Gophers volleyball star setter Stella Swenson was riding a high when she arrived in Dinkytown in January of 2024.

Gophers freshman setter Stella Swenson delivers a set during Minnesota’s loss to USC on Nov. 1, 2025 at Maturi Pavilion (Claudia Staut / Gophers Athletics)

Swenson capped off her high school career by winning her third consecutive state title with Wayzata in 2023 two just months prior.

But after hitting a peak point in her volleyball career, she went through the tough mental battle while redshirting for her first year with the Gophers.

Swenson said it was challenging sitting back and watching matches. But there were advantages to the year off, like her physical growth.

“Going into college, I thought I was in shape,” Swenson said. “And then after my first lift, I couldn’t feel a muscle below my neck.”

Swenson met the challenge head-on. She brought a list of questions to Gophers strength coach Sara Wiley: “How can I get stronger? How can I go up in weights? What can I do at home?”

The curiosity and determination paid off for Swenson, as Gophers head coach Keegan Cook said the freshman experienced one of the best physical transformations he has seen from a young player.

There was a key question Cook asked himself after taking the Minnesota job in 2023: “Do we have a setter coming in the future that can lead us back to where we want to be?”

“The answer was ‘Yes,’ ” Cook said.

Swenson has totaled 1,047 assists (9.79 assists per set) this season despite the team being decimated by four season-ending injuries to starting-caliber players. That sent the lineups into flux.

But Cook said when adversity hits the team, Swenson always looks internally for solutions.

“She’s just working to better the ball at all times,” Cook said. “The fact that we could be having even a higher hit (percentage) for the season than last year, I think, is a really good sign.”

Minnesota hit .242 a year ago in setter Melani Shaffmaster’s fifth year. This fall, Minnesota is hitting .283 with Swenson as the orchestrator.

Swenson said while not playing last year was tough, she gained invaluable experience from Shaffmaster.

“Being able to see how she demanded the court and what she said and how she acted in certain moments, I just pocketed every single thing,” Swenson said. “I love to learn. So, watching her, I learned so much from her.”

Another guiding voice in her volleyball career is her sister, Samantha Seliger-Swenson, who is the only Gophers volleyball player ever to earn All-America honors in each of her four seasons.

Stella Swenson said her sister passed down wisdom about Big Ten volleyball and developing relationships with hitters.

“I know everything that she says I can trust, because she was in my shoes 10 years ago, not even,” Stella Swenson said. “So being able to have that resource has been really cool.”

Gophers freshman setter Stella Swenson hits a serve during Minnesota’s loss to USC on Nov. 1, 2025 at Maturi Pavilion (Claudia Staut / Gophers Athletics)

The setter position was the biggest hole in the 2025 Gophers roster after Shaffmaster, a five-year starter, graduated following a stellar 2024 senior season. Swenson answered the call, posting 30 or more assists in each of her first five matches. Minnesota opened the season 12-1.

The Gophers started to feel the burden of the injuries early on in conference play. Minnesota lost three of its first five Big Ten matches in October, right before a road test at Washington — Cook’s former team.

Cook said Swenson was crucial for the Gophers after they lost the first set to the Huskies. The Gophers went on to take three consecutive sets to defeat Washington.

“I really thought she and her teammates just put their heads down and decided that they were going to become the team they needed to become,” Cook said. “Stella’s leadership was a big part of that and continues to be. So pretty much ever since that Washington match, it seems like we’ve become a new team.”

Swenson said the team had a “mindset shift” against Washington and has pushed on since. Swenson’s signature performance came in a five-set win at Iowa on Nov. 16, when she put up 58 assists.

It was the first time a Gophers setter had 58 or more assists in a match since Shaffmaster had 60 on Feb. 5, 2021.

Swenson said the first thing she looked for on the stat sheet after the game was how her hitters did.

“The fact that all of them like Carly (Gilk), Kelly (Kinney), Jordan (Taylor), Lourdes (Myers), all got career highs in something, I was proud of them,” Stella Swenson said. “And then I was like, ‘Oh, hey, 58 assists, that’s not too bad, either.’ ”

Swenson loves to say, “I could set my hitters blindfolded.” On that afternoon in Iowa City, she very well could have. She added that it was her highest assist total ever in a single match. Swenson added another 40 in 19th-ranked Minnesota’s four-set victory over 11th-ranked Purdue on Wednesday — the Gophers’ fifth straight win.

Minnesota (22-8) will wrap up the regular season Friday with a home date against No. 10 Wisconsin.

Swenson said it’s a blessing to get to show up to Maturi Pavilion every day and compete with her teammates, highlighting one who shares the sentiment.

“I’ll have these conversations with Kate Thibault (Watertown native) all the time, because I played club with her when I was 14, and we’ve been best friends ever since,” Swenson said. “The fact that I get to be here on my dream team with her, on her dream team, is just incredible.”

The dream of playing at “The Pav” may have been realized, but Swenson’s hunger to improve and win continues to spur her on. She said this squad’s ability to battle while regularly starting five freshmen shows the program’s bright future.

“I’m like, ‘Holy crap, this is how hard we’re competing, imagine how much we’re gonna grow in the next couple of years together and how hard we’re gonna compete then,’ ” Swenson said. “That’s so cool.”

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Vikings at Seahawks (-10½)

Ex-Gopher Max Brosmer likely replaces the concussed J.J. McCarthy for his first NFL start for this grudge match against former Vikings QB Sam Darnold. McCarthy has been playing so poorly lately that Vikings fans have started referring to him by a new nickname: Spurgeon Wynn.
Pick: Seahawks by 24

Minnesota Vikings quarterback Max Brosmer (12) during warmups before the start of a NFL game against the Cincinnati Bengals at U.S. Bank Stadium in Minneapolis on Sunday, Sept. 21, 2025. (John Autey / Pioneer Press)

Saints at Dolphins (-5½)

New Orleans on Monday brought in unemployed kicker Justin Tucker for a workout. Saints officials decided to invite the former Baltimore standout because Deshaun Watson, Harvey Weinstein and Diddy were unavailable.
Pick: Dolphins by 7

BALTIMORE, MARYLAND – DECEMBER 01: Justin Tucker #9 of the Baltimore Ravens reacts during the third quarter after missing his third kick of the night against the Philadelphia Eagles at M&T Bank Stadium on December 01, 2024 in Baltimore, Maryland. Philadelphia defeated Baltimore 24-19. (Photo by Greg Fiume/Getty Images)

Texans at Colts (-3½)

Indianapolis quarterback Daniel Jones is hoping to play Sunday despite a broken fibula. While the leg injury sounds serious, it’s not as debilitating as the bone spurs that kept Donald Trump out of the draft.
Pick: Texans by 3

KANSAS CITY, MISSOURI – NOVEMBER 23: Daniel Jones #17 of the Indianapolis Colts slides after a scramble in the third quarter of the game against the Kansas City Chiefs at Arrowhead Stadium on November 23, 2025 in Kansas City, Missouri. (Photo by David Eulitt/Getty Images)

49ers at Browns (+5½)

Shedeur Sanders gets his second NFL start after a surprisingly solid outing in the Browns’ victory in Las Vegas. The first win for Deion’s son was especially shocking to St. Paul-based pundits who managed to go only 2-12 against the spread last week.
Pick: 49ers by 7

LAS VEGAS, NEVADA – NOVEMBER 23: Shedeur Sanders #12 of the Cleveland Browns makes a pass in the game against Jamal Adams #33 of the Las Vegas Raiders at Allegiant Stadium on November 23, 2025 in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Photo by Steve Marcus/Getty Images)

Rams at Panthers (+10½)

Carolina’s Tre’Von Moehrig has been suspended for a late-game punch to the groin area of San Francisco’s Jauan Jennings. The Panthers’ safety reportedly resorted to the cheap shot after asking himself “What would Bobby ‘The Brain” Heenan do?”
Pick: Rams by 8

Carolina Panthers safety Tre’von Moehrig reacts after an interception against the San Francisco 49ers in the first half of an NFL football game, Monday, Nov. 24, 2025, in Santa Clara, Calif. (AP Photo/Eakin Howard)

Bills at Steelers (+3½)

Pittsburgh defensive tackle Daniel Ekuale has been suspended for violating the NFL’s policy on performance-enhancing substances. While the league did not specify what Ekuale was taking, it wasn’t any of the countless substances being used by the Steelers’ quarterback.
Pick: Bills by 7

Pittsburgh Steelers’ Daniel Ekuale is hurt during the first half of an NFL football game against the Green Bay Packers Sunday, Oct. 26, 2025, in Pittsburgh. (AP Photo/Matt Freed)

Falcons at Jets (+2½)

New York quarterback Justin Fields says that his recent benching took him by surprise. The career disappointment hasn’t been this shocked since his Jets’ last nine losses.
Pick: Falcons by 7

Justin Fields (7), quarterback de los Jets de Nueva York, hace ejercicios de estiramiento, previo al partido de la NFL en contra de los Ravens de Baltimore, el domingo 23 de noviembre de 2025, en Baltimore. (AP Foto/Stephanie Scarbrough)

Raiders at Chargers (-9½)

Las Vegas QB Geno Smith apologized to Raider Nation after flipping the bird to fans during their Week 12 loss to lowly Cleveland. The apology was accepted by the millions in Raider Nation who make that same gesture a dozen times per day.
Pick: Chargers by 17

LAS VEGAS, NEVADA – NOVEMBER 23: Geno Smith #7 of the Las Vegas Raiders reacts after an incomplete pass in the third quarter against the Cleveland Browns at Allegiant Stadium on November 23, 2025 in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Photo by Chris Unger/Getty Images)

Giants at Patriots (-7½)

Jameis Winston raised eyebrows last week by both throwing a touchdown pass and catching one. The varied usage of the comical veteran quarterback could be an indication that Giants interim coach Mike Kafka is heavily medicated.
Pick: Patriots by 11

New York Giants quarterback Jameis Winston (19) runs the ball for a touchdown after he makes a reception against the Detroit Lions during an NFL football game in Detroit, Sunday, Nov. 23, 2025. (AP Photo/Rick Osentoski)

Cardinals at Buccaneers (-3½)

Baker Mayfield has a sprained joint in his non-throwing shoulder. Whether the Bucs’ quarterback plays Sunday will be determined by his pain tolerance, which was severely tested previously during his four years living and working in Cleveland, Ohio.
Pick: Buccaneers by 3

INGLEWOOD, CALIFORNIA – NOVEMBER 23: Baker Mayfield #6 of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers leaves the field after his team was defeated by the Los Angeles Rams in the game at SoFi Stadium on November 23, 2025 in Inglewood, California. (Photo by Ronald Martinez/Getty Images)

OTHER GAMES

Jaguars at Titans (+6½)
Pick: Jaguars by 7

Broncos at Commanders (+6½)
Pick: Broncos by 7

RECORD

Week 12
10-4 straight up
2-12 vs. spread

Season
112-65-1 straight up (.633)
86-92 vs. spread (.483)

All-time (2003-25)
3931-2166-15 straight up (.645)
2997-2971-145 vs spread (.502)

You can hear Kevin Cusick on Thursdays on Bob Sansevere’s “BS Show” podcast on iTunes. You can follow Kevin on X– @theloopnow. He can be reached at kcusick@pioneerpress.com.

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You won’t find the name “City & County Credit Union” on a Minnesota Vikings sponsorship at U.S. Bank Stadium. You will find it on the side of Ramsey County’s TCO Sports Garden fieldhouse, now known as the CCCU Fieldhouse, where a group of moms meets twice weekly in Vadnais Heights for “Toddler Tuesdays and Thursdays.”

If the member-owned credit union — which was founded in downtown St. Paul’s Ramsey County Courthouse in 1928 — has flown a bit under the radar by working with smaller little leagues and community groups rather than major league sports, that’s by design.

Established a century ago to serve St. Paul and Ramsey County law enforcement, firefighters, educators and other municipal employees, City & County Credit Union has undergone expansion to eight counties under the leadership of president and chief executive officer Patrick Pierce, who retires in April after nearly 40 years of state and national advocacy for his industry.

Pierce may be best known in Minnesota for state legislation that allowed credit unions to seek community charters, as opposed to more onerous federal charters. While hotly opposed by competing banks, Minnesota’s charter rule change of 2003 wasn’t his only big win over the years.

A voice for credit unions

He’s helped lead the modern credit union movement as former secretary of the Credit Union National Association, and now as chair of America’s Credit Unions, following a recent merger of the two national associations.

When early drafts of President Donald Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill” included language that would make credit unions for-profit instead of nonprofit entities, some 700 credit union leaders came together to write Congress and urge lawmakers to reconsider. As leader of the national association, Pierce’s name was first on the list. He won that fight, too.

As the son of a credit union board officer, Pierce figured he could put his accounting degree to good use 39 years ago at what was then called the Minnesota League of Credit Unions, a job that opened up for him coming out of the University of Wisconsin-River Falls. He figures he may have beat out another top applicant based in part upon his parentage.

He hasn’t taken the opportunity for granted.

“I’ve never had accounts anywhere else,” said Pierce, who is poised to wrap four decades in a field he’s played no small role in shaping, both within Minnesota and nationally.

Growth and change

Pierce will retire in April after 24 years with the credit union, which has been based at Robert and 11th streets since 1968. City & County Credit Union has grown and changed with the decades, and now holds nearly $1.2 billion in assets — up from $256 million when Pierce came aboard in 2001 — after expanding from three stand-alone locations to eight community sites across the Twin Cities metropolitan area.

The acquisition of General Mills’ Mill City Credit Union in 2019 added five more locations, most of them within General Mills work sites from Cedar Rapids, Iowa, to Murfreesboro, Tenn. Overall membership has expanded from 34,000 members to more than 62,000 members during Pierce’s tenure.

Pierce also will hang up his hat soon as board chair of America’s Credit Unions, a national organization that has worked to stave off efforts from the banking industry to separate credit unions from their nonprofit status. Banks have generally seen the tax-exempt nature of credit unions as giving them an unfair advantage in the market.

To hear him recount his professional history, traditional banks have been a bit of a bogeyman throughout his career, which started at a time when credit union accounts were still referred to as “share draft accounts” because banks objected to them borrowing the use of the word “checking.”

“What we do is not all that different, but why we do it is completely different,” Pierce said.

Even at a time when mergers have diminished their overall numbers while acquisitions have grown members and assets, the mission of client-owned credit unions as nonprofit community banking institutions remains one he believes in. To become a voting member-owner, for instance, “you have to have $5 in your savings account to be able to vote, but that’s it,” he said. “It doesn’t matter if you have $5 or $5 million.”

Many credit unions partner across the country, allowing out-of-state customers to use their ATM machines without paying extra fees. City & County Credit Union has launched “relief loans” for customers impacted by cuts to federal food aid known as SNAP benefits, as well as skip-a-payment benefits for federal workers impacted by the recent government shutdown.

Reaching beyond city, county employees

The credit union also employs a financial education specialist, a former classroom teacher who teaches financial literacy at high schools, colleges and almost anywhere he or she is invited. The customers the credit union attracts are sometimes those skeptical of the banking industry, he points out. To that end, he’s been a pioneer of sorts for prize-linked savings accounts, which offer lottery-style drawings with cash prizes to encourage member deposits.

In 1997, Pierce played a key role in helping to merge two state associations that were sometimes at odds in their messaging to state lawmakers, especially when banks proposed new regulations. The Minnesota Credit Union Network was born, or reborn. A similar merger took place more recently among the two credit union national associations.

In 2003, state law allowed credit unions to launch or expand through state-approved charters, as opposed to federal charters, allowing City & County Credit Union to expand its service area across the metro.

“It was a good thing, too, to not be so reliant on city and county employees, so we weren’t so affected by slowdowns or (a government) shutdown,” Pierce said.

Pierce, who is married with three adult children and three grandchildren, plans to volunteer at local hospitals alongside a chaplain from Lutheran Memorial Church in River Falls, Wis., where he first met his wife.

City & County Credit Union’s board of directors has chosen executive vice president of operations Thomas Coulter to serve as chief executive officer upon Pierce’s retirement. Coulter, who has worked for the credit union for 19 years, also will serve as acting president until Pierce’s departure.

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Today is Friday, Nov. 28, the 332nd day of 2025. There are 33 days left in the year. Today is Thanksgiving in the United States.

Today in history:

On Nov. 28, 1942, fire engulfed the Cocoanut Grove nightclub in Boston, killing 492 people in the deadliest nightclub blaze ever.

Also on this date:

In 1520, Portuguese navigator Ferdinand Magellan reached the Pacific Ocean after passing through the South American strait that now bears his name.

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In 1925, the Grand Ole Opry (known then as the WSM Barn Dance) debuted on radio station WSM in Nashville, Tennessee; it continues today as the longest-running radio broadcast in U.S. history.

In 1943, President Franklin D. Roosevelt, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and Soviet leader Josef Stalin met in Tehran, Iran, for the first time to discuss Allied cooperation during World War II.

In 1961, halfback Ernie Davis of Syracuse University became the first Black college football player to be named winner of the Heisman Trophy.

In 1964, the United States launched the space probe Mariner 4 on a course toward Mars, which it flew past in July 1965, sending back pictures of the red planet.

In 2001, Enron Corp., once the world’s largest energy trader, collapsed after would-be rescuer Dynegy Inc. backed out of an $8.4 billion takeover deal. (Enron filed for bankruptcy protection four days later.)

In 2022, Payton Gendron, a white gunman who massacred 10 Black people at a Buffalo supermarket, pleaded guilty to murder and hate-motivated terrorism charges in an agreement that gave him life in prison without parole.

Today’s Birthdays:

Recording executive Berry Gordy Jr. is 96.
Football Hall of Famer Paul Warfield is 83.
Former “Late Show” band leader Paul Shaffer is 76.
Actor Ed Harris is 75.
Actor S. Epatha (eh-PAY’-thah) Merkerson is 73.
Actor Judd Nelson is 66.
Film director Alfonso Cuarón (kwahr-OHN’) is 64.
Rock drummer Matt Cameron is 63.
Comedian and talk show host Jon Stewart is 63.
Actor Colman Domingo is 56.
Musician apl.de.ap (Black Eyed Peas) is 51.
Actor Mary Elizabeth Winstead is 41.
R&B singer Trey Songz is 41.
Actor Karen Gillan is 38.
Actor-rapper Bryshere Gray is 32.