Football opens with high flying wins

• The football Scots opened their season at home on Sept. 2 with a battle against the University of Minnesota-Morris, and despite going into the half down 1, a 14-0 third quarter sent them to a 44-30 victory. Michael Nadeau ’24 threw for 5 touchdowns, with Nick Bice ’24 hauling in two of those. On the defensive side of the ball, Xavier Pittman ’25 haunted the Morris offense, recording 7 tackles and 4 tackles for loss.
• The Scots got back to work in a road faceoff vs Martin Luther College on Sept. 9. The Knights threw for a touchdown on their first play from scrimmage, but the Scots, unperturbed, turned around and did the exact same thing, with Nadeau connecting with Bice for an 85 yard trip to the endzone. The teams traded touchdowns through the first quarter, but the Scots pulled away to a 56-27 win.
• Nathan Wu ’24 had three touchdown receptions at the end of the day, a day on which Nadeau threw for 542 yards and an eye-popping program record 8 touchdowns, two of those being caught by Bice, and a further two going to Michael Poker ’24, making Nadeau a shoo-in for MIAC offensive player of the week.

Men’s tennis takes out UWSP

• Men’s tennis started up their fall season on Sept. 9, coming away with a 6-3 win against the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point. Alec Sargent ’25 won his singles match after a three set battle, 3-6 6-3 10-4, along with a doubles win next to Kevin Mortimer ’27, while Jordan Doi ’25 also helped lead the way, winning on doubles with Liam Lynch ’25 and opening up a bakery with a breadstick and a bagel in two singles sets, 6-0 6-1.

Women’s Cross country scorches Northfield meet

• The Scots traveled to Northfield, Minn., on Sept. 1 for the Ole 5k Opener for their season’s first meet, and came in 4th of 6 teams. Leading the Scots was Maria Blaesing ’24, eighth overall. Not far behind were a couple of new faces in first-years Ivy Coldren ’27 and Destiny Osemwengie ’27, coming in 10th and 30th respectively.

Men’s cross wins opener

• On Sept 1, the Scots contested the Ole 5K Opener meet and came away victorious out of six teams. They did it by landing five runners in the top 10, with Reece McKee ’25 leading the bunch in fourth. Behind him came Tyler Edwards ’26 in sixth, Alexander Fendig ’24 in eighth, Drew Getty ’24 in ninth, and Daniel Wiltse ’27 in 10th.

Volleyball overcomes slow start, goes undefeated at home

• The volleyball Scots started off their season with a road tournament at Aurora University where they played three matches against top opponents, and ultimately came up unsuccessful in each. Bouncing back, they earned their first win in a 3-1 triumph over Martin Luther College on Sept. 4.
• Between Sept. 8 and 9, the Scots contested a three-game home tournament, and showed their mettle for the first time in front of a home crowd. The first tournament duel was against Buena Vista University. First-year setter Hannah Morrow ’27 was instrumental in the Scots’ attack, recording 34 assists in a 3-1 win. Stephanie Geber ’25 also came up huge, playing a key role in multiple timely stretches throughout the match, including serving during a five-point stretch where the Scots saved three straight set points and then iced the Knights to win the decisive fourth set.
• The next two matches, both on Sept. 9, Adisa Preston ’25 showed up in a big way, putting up some massive numbers. In a 3-2 win over Grinnell College, she had 19 kills, and against Luther College, as the Scots defeated the Norse, she had a career high of 22 kills in a three set 3-0 rout. Preston was named the MIAC volleyball offensive player of the week for her efforts.
• On Sept. 13, the Scots made the trip to face University of Wisconsin-River Falls, but fell in three sets.

Men’s golf opens season with strong showings

• The Scots had a busy weekend to start the season, beginning with a dual event against Crown College on Sept. 1, where the Scots fell short by just ten shots. The next day, the Scots contested the first day of a two-day event at Augsburg, where they came in tied for fifth out of 12 teams, with Luke Blankinship ’27 and Jean Fabre ’27 landing jointly in a tie for ninth.
• The next weekend, they contested the Minnesota Golf Classic, and came in 12th of 16 teams, with Blankinship and Fabre again showing out as the top two performers for the Scots. 

Women’s golf begins fall campaign with win, podium

• The women’s golf Scots got off on the right foot in fall of 2023 with a win in a dual event against Crown College on Sept. 1, winning handily by 42 strokes behind Bailey Lengfelder’s ’26 big day, coming in at +1, 13 shots ahead of her next competition, a fellow Scot sophomore in Emily Bruce ’26.
• Next on the calendar was the College of Saint Benedict Invitational, where the Scots earned seventh of 14 teams, again led by Lengfelder in a tie for individual seventh overall.
• The following weekend the Scots played to a brilliant tie for third out of 12 teams, behind a trio of sophomores in Lengfelder, Sydney Ohr ’26 and Scarlett Liu ’26, with Lengfelder and Ohr tied for 6th overall and Liu just four shots behind in a joint 12th.

Women’s soccer opens 3-1

• • On Sept. 1, the Scots started out strong with a 3-0 win over University of Wisconsin-Stout behind goals from Adi Nhouyvanisvong ’27, Ella Wu-Ancipink ’26, and Georgia Lewin-Mills ’27. On Sept. 4 the Scots came out swinging again, doubling their total from the Stout match to win 6-0 over University of Northwestern (MN).
  • Their next week started with a rainy 2-0 defeat to Pomona Pitzer, one of the top sides in the country, but they bounced back with a big win against the College of Saint Benedict, 2-1 in their first MIAC game.
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Men’s soccer attains national ranking

• Men’s soccer started off their season with a convincing 3-0 win over Carthage College on Sept. 1. Hans Haenicke ’25 got back to his goalscoring ways right away with a headed goal in the 15th minute, and the Scots traded blows until the 86th minute, when a five-deep defensive look allowed the Scots to find opportunities in the counterattack, and they capitalized with two goals in the space of 21 seconds, first from Nathan Corbett ’25, then another from Haenicke to put the game far out of reach.
• On Sept. 3, the Scots opened the road season against Simpson College. Branko Sciortino ’24 opened the scoring in the 6th minute, but the Storm answered back within a minute to equalize. After a foul by Simpson’s Espoire Nkomezi saw the midfielder sent off for denial of a goalscoring opportunity, Kasdan Blattman ’27 launched a thunderbolt from the resulting direct free kick to make it 2-1 Scots, but ten-man Simpson used a penalty just a couple minutes later to make it 2-2 going into the half. In the second half, the Scots pressed while the Storm parked the bus and played for the draw, until Blattman got on the end of a pass from Sciortino and scored the go-ahead in the 86th minute, and Chris Frantz ’27 in the 89th minute caught the keeper in no man’s land with a lob to make it 4-2.
• The Scots’ next two battles were a pair of draws against top sides. First was a 0-0 affair against University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire. The Blugolds had some big chances, but each time, Sam Price ’25 was able to keep the clean sheet. The six saves he accrued in the box score don’t do justice to his superhuman efforts to protect the net. Next came a 1-1 draw at Wartburg College. The Scots had to play from behind after conceding in the opening minutes, but equalized in the second half from a Nick Kent ’26 penalty, keeping their undefeated record.
• The Scots were rolling again at home on Sept. 10 against Luther College. They dominated the run of play and broke through immediately off the boot of Sciortino in the 3rd minute. They pressed on, and were rewarded two times early in the second half, with Cody Da ’27 and Jack Freimann ’27 getting their first collegiate goals to round off a 3-0 win that was the 100th win of Head Coach Gregg Olson’s coaching career.
• An undefeated start to the season saw the Scots draw national buzz, entering the national rankings at #18 for the first time since 2017, when they were also ranked 18th. 
• On Sept. 13, the Scots faced Saint John’s University, and took revenge from last year’s playoff defeat in a 5-1 rout to begin MIAC competition. First half goals from Cody Da ’27, Nick Kent ’26 and Zach Liptzin ’27 made the match a formality, and Hans Haenicke ’25 Elijah Edelman ’27 piled on in the second half to complete an emphatic win.