When Gable Steveson delivered a takedown over NCAA All-American Taye Ghadiali, he flexed his muscles toward the ground and yelled to the crowd.

The collective cheers were emphatic of the excitement around the marquee matches featuring Gable Steveson in Minneapolis this season.

Steveson’s Maturi Pavilion wrestling hiatus saw him at the 2022 NCAA wrestling championships, Tokyo Olympics, WWE and Buffalo Bills before returning to Gophers wrestling. Now with one season of NCAA eligibility left, the 285-pound wrestler wants to turn Minnesota wrestling back into a national powerhouse.

“Hopefully this is a spark for us,” Steveson said. 

Among the people watching Steveson in his homecoming were members of the Gophers volleyball team and for a brief moment, a handful of Gophers cheerleaders hung around before they left to cheer on the Gophers women’s basketball team.

@gophercheer When coach says it’s time to warmup but Gable Steveson is back #hygc #minnesota #gophercheer #cheerleading #gophers #fyp #wrestling ♬ original sound – Netflix

Steveson was the first wrestler to take the mat on Sunday afternoon. He defeated Ghadiali, putting on a show for his home-state crowd. 

Steveson served up eight minutes of wrestling with a side of showmanship to the community. He defeated Ghadiali before pulling down on his singlet to show off the block M to the crowd.

“Wrestling is not an emotional sport,” Steveson said. “When you see Gable you can expect something nice.”

Steveson wrestles in the heavyweight class and starting matches with the big guys is not traditional for NCAA wrestling, which usually starts with the 125 class. But when Campbell head coach Scotti Sentes received the weigh-ins for Sunday’s match, he elected to use his pregame coin toss, won, and made the decision to start with the heavyweights.

Gophers head coach Brandon Eggum hypothesized that it was because Sentes did not want Ghadiali to see nine guys go down and then have to wrestle an Olympic gold medalist. Even with the early start for Steveson, he nor his team failed to dominate the match as they shut out Campbell, 39-0.

The Gophers boasted two NCAA All-Americans last season in Vance VomBaur and Isaiah Salazar and will look to get Steveson there this season as well. The team already posted three wins against Division I wrestling schools this season.

When Steveson was not on the mat, he sat near Eggum and joined his teammates as they corner-coached each other.

“You get a lot of momentum when you hear things from your peers,” Eggum said. “Getting that type of peer pressure to go out and score points is what I think he’s trying to instill in them.”

When Vance VomBaur defeated Campbell’s Shannon Hanna, Steveson shot up from his seat and started doing the “Bring the Boom” dance, a move popularized by TikTok stars Big Justice and A.J.

When the season ends, Steveson’s wrestling career will not. The former Apple Valley High School wrestler has plans to train and win another gold medal at the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics. But for now, his focus is to wrestle for the maroon and gold and give back.

The wrestling started on Friday against North Dakota State for Steveson and giving back started immediately following Sunday’s match when he signed autographs for fans.

Fans will not see Steveson wrestle in Minnesota until the Gophers host Michigan on Jan. 19, 2025.

ALEX KARWOWSKI: How is it going everyone, and welcome back to the Gold Standard, a podcast dedicated to the University of Minnesota where we bring you the latest on all things Minnesota sports. I’m Alex Karwowski, your Minnesota Daily sports editor. And it’s been a minute since we updated you on anything. That’s because me and my colleagues at the Daily have been taking a break from the news grind and  preparing for our semesters. But let’s not wait any longer. 

First on the docket, the Gophers football team defeated Rhode Island 41-0 on Saturday for their first win of the season. The win comes after the team’s home opener came down to the final field goal attempt from the reigning Big Ten Kicker of the Year, Dragan Kesich, who was just a little too far to the right and missed the goal post. 

On Saturday, though, the Gophers running back Darius Taylor made his 2024 season debut, as well as freshman quarterback Drake Lindsey. Taylor was out last week for injury and Lindsey replaced starting quarterback Max Brosmer in the final quarter.

The Gophers volleyball team shocked the nation when they took down the number one ranked Texas Longhorns in their second game of the season. That excitement though was short lived because the number 23 ranked Baylor Bears upset the Gophers in five sets on Friday. 

The Gophers started their season in Milwaukee at the Fiserv Forum, playing number five ranked Stanford. The team lost that match, also in five sets. At the time of this recording, the Gophers have yet to play their Saturday matchup against Texas Christian University. But, by the time you’re listening to this, that game will be over. The Gophers play their home opener Tuesday against St. Thomas. 

The Gophers women’s soccer team started their season with five straight wins and is currently undefeated. The team beat Army on Thursday and tied for their best start since 2018.

In the first game of the season, redshirt freshman Caroline Birdsell lifted the team to a comeback win after she scored two goals in the second half. The season opener was the first time Birdsell wore the maroon and gold, and her success behind the ball earned her Big Ten Freshman of the Week honors.

The following two games, senior forward Khyah Harper netted a hat trick. Her first was against St. Thomas, followed by the team’s game against Milwaukee. Harper’s first hat trick earned her co-offensive Big Ten Player of the Week honors. 

 The women’s soccer team returns to Elizabeth Lyle Robbie Stadium Sunday, where they will take on Brown University and look to break their 2018 record and get their best start to a season ever.

Moving along, Gophers Women’s Golf returned to the fairways on Sept. 2. The team finished in second place at the Boilermaker Classic. Minnesota’s Isabel McCauley is the tournament’s defending champ, but she fell short of holding on to that title this year. Joining McCauley on the green for the first time in an NCAA tournament was her sister, Reese McCauley. Reese tied for 16th place. 

There was only one other Gopher who finished in the top 10, and that was sophomore Mariana Mesones. She tied for ninth. The women’s golf team’s next tournament is the Annika Intercollegiate, which begins Monday. 

The men’s golf team begins their season Sunday at the Gopher Invitational. Last season, the team combined for a score of 287 at that tournament and tied for fourth place. North Carolina Wilmington won last year’s tournament. 

Gophers cross country started their season late last month at the Oz Memorial Invitational in Falcon Heights, Minnesota. It was two Gophers who won both the women’s and men’s portion of the race and earned their first collegiate running win. Junior Ali Weimer finished first among the women, and graduate student Noah Kohut-Jackson was the first of the men to cross the finish line. Kohut-Jackson also finished with a personal best 5k time which earned him Big Ten Men’s Cross Country Athlete of the Week.

Before we go, I just wanted to let you know that the women’s basketball team released their non-conference schedule on Friday. And the team’s first game is on Nov. 4 at Williams Arena against Central Connecticut State. So, I’ll see you at the Barn then. 

This episode of The Gold Standard was written by Alex Karwowski and produced by Kaylie Sirovy and Ceci Heinen. Thanks for giving us a listen. As always, feel free to send me a message to my email inbox at akarwowski@mndaily.com. With any questions, comments, or hot takes. Once again, I’m Alex Karwowski and this has been the Gold Standard.

Suni Lee stepped onto the Olympic floor at Bercy Arena. She placed her right knee on a 90-degree angle and extended her left leg to a 45-degree angle from her waist to the floor while she reached her arms above her head. 

When Lindsey Stirling’s “Eye of The Untold Her” began, Lee’s battle for bronze ensued.

The defending all-around gold medalist needed a score of 13.535 on the floor routine in order to move ahead of Italian gymnast Alice D’Amato and secure a spot on the podium. Lee was tied for fourth place with Algerian gymnast Kaylia Nemour entering the final rotation.

“We were literally like calculating,” Lee said before she and teammate Simone Biles laughed at themselves. “I was like I don’t even know how to do math in my head, she was like, ‘Me neither.’”

After Lee’s first pass on the floor, she revealed a radiant smile that resolved any doubts of her spot on the podium. The mathematical equation for which gymnast would be number three on the podium equaled Lee.

“I just wanted to prove to myself that I could do it because I didn’t think that I could,” Lee said. “This is definitely a special one.”

Two days before Thursday’s all-around final, D’Amato helped lead her team to its first Olympic medal in 96 years. D’Amato stepped out of bounds on her first tumbling pass, but the rest of her routine was near-flawless despite the initial mistake costing her the bronze medal.

When Nemour took the floor, she landed with her chest close to the ground on her first pass through and then stepped out of bounds on her second. She ended her routine losing her balance on her final pass which caused her to stumble a few steps forward.

The combination of mistakes ended her path to the podium.

After Lee won the gold medal at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021, she earned celebrity status before she competed in any NCAA competition. Last year, she was diagnosed with two kidney diseases that put a halt to her training.

Lee’s coach at Midwest Gymnastics, Jess Graba, was by her side in the training. When Lee faced the uncertainty of her gymnastics career, Graba said he would be OK with any decision she made.

“I was going to let her quit, not for the wrong reasons though,” Graba said. “If that’s what she needed and that’s what made her healthy then I would have been fine with it.”

Lee bursted, on the mat and into tears, at the Olympic trials when she secured her ticket to Paris at the Target Center. The St. Paul gymnast joined her teammate Biles on the competition floor waving an American flag in Paris after Biles claimed her ninth Olympic medal.

Biles became the most decorated Olympic gymnast on Tuesday when Team USA earned a gold medal in the Olympic team final. Biles had a lead of 0.166 over Brazilian gymnast Rebeca Andrade heading into the final rotation. 

Biles’s opening pass included a triple double that helped to earn her the gold medal. 

“I don’t want to compete with Rebeca no more,” Biles said. “I was stressing.”

Lee promptly responded that she had never seen Biles that stressed in her life.

The American womens’ quest for Olympic hardware is not over. Lee competes on Sunday in the beam event final and again on Monday in the uneven bars final. After the Olympic trials, Lee said she wanted the gold medal on beam and medal on bars. 

Biles will compete against Andrade again in her remaining events — the vault final on Saturday and twice more on the beam and floor finals on Monday.

Sentiments surged for St. Paul’s Suni Lee as she carried a bouquet of mixed white and blue flowers onto the competition floor where her teammate Jordan Chiles brushed away Lee’s tears with her USA-themed nails.

Lee just found out she punched a ticket to Paris to compete at the 2024 Olympics in July.

The emotions were a rare sight from Lee, who hardly showcased a sliver of such during the trials. Her tears on Sunday night were a testament to the two kidney diseases and weight gain from the last year that ended her collegiate career at Auburn.

But succumbing to disaster at the United States Olympic Trials was not on Lee’s to-do list. 

“I have not stopped crying,” Lee said after being named an Olympian. “There were so many times where I thought about just quitting and walking away from the sport because I didn’t think that I would ever get to this point.”

When Lee was diagnosed with her incurable kidney disease early last year, nobody quite knew what her future looked like. Doctors suggested she stop competing altogether.

Her coach, Jess Graba from Midwest Gymnastics, understood what was at stake for Lee at the trials. The two worked together since Lee was six years old to prepare her body for the physical demands of the competition. The unorthodox obstacle for them was the mental element. 

Lee decided to make another run at the Olympics before her kidney disease diagnosis but the sickness threw her and Graba a curveball.

“There was a lot of doubt and a lot of fear,” Graba said. “To her credit, she’s tried to find a way to make it work.”

Graba said he worked on reminding Lee that the Olympics is about her, not other people’s opinions.

With the trials in Lee’s home state, she said she was a little “freaked out” after day one. She met with her therapist on Saturday to “get (her) mind right” after three of her competitors suffered injuries, ending their Olympic aspirations, on Friday.

The people close to Lee knew her commitment and how hard she would push herself to earn another Olympic berth. Graba’s brother, Jeff Graba, was Lee’s coach at Auburn and met her after she won the Olympic all-around gold medal in Tokyo in 2021.

Lee balanced going to class, competing at the collegiate level and grooving with the Australian-American dancer, Sasha Farber, on ABC Network’s Dancing with the Stars while facing the demands of a college freshman.

“She had three or four full-time jobs and did a better job balancing it than most people do balancing one full-time job,” Jeff Graba said.

As Lee competed in a sport with a high level of risk, Jeff Graba said her drive to succeed outweighed her fear of failure. 

The Olympic Trials put that philosophy to the test.

Lee stayed loose doing handstands and cartwheels on the arena floor before each rotation. She chatted with Simone Biles, Kaliyah Lincoln and Chiles on her home base.

Biles said she and the team offered Lee constant encouragement to pursue a spot on Team USA.

“We’re always going to prioritize mental health,” Biles said. “I think now athletes are a little bit more in tune and we trust what our gut is saying and just taking mental health a little bit more serious.”

Whether it was the talks with Biles, the stretching or possibly even the strings of Lindsey Stirling that conquered the Target Center sound system as Lee debuted a new floor routine, when all was said and done, Lee stood beside the four other gymnasts that would represent the United States with her in Paris.

With the next challenge inbound, Lee has new goals. She said she wants to make all-around finals and earn a gold medal on the beam.

“I feel like I always make the final and then I always mess up,” Lee said, rolling her eyes. “So annoying.”

Former Gophers guard Cam Christie was drafted 46th overall to the Los Angeles Clippers Thursday evening.

Christie, 18, is the first Gopher drafted since Daniel Oturu was picked 33rd overall by the Minnesota Timberwolves in 2020. 

“Congrats to Cam and his family on fulfilling a lifelong dream,” head coach Ben Johnson said. “The Clippers are getting a high-character winner who will work his tail off every day to improve as a player.”

Now an NBA rookie, Christie will play in the summer league. His first game will be against the Utah Jazz.

Throughout the pre-draft process, Christie worked out with 13 teams. He said his shooting ability set him apart from the other prospects.

“I can play, really, any guard position,” Christie said after his workout with the Portland Trail Blazers. “(I’m) kind of willing to do whatever role.”

Once the Gophers season ended, Christie entered the draft process. He finished second on the team in points per game (11.3) and 3-pointers (70). The first-year guard’s performance for the Gophers earned him a spot on the All-Big Ten freshman team.

ALEX KARWOWSKI: How’s it going everyone? My name is Alex Karwowski with the Minnesota Daily, and you’re listening to The Gold Standard. A podcast dedicated to the University of Minnesota, where we bring you the latest on all things Minnesota sports. 

For the first item on our docket, you may notice that Minneapolis is crawling with people dressed in what looks to be team warm up suits. That’s because the Target Center is hosting the nation’s top gymnasts for the USA Olympic team trials. Among the athletes vying for a spot on Team USA are Simone Biles, Suni Lee and Gopher alum Shane Wiskus. St. Paul’s Lee won the Olympic gold medal in the all around at the Tokyo 2020 competition, and Wiskus was part of Team USA back then, but he’s still searching for his first Olympic medal. The two gymnasts will look to qualify for a spot on the Olympic team for the first time in their home state. 

A little closer to campus, swimmers are hoping to earn a chance at repping their country in this year’s Paralympics. Inside the walls of the Jean K. Freeman Aquatic Center, UMN alum Mallory Weggemann and Minnesota nativist Summer Schmit and Natalie Sims are competing in the U.S. Paralympic swimming trials. Weggemann is the only one of the three with gold medals on her swimming resume. She earned two at the Tokyo 2020 games when she defeated her competitors in the 100 meter backstroke and 200 meter individual medley. Weggemann earned her other gold medal 12 years ago in London in the 50 meter freestyle. But even if none of the former Gophers make Team USA this weekend, the maroon and gold will still be well represented on the world stage. 

Sarah Bacon, a former diver for the Gophers, qualified for the Olympics last week in the women’s three meter synchronized diving event alongside Stanford alum Kassidy Cook. Bacon also qualified as an individual on the women’s three meter springboard, which means she’ll get to show her skills in not one, but two events at her first Olympic competition. Three days after Bacon qualified for Team USA in her second event, Gopher track alum, Matt Wilkinson earned his first ever roster spot for Team USA in the 300 meter steeplechase. But, his time doesn’t meet the Olympics qualification standards. He can still make the cut, though, if his time is high enough in the world rankings. We’ll know for sure on July 7th. 

For our current Gophers, the women’s basketball team held their first open practice for members of the media on Wednesday. While there are a handful of new faces to the team, for some players, it’s a bit of a reunion. Annika Stewart, a transfer from Nebraska, was teammates with Gophers leading scorer Mara Braun and Brynn Senden at Wayzata High School. Stewart will use her fifth and final year of collegiate eligibility for the Gophers.

Taylor Woodson, on the other hand, will join her former Hopkins teammate Amaya Battle after playing one season for the Michigan Wolverines. The Gophers were the runner ups in last season’s Women’s National Invitation Tournament. Although Braun’s season came to a halt after she injured her left foot in a regular season game against Illinois. She briefly returned to the starting lineup for the team’s first two matchups of the WNIT, but then missed the final three. 

Head coach for Gophers Volleyball, Keegan Cook, has been really busy preparing his team for the 2024 volleyball season. After finishing their spring matches, the Gophers added Oregon transfers Kate Thibault and Alex Acevedo. The team returned from a 12 day trip to Europe last month, where they played a total of six matches in Turkey, Slovenia and Italy. The Gophers open their season against Iowa State at Maturi Pavilion on August 24th.

That’s all we have time for today. This episode of The Gold Standard was written by Alex Karwowski and produced by Kaylie Sirovy. Thanks for giving us a listen. As always, feel free to send a message to our email inbox at podcasting@mndaily.com with any questions, comments or hot takes. And before we go, I’d like to wish a happy birthday to my sister, Eleanor, who turns 20 on Saturday. Happy birthday, Eleanor. I’m Alex Karwowski, and this has been The Gold Standard.

The University of Minnesota began construction on its new gymnastics facility on March 27 with the building set to be completed by January 2025.

The new, privately funded facility was approved by the Board of Regents at their June 2023 meeting and will put the gymnastics team on the perimeter of Athletes Village on the south side of the Larson Football Performance Center.

Among the new additions to the $15.5 million facility are six foam pits, a full-size floor exercise and five beams as opposed to the two at their current facility at Peik Gymnasium.

Head coach Jenny Hansen said her top-15 nationally ranked team had to get “creative” with how they trained at Peik since they were limited with what equipment they had. 

“[The new facility is] just going to allow us to train smarter — train in different ways that keep our athletes healthier,” Hansen said.

The upgraded facility will be an asset in Hansen’s recruiting methods. She said several competitor teams have state-of-the-art facilities, so her staff had to get creative with their coaching to remain competitive.

With the additions in the future facility, Hansen said gymnasts can come in to enhance the skills they established at their private gyms as opposed to Peik.

“They’re just going to have that comfort level again,” Hansen said. “Versus us teaching them the new tricks and then adapting and figuring it out.”

Assistant athletics director-facilities operations Jeff Seifriz said the new facility will be 60% larger than Peik and make efficient use of the space to enhance the safety of athletes when they train. Peik had no foam pits and had showers with concrete dividers and restrooms that were “chipped up and broken off.”

The NCAA limits student athletes’ involvement in “athletically related activities” to 20 hours per week. The new facility will have built-in padding and mats, eliminating the need for gymnasts to use practice time to set up.

“With your 20 hours per week practice, [setting up mats] doesn’t make for an efficient practice,” Seifriz said.

With the new facility being in Athletes Village, gymnasts will be a short distance away from Hansen’s office and the University’s nutrition and medicine facilities. Hansen said the short distance between amenities makes building team chemistry much easier since all the team’s needs are in one location.

“Whether they want to get away from each other or not, it’s going to be a lot harder now because they’re going to be together all the time,” Hansen said.

The facility has been a long time in the making, according to senior Mya Hooten, who said she first heard about it when she was a junior in high school.

“I was on my recruiting trip,” Hooten said with a laugh. “So years ago.”

Senior Emily Koch said the team was supposed to receive the facility when she was getting recruited but COVID-19 stopped the process. Koch and Hooten both get to use the new facility next year as they announced their return to the program for their fifth year on April 26. 

Seifriz said it is unclear as to who, besides the Gophers gymnastics team, would be able to use the facility. This includes the men’s gymnastics team, which transitioned to a competitive club program after the Board of Regents voted to eliminate their NCAA status in 2020. 

The new facility will stand in the spot of what used to be two beach volleyball courts. Seifriz said there are no plans to replace the two courts.

The Gophers took to the court Saturday donning their white volleyball threads for the first time in front of a packed Maturi Pavilion crowd this year as “It’s Tricky” by RUN-DMC blared over the sound system.  

The spring exhibition match against Marquette was the first and only time Gophers fans could watch the team at the Pavilion before the fall. The plan for the match was to play four sets regardless of who won the first three. If it were a true matchup, the Gophers would have needed the fourth set to claim victory.

The Gophers’ season last year was filled with adversity in almost every match, but the team finally established themselves toward the end when they received a bid to play in the NCAA Tournament.

The momentum from the end of last season carried over to Saturday’s match as the Gophers looked relaxed with every point. Head coach Keegan Cook said part of the team’s connectivity is a credit to what they went through together last season.

“Trust is built in drops and lost in buckets at times,” Cook said.

Returning players in Saturday’s spring matchup

Middle blocker Phoebe Awoleye tallied one block and eight block assists in Saturday’s match, proving to be an asset to the Gophers in 2024.

Awoleye used her fifth year of eligibility after she originally planned to graduate. Her return to the Gophers provides more veteran experience at the front row after middle blocker Arica Davis and outside hitter Taylor Landfair both transferred from the program.

Former Gophers libero Kylie Murr was another player who graduated from the program last season. She now plays professionally in the inaugural season of the Pro Volleyball Federation. 

Sophomore Zeynep Palabiyik was the team’s starting libero on Saturday. She tallied 12 digs, an improvement from last season when she averaged 1.12 digs per set across 69 sets played.

“She looked the part,” Cook said.

Not only did Palabiyik dive to the floor to receive the ball, but she was the source of momentum in set three, screaming louder than the referee’s whistle after almost every successful Gophers point.

Building team chemistry

Fifth-year Melani Shaffmaster said for a guy who moved from Washington to Minnesota and is raising a family, Cook is putting in recognizable effort to build trust with his team through the offseason.

As Cook manages his life at home and coaches a Division I volleyball program, he relies on players like Shaffmaster to act as a connection between him and the team. Cook spent his Friday out recruiting alongside associate head coach Kristen Kelsay and had to miss practice, so he turned to Shaffmaster — among others — to fill him in.

“[Cook] was like, ‘Well I just want you to know, this is your team and you’ve been here, you know how it goes,’” Shaffmaster said.

Cook said the team will travel to Istanbul, Turkey; Slovenia and Italy this summer for 14 days which will help in building team chemistry. 

The team’s connections created a space for Minnesota’s No. 1 prep recruit Stella Swenson to feel at home. She and her sister Olivia Swenson joined as early enrollees and have been training and playing with the team throughout the spring season.

Stella stepped onto the Pavilion court for the first time at the start of the fourth set as her teammates high-fived her and shared words of encouragement. She had waited for the moment since watching her older sister, Samantha Seliger-Swenson, play on the same court from 2015 to 2018.

Stella plays alongside setters Shaffmaster and Elise McGhie as well as redshirt sophomore Chloe Ng. Stella said she fits in “like a puzzle piece.” 

Shaffmaster said she and Stella are very different people on the court. Shaffmaster described herself as a quiet conservative player on the court but said Stella does not stop talking. 

“She said a couple of words and I didn’t know what they meant,” Shaffmaster said. 

Shaffmaster added part of her trouble understanding Stella may be tied to her not having a TikTok account. She approached Stella after practice to get clarification on what she was saying.

“I was like, ‘Stella, I know you said these words and I don’t know what they mean,’” Shaffmaster said. “‘I’m gonna need you to get me up to speed.’”

Just last year, Stella and Olivia were in the stands watching the Gophers as fans. Now, the twins are repping their home state doing what they can to get each other to excel. 

“I’m going to do everything I can to make her look bomb dot com and she’s gonna do everything and make me look bomb,” Stella said.

Gophers men’s basketball guard Cam Christie announced on social media Friday his intention to enter the NBA draft process.

“It has always been a dream of mine to make it to the NBA,” Christie said in a post on X Friday. “I am grateful for this opportunity, and to receive feedback from the NBA on my game.”

The Arlington Heights, Illinois native said he will maintain his college eligibility as he goes through the NBA draft process.

Christie finished his first season of college basketball ranking second on the Gophers in points per game (11.3) and 3-pointers (70). The first-year guard’s performance for the Gophers earned him a spot on the All-Big Ten freshman team.

Christie’s decision to enter the NBA draft process mirrors that of his brother Max Christie, who played one season of college basketball at Michigan State before being drafted by the Los Angeles Lakers.

The first round of the NBA draft will take place on June 26 at the Barclay’s Center in Brooklyn, New York and the second round will take place on June 27 at ESPN’s Seaport District Studios in New York.

The Gophers women’s basketball team, attempting to fight through their poor shooting performance, did not recover their lead in the first quarter. 

The team lost their first Women’s National Invitation Tournament (WNIT) championship game on Saturday, 69-50.

Throughout the game, the Gophers struggled to score from anywhere on the court. The team made 30 of 59 attempts from the field and 4 of 28 from beyond the 3-point line.

Minnesota head coach Dawn Plitzuweit said before the game that St. Louis would be a tough team to defeat. The Billikens roster of 13 athletes included four graduate students, two seniors and three juniors.

“They have the ability to frustrate teams,” Plitzuweit said. “They’re very disciplined.”

Minnesota played their third consecutive WNIT match without leading scorer Mara Braun despite her return to the starting lineup in the second round of the tournament. Braun played 28 minutes in the Super 16 match against North Dakota State University and did not return to the court in the following matches.

The Gophers scored over 60 points in the WNIT matches without Braun but fell 10 points short of that mark against St. Louis. 

The Gophers entered First Community Arena in Edwardsville, Illinois, surrounded by a sea of blue and white with a sprinkle of maroon and gold throughout the crowd.

The arena was “somewhat neutral in nature for” Minnesota and St. Louis, “just a little farther way for us,” Plitzuweit said.

The WNIT offered the Gophers an opportunity to strengthen their abilities on the court as well as their experiences off of it. The team traveled for three of their five tournament games.

Gophers sophomore guard Amaya Battle compared the travel-heavy series to the team’s trip to Europe last August.

“There was no one else we could really talk to,” Battle said before the game. “We’re all just stuck within our own bubble, even closer than we would be if we were on campus.”

Before the WNIT, the Gophers initiated their offensive momentum in the first game of the Big Ten Tournament when Battle scored a career-high 32 points. She remained consistent in scoring, averaging 17 points in the first four matches of the tournament.

However, Battle’s shots were not falling throughout the title game and she finished scoreless for the first time this season.

The day before the championship, Battle said she thought about how far “Dawny P,” her nickname for Plitzuweit, took the team in the postseason.

“Dawny P came and just seeing where she’s taken us and where we are now, it’s crazy,” Battle said. “It’s crazy where we are.” 

Last season, the Gophers lost in the first round of the Big Ten Tournament against Penn State. The following day Lindsay Whalen stepped down as head coach for the Gophers.

Even with a loss in the title game, sophomore Mallory Heyer said the team’s postseason run built momentum for next season and the extra games helped her grow as a player.

“We had some really great practices,” Heyer said before the Saturday game. “We did a lot of competing against each other playing one on one and I think that just really helped me grow my game.”

The Gophers will have two new athletes joining them on the court for the 2024-25 season. Freshmen guards McKenna Johnson and Victoria McKinney signed with the University of Minnesota and will be rostered next season.