Bison
NDSU's week started with the women's Basketball team traveling to Omaha to play Creighton. They kept it close but came up short, 70 - 59.
Fast forward to Friday and the Volleyball team was in Denver for the conference tournament. They were ousted 3 - 1 by Omaha in the first round. Across the prairie, the Wrestling team was in Bloomington, Indiana and won 26 - 12. The women's Basketball team returned to the court in a first-of-it's-kind hosting of Iowa State at the SHAC. The Cyclones spoiled the festivities 86 - 58 but it was another stepping stone in the process for the team.
On Saturday the Football team finished the undefeated season. For the pros, you know what to do! The Basketball team also checked in with another game, this time against Mark Madsen's Utah Valley team that escaped with a 68 - 62 victory. In the follow-up, coach Richman and Vinnie Shahid talked about it being a "wake up call." Only time will tell if it goes that way but hopefully so with some of the games that are on the near-at-hand schedule!
Wrestling finished the week up with another big-time school, this time Northwestern. NDSU got some W's but not enough to take the W, 28 - 18.
Dragons
Moorhead State started with a Tuesday night visit by Concordia in men's Basketball. Dane Zimmer (18) & Bryce Irsfeld (17) lead all scorers before giving way to playing time for the bench as they cruised to an 89 - 52 win.
A couple days later the women's team had an early visit by Northern State that came down to a 28 - 11 fourth quarter by the Dragons to win, 73 - 65. Katie Tornstrom lead the way for Moorhead with 17 points while Megan Hintz had a 10/10 day.
On Friday the Aquathletes competed against Northern State and pulled off a combined 132 - 99 victory. The men's hoops also hosted Mayville State and won by a 100 - 68 margin, with Gavin Baumgartner pacing the way with 20 points.
The week concluded with a Saturday in Minneapolis for the wrestling team as they did some good work at the Auggie Invite. At the same time, Nadir Yusuf was competing in the national cross country meet in Sacramento which concluded with a school-best 14th place finish!
Cobbers
Concordia started the week with a trip by the men's Hockey team to St. Michael. With a pair of goals by Aaron Herdt and another by Alex Stoley in-between, they defeated Hamline 3-2. The men's Basketball team also went across town for a test against the Dragons that showed them how much of a disparity there is between D3 and D2, 52 - 89.
The Wrestling team followed that up on Wednesday against D2 Northern State. The Cobbers held their own and out-dueled the Wolves in the lightweights but NSU eventually got the better of Concordia.
On Friday the women's Hockey team took to the ice against St. Benedict but finished on the wrong end of a 3-2 score.
They rematched on Saturday and Concordia got two more goals, from Brenna Mjoness & McKenzie Oelkers while Kiana Flaig limited the opposing damage to a single goal. The men's team traveled to St. John's where they doubled up, 4 - 2, with goals from Christian Cakebread, Tyler Bossert, Tanner Okeson & Joe Burgmeier, the final three of which all came in the final period. Back in Moorhead, the Basketball teams hosted Augsburg but lost by round numbers. For the guys, it was a 75 - 55 final while the women lost 61 - 51. The Wrestling team went back to the mat, this time in Eau Claire and finished in second place in the invitational.
They closed out the week as it started, with the men's Hockey team away from home. In the rematch against St. John's they played to a 2 - 2 tie due to a third-period goal by Beau Wilmer to avoid splitting the pair.
Timberwolves
The Wolves split a home & home against Utah this week and closed it out with a narrow loss to Phoenix on Saturday. Even with more loss than wins over the last couple weeks they remain a top 8 team in the West and have not fallen below .500. It's going to be a bit of a yo-yo season the rest of the way but the win in Utah shows what they are capable of, they just have to learn how to be consistent in their performance. It may not come this year. Likely won't until they get solid at the Point and from their outside shooters but they continued to be well on their way to another mid-30's or higher win season. I'll take that, even if it means that some weeks are worse than others.
Force
Fargo's Hockey team was on the road this week in Iowa & Nebraska but being young and still fairly early in the season, the travel didn't seem to impact their play too much. In Des Moines, Kaden Bohlsen scored quick to take a 1-0 lead but the next three goals all came off Buccaneer sticks. Bohlsen cut the deficit in half with his second goal which was followed by a goal from Casey McDonald. They ended the third period knotted at 3 apiece and the Force took advantage during the shootout. Bohlsen & Tristan Broz each hit the net while neither of DM's shots made it in.
On Saturday they came out against Lincoln with a similar performance. This time it was Alex Nordstrom who got the scoring going but the Stars followed that with a pair of goals. Fargo responded with the next three scores, two in the second period and another to start the third. First from Cedric Fiedler, then Mason Salquist and finally Joseph Dunlap. Lincoln cut it to a one-goal game but Ondrej Pavel slammed the door shut in the final moments. They have one more game on the road, in Sioux Falls, before returning the Arena on the 29th, which will be followed by a road-trip for most of December.
High School Sports
The closing of Fall happened yesterday as the North Dakota state Volleyball tournament was played at the Dome. Oak Grove & Sheyenne topped Shanley & Our Redeemers to finish the season in third place. Davies showed off against Bismarck Century for the championship and won 3-1 for their first championship in the sport. Congratulations!
With that chapter of the year closed it's time to start looking ahead. The first Basketball previews of the season come courtesy of Jason Smedhammer (South Girls), Bart Manson (Davies Boys) & ---. If you happened to miss any of them, here's another chance to check them out!
Comments