Gene's Blog: We never take a day off (well, almost never)

Twelve days. Fourteen Tommie teams. Twelve zip codes. Eight states (nine if you count the Colorado airport). Indoors. Outdoors. In sunshine. In clouds.

St. Thomas athletics teams are in the middle of a crazy grind with 12 consecutive days -- and 18 days out of 19 on the calendar -- with at least one team in competition.

On campus alone from Sept. 21-27, St. Thomas plays host to teams representing UW-Green Bay, Eastern Illinois, Kansas City, Oral Roberts, Lincoln (Calif.), Manitoba, North Dakota State, UW-Milwaukee, North Dakota and Gonzaga.

The marathon pace started last Friday Sept. 16 with road tests for Volleyball (at Bradley tournament); Men's Soccer (at Chicago State, played in Indiana) and Women's Tennis (first of three days in the six-team Gopher Invite).

It continued Saturday Sept. 17 with Women's Soccer playing on the road (at Wyoming) and a home scrimmage for Softball. It stayed busy on Sunday with Men's Soccer ending a trip (played at Western Michigan).

The frenzy continued last Monday and Tuesday with a six-team road tournament for Women's Golf (at South Dakota State). The action carried on with Wednesday's home test for Men's Soccer against UW-Green Bay.

This Weekend

The 12-day streak continues Thursday with the home opener for Tommie Volleyball (Summit League opener vs. North Dakota State, 7 p.m., Schoenecker Arena).

Then it's Friday competitions for Men's and Women's Cross Country (at the 21-team University of Minnesota Griak races, 10:30 and 11:15 a.m.), plus Women's Soccer at home (4 p.m., Summit League opener vs. North Dakota State), and Women's Tennis playing at a three-day tournament in Asheville, N.C.

Saturday brings home contests for Men's Soccer (noon, Summit opener vs. Eastern Illinois); Football (1 p.m., vs. Lincoln U. of Oakland, Calif.); Volleyball (noon vs. North Dakota); and Men's and Women's Swim-Dive (4:30 p.m., Alumni meet).

Sunday will include Baseball with a midday scrimmage on campus against UW-Milwaukee; Women's Soccer at home (noon vs. Oral Roberts); Women's Hockey (2 p.m. season-opening exhibition game vs. Manitoba at STA rink in Mendota Heights); and Softball with a noon scrimmage at the University of Iowa.

Men's Golf gets into the act with Monday-Tuesday rounds in Des Moines at Drake's Zach Johnson Invite. The Tuesday schedule includes Women's Soccer playing the end of a suspended match at UW-Green Bay (6 p.m.); and Men's Soccer at home to face Gonzaga (4 p.m.).

Then on Wednesday... no athletic competitions. But never fear: Thursday Sept. 29 is the start of six additional consecutive days of play with Men's Hockey joining the fun with Oct. 1-2 games vs. St. Cloud State.

Follow

Tickets are available on site for St. Thomas' home Football, Soccer, Volleyball and Women's Hockey contests.

If you can't make it to campus or to the venue to watch in person, you can also follow the action online (video, live stats) at Tommiesports.com.

Did You Know?

I've been known to exaggerate and even make up stories, but these 12 things are all true:

Tommie Men's and Women's Cross Country will see a fun variety of teams Friday morning at the University of Minnesota Griak race, representing all regions of the U.S.: California Baptist, Santa Clara, Utah and Nevada from the West; Colorado State, Idaho and Wyoming from the Mountain zone; Wichita State, North Dakota State, South Dakota State, Iowa State, Wisconsin, Michigan State, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Ohio State from the Upper Midwest; Delaware and Temple from the East; Miami (Fla.) from the southeast; and Manitoba bringing an international flavor.
Women's Soccer ranks in the top 30 out of 348 NCAA D-I teams in goals against average at .571. Coach Sheila McGill's team has allowed just four goals in seven games (one via penalty kick). McGill's 12-player sophomore class has made big contributions on the stat sheet this year: 19 of the team's 22 points (goals and assists) have been tallied by sophomores.

When St. Thomas and UW-Green Bay tied 1-1 on Wednesday in men's soccer, there were only two corner kicks in the contest, both by Green Bay. It marked the first time in 200-plus Tommie men's games that there were two or fewer corners in a game.

When Marquette traveled to St. Paul for a recent non-conference women's soccer contest, it marked the first time a Golden Eagle team in any sport played on our campus in 65 years -- since January 1957, a 69-63 upset basketball win for the Tommies over Marquette. The schools played a football game at St. Thomas back in 1916, and a few men's hoops contests here in the early 1920s.

When Lincoln University of Oakland comes to campus Saturday for non-conference football, it's believed to mark the first time the Tommies will play a home game in any sport against a San Francisco-area opponent. The Toms faced a few Los Angeles and San Diego-area universities here during the D-III era. Men's Hoops played San Francisco on the road back in the 1980s, and the Dons just played St. Thomas Volleyball on a neutral court.

Founded in 1919, Lincoln moved its campus from San Francisco to Oakland in 1999. It started up athletics in 2021 and sponsors baseball and football as well as soccer, track and field and basketball teams for men and women. Lincoln's marquee name in athletics is head men's hoops coach and Oakland native Gary Payton, the former NBA star guard.

Our three Tommie Men's Hockey captains -- Matthew Jennings, Luke Manning and Nolan Sawchuk -- have combined to play in 252 college games, plus another 362 games during their Juniors hockey days. Sawchuk has the most college games at 97, while Jennings previously played in 135 games in Juniors.

The Tommies' first men's D-I game in school history was played in August 2021 at Houston Baptist University, an eventual 1-0 loss in two overtimes. This week Houston Baptist is changing its name to Houston Christian University. Several other Tommie opponents from year one and two of our D-I journey have changed names for branding purposes. Pioneer Football League foe Valparaiso changed nicknames last year from Crusaders to Beacons. Women's Soccer opponent Utah Tech was until this year known as Dixie State. Two Summit League members have changed their affiliations for athletics: Missouri-Kansas City now just goes by Kansas City; Nebraska-Omaha calls itself Omaha. Men's Hockey opponent Minnesota State was previously known as Mankato State.
When Gonzaga comes to town for next Tuesday's non-conference men's soccer game, it will mark a rare Tommie opponent with a nickname that starts with a Z. Officially called the Bulldogs, Gonzaga's teams are also known as the Zags. (Bring on Akron... the Zips).
St. Thomas will compete against four teams from the state of Utah this school year: Utah, Utah Valley, Utah Tech and Southern Utah (Bring on BYU!).
Tommie Volleyball has played 31 different opponents already in year two of its Division I era, two more than Tommie Softball played last season. Just three players remain that played some D-III volleyball here, in a spring 2020 Covid season -- grad student Carrie Rutledge and juniors Claire Ricard and Ellie Dammann.
Fifty years ago this week, the 1972 Tommie football team started its MIAC season at Hamline. Coach DuWayne Deitz rolled out a new nickname for his St. Thomas team, "The Purple Tide." That squad went on to a 6-4 finish with three losses by six or less points.

Gene's Blog is a sports column penned by Tommie sports information director Gene McGivern. Gene is starting his 29th season at St. Thomas and 35th overall working with Twin Cities college athletics teams. He blogs periodically on various topics regarding the Tommies and college sports.

If you have comments or questions, e-mail Gene at ejmcgivern@stthomas.edu

University of St. Thomas Athletics

Gene's Blog: We never take a day off (well, almost never)

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