Gopher women’s soccer prepares for season

Four new teams join the Big Ten

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By Jelani Howard / The Hubbard School

The Minnesota Gophers women’s soccer season is nearing the beginning. 

On Thursday, the Gophers will be taking on Creighton University at Elizabeth Lyle Robbie stadium in St. Paul at 7 pm. 

In preparation for the upcoming season, the Gophers took on South Dakota at home, en route to a 3-0 victory in an exhibition game. 

In honor of the season beginning and the gold medal won by the women’s US soccer team during the Olympics, some Gophers gave the US Olympians they look up to. 

Newly appointed co-captain and defender senior Elizabeth Overberg decided to go with someone she has something in common with. 

“Naomi Girma, I got to give her love,” Overberg said. “She's the best defender in the world, I think." 

Head coach Erin Chastain agreed with her new captain. 

“Probably Girma if I had to pick a player," Chastain said. 

Co-captain and midfielder graduate Sophia Bowman prefers more than one player, as she just can’t pick. 

"I think they've looked really good and a lot of us look up to a lot of them,” Bowman said. “So it's hard to pick just one." 

The Gophers brought in an All-MAC First Team player, junior Katie Krohn from Buffalo. 

She led the MAC with 13 goals and four assists last season. During her freshman year she scored five goals, three of which were game winners. 

The Gophers finished last season 7-6-4, another mediocre year floating around .500. There is hope that they will have a better season this year, despite playing the better competition of Oregon, UCLA, USC and Washington.