UND could be No. 1 hunting in football and hockey next weekend
Oct. 16—GRAND FORKS — A bye week for the football team and a 6-2 loss to Quinnipiac in the series finale for the hockey team at Ralph Engelstad Arena made for a lowkey end to the weekend for UND fans, especially for the 11,680 in REA on Saturday night.
UND athletics will have a major opportunity — although a challenging task — to change that vibe next weekend.
Both UND hockey and football should be facing off against newly No. 1-ranked teams in the country.
UND hockey travels to Minnesota to play the Gophers on Friday and Saturday, while the UND football team hosts South Dakota State at the Alerus Center.
The Gophers, ranked No. 2 in the last USCHO.com poll, were off this weekend but No. 1 Denver was swept by Massachusetts. If No. 5 Minnesota State Mankato's sweep of No. 4 Minnesota Duluth doesn't leapfrog the Mavericks to No. 1, the Gophers will hold that spot.
UND assistant captain Ethan Frisch said his team will make the necessary corrections, no matter who's next on the schedule.
"I think it's the same as always — after any loss we have urgency," Frisch said. "We don't like to lose; we don't lose a ton. We'll address things we need to address. I don't think it's any different than any other loss. We have a lot of urgency either way."
Meanwhile, in the FCS, No. 2 South Dakota State beat No. 1 North Dakota State on Saturday in Fargo, meaning the Jackrabbits are likely to be ranked No. 1 in the FCS for the first time in program history.
The UND football team, ranked No. 20 in the last STATS FCS Top 25, has won 17 of its last 18 home games (dating back to Halloween 2018), with the lone loss to North Dakota State last season by six points.
The Hawks beat the Jackrabbits (28-17) in their last meeting in Grand Forks in the spring of 2021.
UND's big weekend starts Friday at 7 p.m. in Minneapolis.
UND coach Brad Berry knows the schedule isn't getting easier after playing a veteran Top 10 team in Quinnipiac, which was ranked No. 8 in the most recent poll.
"We knew that; that's the schedule we put together," Berry said. "Those games make you sharper. Hopefully, at the end of the year, you learn from these games and hopefully you're picking up some wins along the way here. The biggest thing for us is evaluating ourselves on this weekend on what happened and making sure we get better from it and being accountable to each other on it. We're going to be ready for next weekend when we go in to Minnesota, and we're going to have a real hard week of practice."
