The Gophers soccer team, only a few weeks into the 2025 season, prepare for the conference games ahead.
The Gophers ended last year’s season 14-5 with three ties. The team was able to make it to the third round of the NCAA tournament before losing to the tournament winners, the University of North Carolina.
So far in the 2025 season, the Gophers soccer team is 4-2, with goals to have another successful season. Goalkeeper and redshirt sophomore Sarah Martin said a big takeaway from last year was to believe in the team.
“It’s up to us to believe that we can get where we want to get and to do things that haven’t been done in this program before,” Martin said.
Martin added that the team looks different every year, so it is up to them how this year is going to look.
Between seasons, the Gophers lost a couple of game-changing players and captains. One was former Gophers forward Khyah Harper.
Harper was the top goal scorer for the team last season at 17, and at the end of the season had the second most goals nationally.
Junior forward Paige Kalal said one of the things the team is working on improving this season is not relying on one scorer.
“We are really trying to work on finding ways to get to goal,” Kalal said. “I think so far we are doing a good job at that.”
Kalal added that they have also been working to make sure the team is using every player’s full skill set.
The Gophers have a difficult home schedule this year, with some of their standout games being against No. 6 University of Southern California and No. 18 University of California, Los Angeles. The team started their season off with a more difficult game than most, against No. 11 Brigham Young University.
Martin said playing a tough opponent like BYU was a good opportunity for the team to learn from.
“Now we are really taking it one game at a time,” Martin said. “We are not looking past the game in front of us. Trying to prepare for every game.”
Kalal added that the team talked a lot about setting a good mentality going into every game.
“Going into tough games, we want to be known as that team that is going to come out there and have a good, strong mentality,” Kalal said.
The Gophers’ first conference game is on Sept. 11 against Nebraska in Lincoln, Nebraska. Their first home conference game is Sept. 18 against Rutgers.
Correction: A previous version of this story listed No. 6 University of South Carolina. This is incorrect, as time of publishing the No 6. ranked NCAA team was University of Southern California.
