Yellowjackets report: UWS soccer teams claim regular-season crowns
- Story bySuperior Telegram, Wis.
- Yellowjackets report: UWS soccer teams claim regular-season crowns
Nov. 2—A 1-1 draw on the road at Bethany Lutheran in Mankato on Friday, Oct. 30 allowed Wisconsin-Superior men's soccer to clinch a ninth-consecutive UMAC regular-season championship.
In a rare occurrence, UWS had to come from behind after Vicente Oliveira scored for the Vikings in the 57th minute, but the Yellowjackets didn't trail for long, with Valentin Soares evening it up 10 minutes later.
Henry Ruhland made four saves in the UWS net.
UWS followed that up with a 10-1 rout of Martin Luther on Saturday, Oct. 31 in New Ulm, Minnesota.
It took less than two minutes for the Yellowjackets to take a 2-0 lead, and though they conceded their only goal of the day a few seconds after that, UWS scored seven times in the second half.
Bryce Boldt finished with a hat trick, while Seth Davidson had a hand in six goals via scoring twice and adding four assists.
UWS (14-3-3, 11-0-1 UMAC) will have homefield advantage in the UMAC tournament, starting with a Wednesday semifinal vs. Crown and a potential championship game on Saturday.
It took all 90 minutes to do it, but Wisconsin-Superior preserved a fifth UMAC regular-season championship with a 1-1 draw at Martin Luther on Saturday in New Ulm.
Hermantown alum Brook Judnick's fourth goal of the season gave UWS a 1-0 lead in the 11th minute. With only a draw necessary to keep second-place Northwestern behind them, things looked good until a 66th-minute goal from the Knights' Evangeline Vogel, only the third goal UWS had conceded in league play this season and first in more than six games.
Despite that, UWS held MLC to just three shot attempts, two on target, and saw out the draw to finish one point ahead in the conference standings.
It was the Yellowjackets' second hard-fought win of the weekend, as they needed a second-half tally from Claire Loria to defeat Bethany Lutheran 1-0 on Friday in Mankato.
Baylee Nygard made seven saves for the Yellowjackets.
UWS (11-5-3, 11-0-1) will host Minnesota Morris on Wednesday in the UMAC semifinals and, with a win, the conference championship on Saturday.
Wisconsin-Superior kicked off its 2026-27 men's hockey season with a reverse split in a home-and-home with Bethel, as the Royals took Friday's curtain-raiser 4-3 at Wessman Arena in Superior and the Yellowjackets won 2-1 in Blaine, Minnesota the following night.
The game-winning goal on Saturday came from Vinay Junek near the midway point of the third period on a crisp passing play from AJ Reed and Roope Tuomioksa. Reed also assisted on Jordan Gibbs' power play goal 8:02 into the game that made it 1-1.
Jack Boschert had a huge performance in goal, making 55 saves, fourth-most in program history for a single game.
Friday's season opener had lots of action off the jump. Junek scored his first goal of the season between two from Bethel's Connor Brazil, all in the game's first five minutes.
Bethel tacked on two more goals in the second period and though, Justin Dauphinais and Reed helped UWS get back to within one, an equalizer was not in the cards over the last 14 minutes.
Gage Stewart made 11 saves before handing off to Boschert, who stopped all 10 shots he faced.
UWS (1-1) returns to the ice at Saint John's on Friday, Nov. 6.
Wisconsin-Superior women's hockey opened its season with a pair of 4-1 losses on Friday and Saturday against Concordia-Moorhead at Wessman Arena in Superior.
Friday, the Cobbers scored three times in the last 6:03 of the first period to take control of the game. Emma LaPlante put UWS on the board at 4:02 of the second frame, but more goals were not forthcoming.
Aliya Gricius made four saves in the first period for UWS before Kiera Peek stopped 15 shots over the next two.
Brynn Hanson's hat trick made the difference for Concordia on Saturday, while UWS got an unassisted goal late in the second period from Maya Anderson.
Peek made 30 saves in the UWS net.
UWS (0-2) will hit the road for the first time on Friday in St. Paul to start a home-and-home vs. Hamline.
Wisconsin-Superior pushed a nationally-ranked Northwestern squad to five sets in St. Paul on Saturday, but the No. 24 Eagles came out 3-2 (25-18, 23-25, 25-13, 17-25, 15-7) winners.
Makenna Hohbein finished with a match-leading 19 kills, while Savanna Hering (Superior) recorded 28 digs, along with 25 more from Hohbein.
The night before, the Yellowjackets cruised past North Central 3-0 (25-13, 25-14, 25-20) in Minneapolis, getting eight kills from Kate Jamtgaard and six apiece from Kyndra Peterson and Aspen Gentele. Hohbein paced the defense with 15 digs.
UWS (17-8, 8-2 UMAC) concludes the regular season with games at Crown on Friday and Minnesota Morris on Saturday, the second of which could be key to who secures second place and a home semifinal in next week's UMAC tournament.
After five straight years winning the UMAC men's cross country championship, the Yellowjackets yielded it to Martin Luther on Saturday in the conference meet in Winthrop, Minnesota.
The Knights finished with 34 points to UWS' 39.
Maverick Hoogland of UWS finished second individually, running 8 kilometers in 25 minutes, 51.8 seconds, about four seconds behind winner Logan Korthals of Martin Luther.
Dylan Uitto (fourth), Ben Plackner (seventh) and Dominick Meisner (10th) were in the top 10 for the Yellowjackets.
The UWS women were fourth on Saturday, led by a 12th-place finish by Lilley Smith.