Minnesota's season is coming down to its last 4 regular-season games. The Gophers are 7-5-2 after back-to-back losses, and they'll need the newcomers who helped build that record to get things turned around. Nine of the 27 players on the roster are new this season: 6 transfers and 3 freshmen.
Senior forward Ava Westlund has made the biggest splash. She came home to Minnesota from California Baptist, where she started all 23 games as a junior and put up 9 goals and 5 assists. She arrived with plenty of preseason attention, landing on the 2026 MAC Hermann Trophy list and United Soccer's Forwards to Watch, and Top Drawer Soccer ranked her No. 96 in its preseason Top 100. "This is home for me," Westlund said. "Everyone was so welcoming, I feel like the level of competitiveness was at an all-time high."
Westlund is from Arden Hills, and she's played like it's home. In a 4-0 win over Maryland, she scored in the 49th and 55th minutes, her second 2-goal game of the season. That gave her a team-leading 6 goals, and on October 6 the Big Ten named her its Offensive Player of the Week. It was her first weekly conference honor of the season.
Fifth-year forward Katelyn Rigg's move was a bigger change. She spent 4 seasons at Gonzaga, and as a senior she scored 8 goals with 3 assists and made the All-West Coast Conference Second Team. With the Gophers she has 1 goal and 1 assist in 521 minutes. "It's a much larger school than I'm used to," Rigg said. "But I love it. It's been really awesome."
Senior goalkeeper and captain Sarah Martin has spent all 4 of her college years in Minnesota, and she says the program's culture is why the newcomers have fit in so quickly. "We, I think, have a group that is easy to join," Martin said. Martin is on the Big Ten Players to Watch list and was named Big Ten Goalkeeper of the Week on September 15.
Martin has also been the main reason the last 2 games weren't worse. The Gophers' week brought No. 2 Michigan State and No. 6 Ohio State, and it ended with a 2-0 loss to the Buckeyes on October 11. Martin made 10 saves in that game, and it was the second straight loss.
The good news is that Minnesota is 5-1-2 at home this season. If Westlund keeps scoring and Martin keeps stopping shots, the Gophers have a real shot at ending the skid and finishing the regular season strong.
