Soccer

The University's soccer team has just one more week to prepare for the Big Ten season.

This weekend's games will be used as a measuring stick to see where the Gophers (3-1-2) stand. The team travels to Hanover, N.H., to take on Dartmouth and Villanova as part of the adidas/Hypertherm Classic.

Gophers coach Mikki Denney Wright said she knows her team has a difficult road ahead.

Dartmouth (2-2) was ranked No. 24 nationally in last week's NSCAA/adidas poll before falling out of the rankings after losing back-to-back games to California and St. Mary's (Calif.).

Freshman Lindsey Schwartz could play anywhere on the soccer field in high school - midfield, forward, even goalie.

But after Minnesota soccer coach Mikki Denney Wright saw Schwartz play, she said she knew right away that she needed Schwartz as an offensive presence.

"She has a great goal scoring ability," Denney Wright said.

"She has the mentality where she just goes and goes. The best front-runners have that mentality."

Six games into the Gophers' season, Schwartz has been the leader in the team's young offense.

After scoring six goals in three games, Minnesota's soccer team appeared much improved and ready offensively for Big Ten play.

After Sunday's game against South Dakota State, however, coach Mikki Denney Wright said her team still has some work to do at forward.

The Gophers (3-1-2) beat Northern Iowa 3-1 on Friday in Cedar Falls, Iowa, but tied the Jackrabbits 0-0 at Elizabeth Lyle Robbie Stadium.

When Big Ten play begins in two weeks, Minnesota's soccer team will often be the underdog against ranked and more-experienced opponents.

But that will not be true in this weekend's games, when the Gophers (2-1-1) play at Northern Iowa on Friday and host South Dakota State on Sunday. Minnesota is expected to beat both teams.

"It's not a 'We should win,'" senior Laura Hoppe said. "We have to win both of (the games)."

After a somewhat disappointing first season that was plagued by injuries and one-goal losses, Minnesota soccer coach Mikki Denney-Wright said she believes 2005 could be the year her program turns the corner.

That's because this year's Gophers will look little like the 2004 squad that finished 2-8-0 in the Big Ten.

More than half of Minnesota's roster is composed of a 14-member freshman class that Denney-Wright calls the strongest in school history, and the new players are wasting little time making an impact.

With six freshmen in the starting lineup for Minnesota's soccer team, and three more getting significant minutes, coach Mikki Denney Wright said she has one of the youngest squads in the nation.

But Denney Wright saw reason for optimism in the Gophers' 2-0 victory over Texas Tech on Sunday in Lubbock, Texas.

Both goals came from freshmen, and Minnesota was able to rebound after a disappointing 1-1 tie with Baylor on Friday night.

"Our kids were really stung (by Friday's tie)," Denney Wright said. "But we came back and really battled against Texas Tech.

Minnesota's soccer team played 180 minutes of soccer this weekend in the Gopher Spring Classic.

And through all of it, the Gophers were unable to dent the net.

Minnesota was shut out in a pair of games Saturday and Sunday. It lost 1-0 to Creighton on Saturday and then fell 2-0 to Iowa on Sunday, despite outshooting the Hawkeyes 16-10.

Just as Minnesota soccer coach Mikki Denney Wright got her team to buy into her philosophy of coaching and working as a team, she will have to do it all over again.

The second-year coach has recruited 14 incoming freshmen for next season, who will make up approximately half of the roster.

Coming off an 8-10 season in which the Gophers finished 2-8 in the Big Ten, Denney Wright expects improvement next year.

Until those freshmen show up in August, Minnesota players said spring games and practices have been very valuable in helping them prepare for that ascension.

Wrapping up a season that was striking in its absence of goal-scoring, Minnesota's soccer team got a boost from an unexpected source Friday.

Senior goalkeeper Marni Prall scored the first goal of her career in the 10th minute of the Gophers' 2-1 victory over South Dakota State at Elizabeth Lyle Robbie Stadium. Prall got the start at forward - where she had seen action just once before this season - because it was senior night.

"It's been a joke all season that I'd score a goal," Prall said. "But I was pumped up, and I guess it was meant to be."

While a win tonight wouldn't get Minnesota's soccer team into the Big Ten Tournament, it would allow them to come back next year on a winning streak.

"One positive thing about not making the Big Ten Tournament is that we can go out with a win," junior goalkeeper Molly Schneider said. "The only other team that does that is the NCAA champion, and a win will give us a good boost."

The Gophers take on South Dakota State at 7 p.m. today at Elizabeth Lyle Robbie Stadium in the first-ever meeting between the two teams.