards dominating the ground game for the Wolverines.

So a big place to play. They’re going into The Big House. It’s not the little house, it’s The Big House as P.J. Fleck described it. So it’d be a big atmosphere that they’ll have to play in. But he said he doesn’t want his players to allow the circumstance to dictate how they respond and how they play. 

SCHOENBERG: And I got to experience Michigan Wolverine home game firsthand last year when they hosted Indiana University.

I got to say, the atmosphere at those games is insane and over 100,000 seat capacity in The Big House. It doesn’t seem like it because there’s no two levels, but it’s very deep. It’s very steep and they’ve got the bleacher seats rather than the individual chairs like Huntington Bank Stadium has for general admission.

So a crazy atmosphere to play in, and we’ll see how the Gophers fare in that game. It’s their first time playing at Michigan since 2017. 

CORNELIUS: Yeah, and on top of that, the coaching is something that P.J. Fleck mentioned. Like he said, he has to be better as a head coach, but someone who’s really turned around the program for one of the Gopher teams has been Keegan Cook with the volleyball program. They’re on a hot streak right now. 

SCHOENBERG: Yeah. Gopher Volleyball now ranked 16th nationally at the AVCA rankings. But they finished non-conference play with six straight wins. It’s a good turnaround from what they started 1-3, I believe. So good for a volleyball to get that last sweep against Chicago State in their final non-conference game. 

CORNELIUS: Yeah. And for them, Alex Acevedo has been a shining light in terms of the transfers that Keegan Cook brought in. She’s been great from the service line and also another outside hitter that he’s been able to utilize off the bench.

So, they’ve got a lot of players on that team. Lydia Grote’s been a great addition these last few years. McKenna Wucherer has always been great, a top ranked recruit. Sydney Schnichels getting some time now, she was another big four or five star player. And then there are players in the middle and Calissa Minatee and Phoebe Awoleye always have been good. So, a bright future heading into Big Ten play ahead of these Gophers.  

SCHOENBERG: And Gopher Volleyball hosted number seven Wisconsin at home on Sept. 25. 

Gopher Tennis had a solid showing at the Gopher Invitational, finishing 13 and five in the doubles, 21 and five in the singles. Six newcomers made their Gopher debut at the Gopher Invitational.

Coach Arterberry said she was pretty happy with the performance. The tennis team continues their season on Oct. 9 through 14 in Memphis, Tennessee.  

CORNELIUS: Yeah, and Gopher women’s basketball. They had their schedule released just about a week or so ago, and a lot of non conference games. Not a lot of power for opponents. But there was one thing that stood out to you about their schedule release.

SCHOENBERG: I loved the schedule release. I’m personally really big fan of when sports teams do the funny schedule releases, I love when they do the little engaging things. Love the approach that women’s basketball had with their schedule release. 

It was a pretty funny video, used kids at a Gopher tailgate and asked them what the team names were based on the logo. My favorite part was the “Illinois I’s” because the Illinois logo is just an “I,” or the “Indiana W’s.” So pretty funny schedule release video, I was a big fan. Their season starts on November 4th at Williams Arena against Central Connecticut State.

CORNELIUS: Yeah, and then building off the schedule releases, the Gopher softball team just released their Big Ten schedule for the 2025 season. They will play a neutral site two game series against Michigan State and Penn State. 

And they have three great teams coming to Dinkytown, and Northwestern who’s been a powerhouse in the softballing world for nearly a decade plus now. Oregon finished, I believe, nine games over 500 last year and is entering their first season in the Big Ten along with USC, UCLA and Washington. And then Michigan, who was, I believe, nearly 20 games over 500 and was in the NCAA tournament this past year.

So a lot of good teams coming here for those full three game series. And then they are on the road against Nebraska, who will get Mattie Boyd back after a big injury caused her to miss the season last year. Purdue and Wisconsin as well.  

SCHOENBERG: Gopher women’s golf finished third out of 15 teams in the Mary Fossum Invitational. That was in East Lansing at Michigan State. Isabella McCauley tied for seventh place, keeping up her solid performances of top 10 finishes. She ended the tournament with an even par score. Her sister, freshman, Reese McCauley tied for 13th place, finishing a plus three as she continues to acclimate to the Gophers.

Mariana Mesones was a plus four in the tournament, and their next tournament is Oct. 4 through 6 at Denver, Colorado. I was fortunate enough to talk with a few players on the team, the McCauley sisters and  Mesones about just the team developing and building toward the future. So that was a great read that you can find on the Minnesota Daily website.

CORNELIUS: Yeah, and maybe not the best idea, but ending kind of with the sport that has every Minnesotans heart in hockey. The Gophers women’s hockey team will play against Bemidji State in two big games across the Minnesota Twin Cities area. They will play the Beavers at Hockey Day Minnesota in Shakopee, followed by the United States Hockey Hall of Fame Faceoff Classic in Lakeville. 

SCHOENBERG: Yeah, Gopher women’s hockey has some fresh new faces coming to the team. They have seven freshmen and a few transfer players. I recently spoke to head coach Brad Frost and asked him about the new roles. Chloe Primerano is a big name coming to Minnesota. She’s had a lot of hype surrounding her. So it should be exciting to see her in a Gopher uniform.

Minnesota women’s hockey in general has some pretty high expectations as they do every year. Voted third place in the WCHA preseason poll behind Wisconsin and Ohio state. Primerano, who I was just talking about, was voted WCHA preseason rookie of the year. Two other Gophers, Nelli Laitinen and Abbey Murphy were named the all WCHA team.

In general, the Gophers were ranked third in the NCAA USCHO preseason poll. Surprisingly from October to January, Minnesota Gopher women’s hockey will be playing in Minnesota because of the way the WCHA is structured. There’s a lot of Minnesota teams, they’ve got Duluth, they’ve got Bemidji, they’ve got St. Thomas. And those games are all lined up back to back to back to back from October to January. So they’ll be staying in Minnesota, the state of Minnesota, maybe not the Twin Cities, but they’ll be staying in Minnesota for an extended period of time. 

And staying on the topic of Gopher men’s hockey. They’re ranked sixth in the NCAA preseason USCHO poll. Their season starts on Oct. 5 with an exhibition game against St. Cloud. They’re ranked second in the Big Ten preseason poll behind Michigan state. 

And, four Gophers named the preseason, all Big Ten team. Jimmy Snuggerud made his big announcement to return to the Gophers as a junior, Sam Rinzel named to the first team as well. Transfer Matthew Wood and Mike Koster were named to the second team. Mike Koster is a familiar face, so it’s good to see him around and getting some recognition on the Big Ten teams. 

CORNELIUS: I want to get your take on the Rhett Pitlick situation where he’s now a Minnesota State Maverick and will not be playing his graduate season, I believe, at Minnesota. 

SCHOENBERG: Yeah, Rhett Pitlick playing for Minnesota State, it’s gonna be unfamiliar for Gopher fans to see a face that they loved in the Mariucci building playing for a, what can be considered a rival team in the Minnesota State Mavericks.

But I think they have some solid players to fill in. Again, Matthew Wood had a lot of hype surrounding him and the Gophers landed him in the transfer portal. If the Gophers do manage to play Minnesota State in some NCAA tournament, I’m sure that would be a very mixed emotion game for Rhett Pitlik playing against his former team. 

CORNELIUS: Yeah and sticking with it and doing our final sport of the day, it’s baseball. New head coach Ty McDevitt takes the reins from John Anderson, the stripper who retired after 49 years of service on the coaching staff, a part of the team. He ended his 10 years nearly half a century with the Minnesota Golden Gophers, with his first season over 500 and full season at that since the 2019 season. Gophers had a strong 25-23 end they won their last series.

I believe they won their last game of the season, so went out on a dub for Mr. 14. They retired his number here at Siebert Field as well, and the Gophers had two draft picks from that team a season ago. Tucker Novotny and Connor Wietgrefe. Wietgrefe had a strong start to his minor league career through 10 innings. He had a .90 ERA with 13 strikeouts. He was drafted to the Pirates organization.  

So that does it for the Gold Standard. Thank you for listening and we hope to see you next time here on this podcast produced by the Minnesota Daily. I’m Andrew Cornelius alongside Eitan Schoenberg, and this has been the Gold Standard.